Most of the time it's not compute or memory intensive so any computer will do.
The most important thing then is too have a good chair, keyboard and mouse!
I'd argue that both compute and memory as well as disk speed is necessary to maximize productivity. I do agree that ergonomics is also crucial and I'd add glasses that block blue light to your list.
Most people here are arguing that any computer in 2021 basically covers the average needs of most developers, and therefore are un-differenciated.
You don't seem to agree, clearly, so you need to provide more information into "maximize productivity". Productivity is ill-defined metric and different for everyone. What do you want to improve? What metrics should be tracked? Disk speed isn't a requirement if you only open small text files that can be cached by the OS (unless you also have little ram), so you need to have better defined metrics as to why and what the tolerance is.
To answer the question about what i think the ideal workstation is...
- mid-range SSD with at least 512gb storage
- if job requires lots of storage infrequently (eg. storing large disk images or VMs) then some external storage (NAS or portable usb) is ideal.
- Mid-range intel chip (i5+) or top range ARM (apple m1).
- Great screen (4k for desktop), at least "retina" (can't see pixels at typical distance) for laptop.
- 16gb ram unless you actually have requirements that use more (VMs on devices, compiling really large projects like linux kernel or firefox, etc).
- If laptop, long battery to not be tied to outlet
- Keyboard you enjoy using, its different for everyone. Same with mouse/trackpad. I use trackpad on desktop often, not everyone likes it.
- OS that is not windows.
- Graphics card can be whatever is built-in unless you do ML stuff on-device (i don't do ML stuff so idk if on-device is even desirable).
- Top-tier wifi/NIC - Wifi 6 ideally, certainly 5ghz, or gigabit eth
- 1+ usb ports for peripherals, but tbh i never use anything except to charge phone or occasionally use a SD card for a raspberry pi OS image.
- Laptop should support a charger that charges faster than it uses power
TLDR just get a generic "business class" device, eg. thinkpad/macbook or $700 desktop prebuilt