laptop

[sciencenerd]

Because the RC uses a serial port to interface with a computer, having one on a team laptop is a very good idea. This port isn't present on many newer computers. If all you are doing is programming with it, many older machines will work fine. A DVD drive is certainly not necessary, and 128 MB of RAM will probably be fine running Windows 98. The code doesn't take up much space, so if you aren't planning to run any media on this thing a laptop with an old 4-5 GB hard drive will have more than enough storage. Likewise, it isn't too much of a burden on the CPU to type code, so anything over 500 MHz is definitely not necessary. USB is nice for transferring files to and from the computer, and I would recommend at least one port.

A computer like that could probably be obtained second-hand for significantly under $100, probably even for free, if you found someone who is upgrading and doesn't have a use for their old computer.

Of course, if you want to run a CAD program on it, you're looking at the other end of the spectrum. I wouldn't recommend trying to buy a team laptop for this, if you must have a team computer that does it look for a desktop. Laptops that are effective CADers are pretty pricey.