Labview Programming Computer Features Recommendations

[Qbot2640]

Our week one event showed, among other things, that we desperately need a better laptop for programming and deploying code changes.

A couple questions - considering that this laptop will be primarily used for programming, but our programmers are both team leaders, so there may be other lower-priority uses as well.

Do I choose a smallish SSD (128 G or so) or a larger HHD (250 - 300 G)?

Is processor speed all that important. I'm looking at Intel Core I3's (dual core) with around 2.5GHz?

How important is memory for quick builds and deploys? Our "dinosaur" laptops are taking forever to do this. My current list of three all have 8GB of RAM?

Finally are there some magical properties that prevent some computers from connecting? I offered my brand new work laptop...Quad Core I7, with 8GB of RAM...and it wouldn't connect.

Budget is somewhat limited...we're purchasing from the money we saved vs. budget on our week 1 trip.