For my computer graphics class, being able to break out my overclocked and watercooled 20-thread behemoth in an era where most processors had far fewer, definitely helped me procrastinate a bit longer, because my renders took a fraction of the expected time :)
The same machine’s GPUs helped me be the first to solve a password brute-force challenge in my computer security class (designed to teach us how to use password cracking tools), though that wasn’t for any credit, of course!
For my machine learning class, I was able to train models much more quickly than other students.
Generally speaking, being able to brute force certain things was just fun.
But yeah, I would agree that there is no practical benefit to a powerful machine in a CS education. These few instances are not worth the cost - buy or build a powerful rig because you want to, not because you think it’ll help. I felt immense pride at watching my system whir to life.
Yeah, I used my machine to do a ton of NLP on relatively big datasets, and I had cool realtime 3D visualizations to show off. I lugged my full tower to class for that one.
It's really nice to have something powerful to play with.
The same machine’s GPUs helped me be the first to solve a password brute-force challenge in my computer security class (designed to teach us how to use password cracking tools), though that wasn’t for any credit, of course!
For my machine learning class, I was able to train models much more quickly than other students.
Generally speaking, being able to brute force certain things was just fun.
But yeah, I would agree that there is no practical benefit to a powerful machine in a CS education. These few instances are not worth the cost - buy or build a powerful rig because you want to, not because you think it’ll help. I felt immense pride at watching my system whir to life.