hello,

I am an upcoming computer science student and planning to buy a laptop for college. I've done a lot of research on MacBooks (apple silicon) vs windows and people are saying different things and I am confused. I was at first planning to get a MacBook pro but many said that the applications that a cs student would use in college aren't compatible with macs and many said that they work fine. and if I end up having to buy a windows laptop for college, I don't know what brand or specifications would run smoothly. Please help

Thank you to everyone who is trying to help, I appreciate it!!

UPDATE: I emailed the undergrad office for CS for the college I am going to (like many of the people under this post recommended) and they said that windows and mac are fine and that the professors have workarounds for the new apple silicon chips for the things that aren't compatible.

If anyone is viewing this post and is not sure like I was, PLEASE email or call your CS undergrad office and ask before making your purchase decision. they will tell you what is best to do/buy.

Thank you again to everyone who responded to this post and tried to help!

I am an incoming college student studying computer science, in need of a laptop. My main priorities are:

1. Good build Quality (It's going to spend a lot of it's life in a bag)

2. Decent-ish battery life (once again I'm going to be using it mainly portably)

3. Decent performance without having everything soldered to the board

The other option I've been considering for a while is the M1 Pro Macbook. I had daily driven Linux for 2 years, but ended up breaking that machine, and then had a brief stint with macOS on a borrowed laptop. Though I ended up coming to like some parts of macOS (I still think homebrew is a fantastic package manager), I always felt like a little part of my fledgling computer scientist heart died every time I had to use that operating system and put up with whatever crap Apple decided to throw at me. I poked around in Linux again and realized that I want to consider other options before I go buy a soldered down (though admittedly high quality, solidly built, and extremely performant) machine which will be a paperweight once Apple decides to stop supporting it.

Just as a note, I am relatively sure I won't have many issues running Linux instead of a proprietary operating system, as all of the software required for my major is open source and would run on any OS. In the worst case I would want to be able to install Windows (in a VM or bare metal), though I don't anticipate needing to.

For posterity, my school claims that the minimum recommended hardware for my college is an i5 with 16gb of ram, and a recommended laptop (though there is no mandated/expected machine) is an XPS 15 with a core i7 and 32gb of ram. The other recommendation is a base model M1 Pro MBP.

I have considered a few options, but I'm not super sure which one. After writing this and considering them, I'm leaning towards the Lemur Pro, but I would love to hear what other people think.

Framework Laptop

In a lot of ways I want to love this machine. I love everything framework is doing, and aside from battery life, it seems like a great machine. The only other thing which is really holding me back from choosing it is the use of a HiDPI screen. It could probably work passably, but HiDPI/fractional scaling (especially in multihead setups) can still be flaky and weird on Linux as of right now, so I would prefer to avoid having to deal with that if I can.

HP Dev One

Admittedly I don't know a lot about this one because it's pretty new, but the specs seem decent, and it seems to be reasonably well built. It would be on the low end of all of these machines though.

System76 Lemur Pro

This seems like a very decent machine, and I like System76 as a company (something I can't really say about Apple). It seems relatively well built, has decent battery life, and looks to be designed very well for my usecase. Coreboot is also a nice touch. This is the machine I'm leaning towards right now, with my only major worry being the CPU. My guess is it would be more than enough for what I will be doing, but the lower power chips are not great for performance (in comparison to other processors I'm considering) which has me worried a little bit.

System76 Darter Pro

I like this machine for a lot of the same reasons I liked the Lemur, but it has some extra downsides the Lemur doesn't. Battery life is going to be worse, which can be expected with a higher powered chip, but it's worth considering. The bump up to 15.6 inches comes with the bonus of more screen real estate, but it would also be more cumbersome to fit in a bag which I intend to do a lot. The gamer-y font on the keyboard is also kind of tacky in my opinion, but I don't want that to be the deciding factor. The main reason I'm considering this is the better processors, which would end up competing more closely with the M1 Pro.

Hello guys, today I share in this Reddit post the Best Laptop for Computer Science Students for those who are looking for the best high-performance laptop for coding and gaming at a cheap price.

Laptops are a tricky subject. They have remarkable processing power in very compact housing and are extremely portable. However, they are also much more expensive than their desktop counterparts, though they lack the customization and overall raw power of the latter.

Still, if you need any of the perks that a gaming laptop offers, you won't regret investing in one!

I would probably recommend Gaming Laptops in general. They are inexpensive, even the entry-level models have the power to outperform many work-focused laptops.

An artist needs a brush and colors. At the same time, a barber needs an advanced set of scissors. Likewise, a Computer Science student must have a perfect gadget to carry out their necessary tasks. For a computer student, a laptop is an indispensable device to carry out daily activities.

Whether you're doing tasks, storing data, coding or preparing spreadsheets, a laptop is necessary for a computer science student. In addition, Computer Science students need to work on software for programming in languages ​​such as C / C ++ / C #, PHP, Java, JavaScript, Python, Angular, Android, Node, React, etc.

In addition, certain software, such as MATLAB, Visual Studio, Eclipse, etc., must be operated by computer students. With a wide variety of options available, a buyer may be hesitant when choosing a laptop.

Various factors affect purchasing power such as specifications, review, price, laptop ratings, etc. Therefore, for a suitable choice, the buyer must keep in mind the basic specifications and check if they meet his requirements.

Therefore, I have listed several features that a computer science student should consider when purchasing a laptop.

• Display: 13 inches

• RAM: 8GB / 16GB

• Storage: 256GB

• Processor: Intel Core i5 and i7 AND AMD Ryzen 5 and 7

• Weight: 3-3.5 lbs

• Battery: 7 to 8 hours

• OS: Windows 10

Which laptop is best for computer science students?

Students looking for a college degree in a subject like a computer science definitely need a laptop with 4GB+ good graphics memory and at least 16GB+ of storage memory. For one of these requirements, some of them are on the list of best laptops for computer science students:

• Dell XPS.

• Microsoft Surface Pro 6/7.

• Dell G 5 15

• HP Pavilion.

• Lenovo Yoga.

[My recommendation would be Acer Predator overall and Lenovo Yoga best overall]

Processor

Every laptop runs on a processor, which is responsible for processing and performing all your tasks.

There are several processor versions that can be found, but not all are efficient enough to support coding workload.

The vast majority of computers have the Intel Core processor, which is available in three versions: i3, i5, and i7.

Intel Core i3 is the simplest of all and serves only to run programs and basic functions like document editing, video playback and series, and the like.

The Core i5 is an intermediate version and is a good option.

Intel Core i7 is the most advanced processor and ideal for programmers and gamers. It gives the computer a higher processing speed, so its performance is superior.

RAM memory

RAM memory is another essential component in any computer and is responsible for organizing all running processes.

It is possible to find laptops with RAM starting at 4GB and going up to 16GB.

Internal storage

Any good laptop must have a medium to high storage capacity to be able to store all the files and programs of its users. 

This internal storage can be accomplished from two types of memory, SSD and HD.

HD memory is the most common and you’ve certainly heard of it. Available in sizes ranging from 250GB to 2TB, on average it works well.

Laptops with smaller HD are not suitable for coding and the ideal is to opt for versions from 500 GB.

However, those who need a computer with better performance should opt for versions with HD of more than 1 TB or with SSD memory.

Storage via SSD has as its main feature being faster, so it is superior to HD.

There are different sizes of SSD memory and usually, it ranges between 64GB and 512GB.

Affiliate disclosure:

If you make a purchase through the links on this page, I may receive a small commission. I wrote this review based on my honest experience and my vision of the company. I only write reviews about services and products that I personally use, like and believe in. I usually try to see good things rather than wasting my time thinking about the drawbacks. I strongly believe that if you take action and dedicate some time and effort, you will get your money worth and change your life for the better. Although I always list "cons" and strive to be as objective as possible, I also think that focusing too much on negative aspects can lead to procrastination and having a negative experience.

I am currently in the market for a new laptop. I was planning on getting a MacBook but I hear that MacBooks aren’t good for engineering and a lot of software won’t work on Macs. So what’s a good laptop I can buy?

Title. I would also like to mention that my current laptop is an Asus vivobook with an 11th gen intel i5 and 12 Gb ram, and it's been running great for my high school computer science class. Do I still need to upgrade?

Hi guys. This fall I’ll be going to Carleton university for Computer science. I am looking to buy a laptop, what are some of the good options out there .I’m looking for good recommendations. Thanks

Dear Badgers,

It's been too long. And a trivial question, like this, plagues our Reddit forums. So here I am solving this myth. And before you start reading this, if you had some glamourous idea that college requires the best laptop the market can give, sorry to burst your bubble.

Here's why. A lot of your peers cannot just afford an awesome computer. People will gather from many walks of life and all of them do not have the liberty to splurge $1000 dollars on a computer. Often so many of our peers are only barely able to afford tuition. And universities understand this problem. (If they didn't well the poverty gap will just get bigger)

Now for those of you joining in as potential CS undergrads you have these options -

1. A Windows Laptop

2. A Windows Notebook

3. A Mac Pro (M1 or older)

4. A Mac Air (M1 or older)

5. An iPad Pro

Of course, there are Chromebooks and other options. But it is my opinion that any other device would've severe compatibility issues further down in your career. (I know most of you might recycle a laptop by then, but for those who can't, the extra $100 is definitely a good investment)

Now let's look at the options. The first thing you need to ask yourself is if you like to write on paper or you don't mind making notes on your laptop. The pros of making one on your laptop is that it will be stored in the cloud and you can't lose it. However, on the other hand, it takes a good while to get used to writing on a screen. Now if you do choose to write on a laptop continue on this paragraph or move to the next one. You now have a choice between a Windows Notebook and an iPad pro. Now to choose between the two is very simple. You only need to ask yourself if you are okay with changing to a laptop once you finish college. Since the corporate world has still not been very accepting of the use of iPads even though they have almost the same functionality as work laptops, it is best to assume that they will not be welcoming of using iPads when you graduate.

Now if you are reading this, you have a choice between a Mac Pro/Air and a Windows Laptop. This is fairly straightforward. This entirely just depends on your affordability and choice of machine. Personally, I've used Windows machines a lot so shortcuts and other features just seem very intuitive to me. If a tiebreaker is needed, I would remind you that Macs are the better choice if you need/want to produce music, videos, or apple apps in the near future.

Congratulations! You have chosen your Laptop! Now here is the important part that you need to know.

Like how some people cannot afford a fancy laptop, similarly the university cannot afford a license key for each and every student. It is simply just too expensive and not practical. If you go to the IT Services page on the wisc.edu page, they clearly state that all proprietary software will be available on university computers. This means that the applications you would be using for classes will not be on your devices. And here's the beauty, you can access the applications on your device if you use SSH or RDP from your laptop.

SSH is a serial communication protocol that lets us use command-line tools while RDP gives you access to the graphical interface of the university system. This is only possible with the help of Linux. And so if you do plan on starting some CS courses as incoming badgers this fall, it would be absolutely worth it to do a course on basic Linux commands like cp, mkdir, chmod, cat, and apt as well as get used to command line editors like nano and vim. The beauty of Linux and its importance in modern computing cannot be underestimated.

Now my other advice would be to check out the GitHub Student Developer pack which you can unpack with the help of your wisc email ID. From this pack go grab your own license of Termius (A powerful SSH client app) and definitely try out the other powerful applications available. You should also grab your own license key of the official Microsoft Office 365 in case your laptop is not already equipped with one. UW Madison also offers free storage on Google Drive and Box and 2TB on OneDrive. Get the desktop clients of each so you can save files not needed on these services. This will save on storage which can give you slightly cheaper options to buy.

And Especially for Mac users - Make sure to install homebrew. And if you need to dual boot Windows, you can grab a Microsoft Education key from Microsoft Store for free.

Now as I sign off, remember that companies want to give us free stuff. Soon we will be the ones defining which apps and technology will become mainstream. And letting us use their apps and tech at the college level only benefits them in the future. So don't feel guilty and grab every opportunity to try out new tech.

As I read the post, I may have missed hardware specifications. In that battleground, it would be best to have 8GB RAM and a decent processor like the i5 or i7. And to the AMD fans, well they just consume too much power XD.

Now if you have anymore questions, let me know in the comments or send me a private dm!

Yours,

A Proud Badger

Edit: There were some awesome contributions on the comment section. So I'm going to feature them here.

1. If you are a windows user, you should try out WSL (Windows Subsystem in Linux). It is completely free and offers a Linux Command line in a windows laptop without firing up a Virtual Machine

2. Try out the dual laptop or iPad which lets you take notes on the laptop. It sometimes might not be worth it for you and the extra horsepower on a general laptop may be worth it

3. Get a Password Manager. There will be a lot of passwords that you'll need and a Password Manager can save a lot of time and effort

I'm a Computer Science student who is thinking of getting a new laptop. Right now I'm having a harder time picking one. What specs should I look for in a laptop as a CS student?

Solid State Drive or Hard-drive disk? 4GB of RAM or 8GB of RAM What types of processors should I go for? (AMD or Intel? How many cores do you recommend?) Is a refurbished laptop OK or should I try to get a new one? How much HDD/SSD space do I need? Windows 8 and touch screen or Windows 7 without a touch screen? Anything else you think is important.

Thanks everyone!!! I appreciate your input!!!!

Random info about previous computers: Up until recently I'm been alternating between a netbook (Windows 7 Starter, 1.66 GHZ single core processor, 250 GB HDD, 10.1 inch screen, 2GB RAM, 10ish hours of battery life) and a larger laptop (Windows 7 Professional, 2.26 GHZ Intel Duo Core processor, 128GB SSD, 15.4 inch screen, 8GB RAM, 90 minutes of battery life or so). However over time I've become frustrated with the tiny screen of my netbook and my larger laptop is beginning to fall apart. (The screen is getting weird(lower left corner is greenish), a few buttons have come off the keyboard, trackpad doesn't work as well as it used to.). EDIT: Someone asked about budget. Ideally I'm hoping $500 or less. Theoretically I could go higher but like most students I'm poor haha.

Hello guys, I am gonna start university in a bit

As a CS student all the books and information I need are digital, So I'll study thru PDFs

and I want to take all my notes thru onenote

So all I'll carry is a convertible with a good active pen and nice battery life, right?

Doing some research I found that the best option is probably a hp Spectre x360

But what screen size? 13.3 has longer lasting battery, and is easier to use on the fly and in tablet mode to read.

But 15.6 should be better for a CS student that needs comfy space and will use his laptop a lot, but this also means more weight and less battery.

what do you guys suggest? Are there other options I should think about?

thanks for your time :)

U.S.A. Top budget is preferably 1,000$

Total budget and country of purchase: (1,000, USA) Do you prefer a 2 in 1 form factor, good battery life or best specifications for the money? ( I prefer a good battery a minimum of 7 hrs) How important is weight and thinness to you? (Very Important) Which OS do you require? Windows, Mac, Chrome OS, Linux. (Windows) Do you have a preferred screen size? (13-15) Are you doing any CAD/video editing/photo editing/gaming? (Programming and School work and light games) Which programs/games you desire to run.If you're gaming, do you have certain games you want to play? (Skyrim) At what settings and FPS do you want? (Medium and High) Any specific requirements such as good keyboard, reliable build quality, touch-screen, finger-print reader, optical drive or good input devices (keyboard/touchpad)? (Good Keyboard and finger-print reader if possible and back lit keyboard and will last over 4 years )

• Total budget and country of purchase: Up to $1.3k after taking into account student discount. USA

• Do you prefer a 2 in 1 form factor, good battery life or best specifications for the money? Pick or include any that apply. Battery life should be at least 8 hours. Am looking for an 8th Gen i7 or i5 w/ at least an mx150. 2 in 1 is nice, but I really don't care.

• How important is weight and thinness to you? Very important. Should be 5 pounds or below and portable.

• Which OS do you require? Windows, Mac, Chrome OS, Linux. IOS or Windows. Probably Windows given my budget.

• Do you have a preferred screen size? If indifferent, put N/A. 15.4 inches is ideal. Will tolerate 14 in if the laptop is really good.

• Are you doing any CAD/video editing/photo editing/gaming? List which programs/games you desire to run. Simple games such as League of Legends, Portal, Half Life, Fortnite. Frequent user of Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. Sometimes use Sony Vegas but it is pretty rare.

• If you're gaming, do you have certain games you want to play? At what settings and FPS do you want? League of Legends at playable framerates (maybe like 30 fps on Ultra is prolly good enough for me)

• Any specific requirements such as good keyboard, reliable build quality, touch-screen, finger-print reader, optical drive or good input devices (keyboard/touchpad)? Fingerprint sensor, Thunderbolt 3, good keyboard and screen is appreciated, good touchpad, solid build quality

• Leave any finishing thoughts here that you may feel are necessary and beneficial to the discussion. Here are the laptops I am looking at and the negatives I have against them:

• Samsung Notebook 9 15 in - build quality feels a little shoddy, small storage

• Dell XPS 15 - $200 above my budget, small storage as well

• HP Spectre 15 - Mixed reviews, not sure who to trust

• Huawei Matebook X Pro - Little overpriced given the specs, also a little bit out of budget

• Razer Blade Stealth - no fingerprint, screen is small

I’m going off to college In the fall and I’m searching for the best laptop option for my major. I’ve been told gaming laptops are a good option here because the amount of processing power and memory. But I still don’t know what the best options are. If anyone could help that’d be great.

What do you guys use and what software do you suggest to install? Any recommendation within $800 is very much appreciated!!

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a personal laptop for start studying computer science on my own. I'd love to buy a Macbook Pro, but as you can see I don't have that money.

Currently, I spent most of my time doing some backend work (PHP, Phalcon, Linux, MySQL, etc) but I like to experiment all areas of computer science, specially, theoretical computer science. Also, I'm a degree student, so I think RAM is not negotiable.

Note: I'm asking for specific models, in case you know some that match my requirements.

So, requirements:

1. Less than 1,000$.

2. 16GB RAM or more

3. I don't store too much things more than my everyday applications, so I think 256GB SSD or NVMe should be fine.

4. Linux compatible (I mean, I don't wanna lose any hardware features when installing Ubuntu or something like that). I more comfy using Linux than Windows, so I don't mind the Windows version that comes with the laptop.

5. i7 - 7th or 8th generation

6. Thin and high built quality.

I think I'm asking too much for 1000usd but let's try.

Total budget and country of purchase: $700-$900, United States

• Do you prefer a 2 in 1 form factor, good battery life or best specifications for the money? Pick or include any that apply. battery life and specs, 2in1 factor is the least important but would be nice

• How important is weight and thinness to you? Should be able to carry in a bookbag with ease and comfort

• Which OS do you require? Windows, Mac, Chrome OS, Linux. Mac or Linux

• Do you have a preferred screen size? If indifferent, put N/A. Preferably on the smaller side. 13-17in

• Are you doing any CAD/video editing/photo editing/gaming? List which programs/games you desire to run. gaming, will be used for computer science.

• If you're gaming, do you have certain games you want to play? At what settings and FPS do you want? MtgArena and casual rts strategy games. roughly stable 60fps is good.

• Any specific requirements such as good keyboard, reliable build quality, touch-screen, finger-print reader, optical drive or good input devices (keyboard/touchpad)? If 2in1, preferably touch-screen included. Aside from that nothing specific.

• Leave any finishing thoughts here that you may feel are necessary and beneficial to the discussion. I'm currently a university student majoring in computer science. I'm looking for a laptop that can last through school but can handle providing gaming that's not too demanding. In terms of OS, not a big fan of the Mac but I've benefits and downsides to both linux and mac so I'm willing to compromise.