The computer you need for SEO is very basic. The bare minimum would be a modern CPU and 4GB ram. For the least bottlenecking for SEO you will want to have 16GB of ram and any modern i5 or i7 CPU. This will give you enough single thread power to not be bottlenecked by the CPU, and keep you flying through work.
What Computer Do I Use
Currently I use a MSI Apache Pro GE60 with a 15.6” 1080p screen, not a touchscreen, powered by an I7-4700HQ CPU, that I’ve upgraded to 16GB of ram. I have the laptop hooked up to two additional screens, two 24” Samsung monitors, and a Blue Yeti microphone. With the number of programs and tabs I have open at all times, as I bounce between client meetings and different client work, I hover around 6-10 GB of ram usage and 5-20% CPU usage. My laptop is almost never the bottleneck for my work. The only improvement I could realistically make and see improvement would be to an SSD. I store so few files on my computer, though, that it may only impact a few seconds out of a day for me.
What Laptop Would I Buy Right Now?
If I were starting from scratch right now the computer I would choose is the Acer Aspire E 15 E5-575-33BM laptop. This computer comes with a 1080p screen, acceptable battery life (reported at 12 hours), 1TB HDD, and 4GB ram. It also starts off at under $400. You’ll notice right away that this laptop is a major downgrade from what I am currently using, and cost less than half. The reason being is that this laptop has a higher capacity for ram than my current computer, and the CPU should still never be a bottleneck, assuming only SEO and no other editing.
If you are going to be doing Photoshop work or Lightroom work on your laptop, than I would consider something along the lines of an MSI Gaming Laptop. Photoshop can utilize the discrete graphics card that this upgraded laptop would have, and make your image rendering noticeably faster.
Why would I suggest a computer that doesn’t meet my own standards? Easy access for upgrades. Getting a laptop that has 8GB of ram doesn’t cost much more, but getting a laptop with 16GB, which is where you want to end up, gets very expensive, typically over $1000. This laptop is able to accommodate 32GB of ram, and you can easily swap out the harddrive for a SSD at some point for a little better performance. You won’t need 32GB of ram for SEO, with a few dozen Chrome screens open I rarely approach 10GB of ram usage, but being able to affordably get to 16GB is a great deal.
This laptop also comes with an i3 for the base model, and an optional i5 for a slightly upgraded version. The i3 will have plenty of power if you are strictly doing SEO.
How Much Ram Do You Need
With ram it will really depend on your preferences. I don’t like waiting for my tabs to get put back into stored ram as I am flipping through them, so I don’t operate under 16GB. I could get by on 8GB, which I did for a couple years, or even 4GB, which I did for my first year. However, I do many live meetings, and want everything to be as quick as possible. That means being able to store all my tabs in ram when they are open.
As for what you actually need, the answer is just 4GB. At 4GB you can have over 1000 tabs open in a browser at the same time, and the browser won’t crash. However, your computer will stop storing the tabs in your ram, and put it in the cached portion of your HDD or SSD. Meaning, you will have to load the initial load data of that page from your HDD, which is far slower than ram, to bring it back up. This is realistically a tiny fraction of time to get it back into ram. At 40+ tabs I will likely have 6-8GB of ram usage, assuming no other programs are running on my computer. If you are also using Skype and other programs you could see higher utilization, but for normal SEO practices, you will likely see under 10GB ram usage.
So, at a minimum you would want at least 4 GB, 8GB would be sufficient for the vast majority of users, and 16GB would be absolutely enough for any dedicated SEO person.
What CPU Do You Need
The majority of my programs, besides Screaming Frog, Audacity, and Screencast O Matic, I am working with cloud-based programs like Moz. So, my CPU usage is extremely low at all times. My laptop is currently using an i7 4700HQ CPU with 2 physical cores, and four total with hyperthreading. Even at peak usage, I’m only utilizing a small percent of the capacity. Prior to this laptop, I had an old AMD laptop that would occasionally peak its CPU usage, but this was from the design of 8 years ago. Any modern CPU isn’t going to run into that type of usage problems.
Any CPU from the last few years isn’t going to bottleneck your SEO capacity.
Do You Need a Discrete GPU?
If you are only going to be doing SEO, and no online gaming, you will only need to be able to utilize a second monitor with your computer. This is completely possible with the integrated graphics on laptop CPUs. So, there is no requirement for a discrete GPU for SEO.
The requirement for a separate GPU would come with the need to use Photoshop or InDesign. You don’t need one to run Photoshop, but the performance gains can be well worth it. If you are using Canva or an online based editor you won’t run into that bottleneck.