What kind of laptop is needed for students learning computer applications ?

Hello,

My nephew got rolled into a university, my sister tell me he needs a Laptop.

I want to know what capabilities in the laptop would be needed for him to do his stuff at the university ? I mean they'll be writing the code, debugging their code, compiling the gits. How much do you guys think the resources this kinda work need ?

My budget is limited so we don't wanna buy an high end money of the mid-end do it.

I don't know a lot about this stuff. Your insights will be highly appreciated.

Kind regards

If there's no special needs, any laptop the suits your budget will do. Just don't get very cheap ones. Anything around $500 will get him through university. Bestbuy is on sale right now.

Many students can qualify for Education discounts through their university bookstore, or through a major vendor like Dell, HP or Lenovo using a school-affliated website. If your nephew has access to those discounts, ask him to get back to you on price ranges. And if it works out, advance him the funds since only the student qualifies to do the actual purchase.

Maybe I'm being too optimistic, but I hope that the university has a list of requirements for a laptop for your nephew's courses.

Some universities require that a specific laptop be purchased from their bookstore. (Simplifies IT support, I suppose.)

bobkn said:

Maybe I'm being too optimistic, but I hope that the university has a list of requirements for a laptop for your nephew's courses.

Some universities require that a specific laptop be purchased from their bookstore. (Simplifies IT support, I suppose.)

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Exactly.

I think the first requirement for a course like that would be the ability for him to search the University course requirements.

Unless of course you’re buying this for him as a gift and don’t want him to know?

Are you able to tell us the University and course information so one of us can look for you. Private message someone if you prefer?

I’ve been searching American (because I don’t know where you are) Computer Programming course requirements. (Guessing the course here)

Any university I was able to find information on have the same basic requirements. I also don’t know if your nephew will be doing an online course or onsite.

• Decent webcam and microphone for online conference (can be needed for both onsite or online courses) very possibly needed if he joins a study group and they connect online together to study.
• Some said Apple Mac, most said Windows
• A laptop that has at least a 3 to 4 year lifecycle unless you’re willing to upgrade through the course. This is for the ability to meet possible software updates — like when we hit Windows 12 for instance. Maybe as early as 2025?
• Min 8GB of Ram, 16 better, 500GB drive space

It’s all very vague without a university login.

At a guess, nothing less than an i7 would be good, i5 if it’s the only thing in your budget. People here can help you with a purchase but some location information may be needed. And your budget.

Almost all of the universities mentioned - The Student Help Desk. I would suggest calling the Student Help Desk on a weekday and speaking to someone. You will need the name of the course.

Hard to gauge anything really as all you mentioned was writing code, debugging code, compiling code.
This could be one of many courses offered at a university.

I am guessing @garlin might have an idea?

Processor with more cores, RAM ≥ 16Gb.
If you need Linux on your laptop, find out if it will work out of the box.
You can consider buying a refurbished laptop.
Lots of tests on

It will be purely typing, scheduling, online meet, browsing, email and research. Even a chromebook will do.

Quickly browsing three of my local universities, the mid-range laptops run about $1100 US and up. If you're feeling nice, opt for a bigger display since programmers really love the extra screen space.

"compiling the gits" – I'm gonna steal that phrase

You can code with just notepad if needed but for compiling your project make sure to have laptop with Core i5 and 16GB RAM.

For the kind of computer science that has an emphasis on big data analytics with complex data sets, the University of Denver, Colorado recommends laptops with 32GB RAM to students (with 16GB being the minimum). So, even though in most cases 16GB should be enough, you should still nevertheless verify how much RAM you will be needing. I.e., if you can't find an unambiguous answer on their website, then contact the university, and ask. You can expect that 8GB is these days almost always no longer enough for a computer science student, or if it still is, then it very likely soon won't be.

Also be aware that "Core i5" is just a marketing phrase that tells very little about the actual CPU performance in question. On average, the Core i5-14450HX performs a little over two and a half times as fast as the Core i5-1230U. Also on average, my Core i7-13650HX performs less than 14 percent faster than the aforementioned Core i5-14450HX whereas the Core i7-14700HX is almost 33 percent faster than this same Core i5-14450HX. So, the difference in performance between a Core i5 and a Core i7 very often pales in comparison to the difference that is engendered by what exactly it is that is written after the hyphen in the Intel® Core™ CPU model name.

While it is true that a faster CPU can help to reduce the time it takes to compile code, having to run the project after it is compiled and having to test the project while it runs may also be relatively high (or not) on the list of deciding factors when it comes to determining how much CPU power will be enough.

Further, the power consumption of a CPU can also matter a lot. How long it will take before the battery runs low is multifactorial. The battery capacity alone is only one part of this equation. A 13th/14th gen Intel Core H-series CPU is leaning somewhat more toward energy efficiency (at the sacrifice of performance) when compared to a similarly priced 13th/14th gen Intel Core HX-series CPU, generally speaking. Even so, the fact that there is no linear relationship between the cost of a laptop CPU and the cost of an actual laptop does complicate things to some degree.

In the classroom, if students are allowed to plug their laptop's power supply into the wall during those times when more CPU power is needed for them to fulfill an assignment or if having only a limited runtime of the battery is not a problem (which it typically shouldn't be, IMO anyway...), then a 16″ WUXGA (1920×1200 pixels, 16:10 aspect ratio) laptop with a 13th/14th gen Intel Core HX-series CPU, a 90Wh battery, and a really pleasant keyboard would be my preference.

I am an Enterprise Java software developer, and, I have a degree in computer science. The laptops that I have listed in my specs are not what I use for work, but I use my Asus TUF Gaming F16 (2024) for studying various computer science related subjects. Unlike most other career paths, software developers stop being software developers almost immediately the moment when they stop studying computer science.

The most important thing is that the laptop should be as good (and not better) than other students.

abactuon said:

The most important thing is that the laptop should be as good (and not better) than other students.

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They have a name for judging that every person should do the same as everyone else.