Which laptop to get, I'm starting a degree in computer science

Joejoanne123

Big hello to all. I am starting a degree in comp. science. And I was wondering what spec on laptop I would need. Such as processor, RAM, and battery life. Thanks for any advice you all can give.

Joejoanne123

Joejoanne123 wrote: »

Big hello to all. I am starting a degree in comp. science. And I was wondering what spec on laptop I would need. Such as processor, RAM, and battery life. Thanks for any advice you all can give.

I'd reckon something with an I5, 8 gb ram minimum and battery life depends on you..... How often will you be near a plug charger etc.

What is your budget? Hard to pick something out for you, if you are not giving an idea of what kind of money you want to spend.

Joejoanne123

Budget is 600-800. Not overly familiar with Windows 8 or 10. So which is best in your opinion?

Hollister11

I have been working of this machine for the last 2 years. It'd an absolute beauty. It's cost me around €700, you can buy it on amazon for £350

Joejoanne123

Thanks for that Hollister. Though the battery life seems a little short as I don't know how easy it will be for charging it while in college.

Hollister11

Joejoanne123 wrote: »

Thanks for that Hollister. Though the battery life seems a little short as I don't know how easy it will be for charging it while in college.

Battery life on it is ****. I never bring it to college, as we're in computer labs for every class, and the libary as plenty of computers.

I just use it at home.

Joejoanne123

What are you studying yourself?

Hollister11

Joejoanne123 wrote: »

What are you studying yourself?

Computer Science.

Joejoanne123

Where at, if you don't mind me asking? And what year are your on?

Joejoanne123

I am very new to boards.ie. Is there anyway of adding friends on here. As I would like to add you if that is okay with you.

Hollister11

Joejoanne123 wrote: »

Where at, if you don't mind me asking? And what year are your on?

I'm in the National College Of Ireland. I have just finished 2nd year, heading into 3rd year in September.

Joejoanne123

Thanks for all your replies. I am very new to boards.ie. Is there anyway of adding friends on here. As I would like to add you if that is okay with you.

Hollister11

Joejoanne123 wrote: »

I am very new to boards.ie. Is there anyway of adding friends on here. As I would like to add you if that is okay with you.

If you click into my profile on the desktop site, there should be an option.

Joejoanne123

One step ahead of ya. Have already made a request. Have you had many people drop out of your course?

IncognitoMan

Hollister11

Joejoanne123 wrote: »

One step ahead of ya. Have already made a request. Have you had many people drop out of your course?

30/80 dropped out/failed first year. I expect 15 - 20 to do the same now.

Joejoanne123

Have had a look at that laptop you suggested. It looks great though I have heard the Lenovo support is #<%~!

Joejoanne123

I'm off to IT Sligo myself as a mature student. Start 29th August. Excited and worried😕😄

bren2002

Should get a tb of storage. Is imagine a CS student could be running a few virtual machines. Lirs of ram too. 8gb minimum. More of you can stretch.

Hollister11

Joejoanne123 wrote: »

I'm off to IT Sligo myself as a mature student. Start 29th August. Excited and worried😕😄

I was the same. I was 18, excited to go off to college, and new nobody. But I love it so much, and have never missed a day.

Yea the laptop is really good, bar the battery.

Joejoanne123

What series is the processor in that i7 of yours. Is it 5th series?

Hollister11

Joejoanne123 wrote: »

What series is the processor in that i7 of yours. Is it 5th series?

4th AFAIK

Hollister11

bren2002 wrote: »

Should get a tb of storage. Is imagine a CS student could be running a few virtual machines. Lirs of ram too. 8gb minimum. More of you can stretch.

It runs virtual machines just fine.

Joejoanne123

Any use in looking at these refurbed machines?

IamtheWalrus

Does the OP really need that powerful a PC to run computer science tutorial programs? 8GB is more than enough. 4 would do but you're on the lower end but it'd do it your budget couldn't stretch.

Hollister11

Joejoanne123 wrote: »

Any use in looking at these refurbed machines?

Refurbished machines are perfect. They are just returned faulty machines that have been fixed.

So you get a new machine at a discounted price.

Grab All Association

I remember I used a Dell Precision M90 and later a Dell XPS M1710 (shows how old I am now) which looking back was probably overkill at the time. Everyone else had at the time had an Inspiron 6400, Acer, Toshiba etc

Equivalent today would be €2-3k

i5 above and you'll be fine. Just don't go for a notebook with a soldered processor.

IamtheWalrus

Joejoanne123 wrote: »

Any use in looking at these refurbed machines?

If you can get a decent deal, then why not.

Keep an eye on the model you choose to see if it's soon to be replaced by an updated version. You might prefer to wait until the upgrade comes.

IamtheWalrus

Grab All Association wrote: »

Just don't go for a notebook with a soldered processor.

I think a Notebook would be perfect for Uni. Easy to carry around, light. I'd throw caution to buying a large screened, heavy laptop for academia.

Joejoanne123

Hey Grab, how will I know if it is a soldered processor?

Hollister11

IamtheWalrus wrote: »

I think a Notebook would be perfect for Uni. Easy to carry around, light. I'd throw caution to buying a large screened, heavy laptop for academia.

Not really powerful machines generally though.

Joejoanne123

Are they normally in ultrabooks? With soldered RAM as well, yes?

Anything that runs notepad++ and your good to go..

Hollister11

NoDrama wrote: »

Anything that runs notepad++ and your good to go..

He will probably need to be able to run netbeans.

Grab All Association

Joejoanne123 wrote: »

Hey Grab, how will I know if it is a soldered processor?

ark.intel

4th gen http://ark.intel.com/products/family/75024/4th-Generation-Intel-Core-i5-Processors#@Embedded
6th gen http://ark.intel.com/products/family/88393/6th-Generation-Intel-Core-i5-Processors#@All

etc

Joejoanne123

Thanks everyone. That has given me plenty of food for thought. Much appreciate all of your replies. Cheers. 👍🏻😀😴

Alanstrainor

bren2002 wrote: »

Should get a tb of storage. Is imagine a CS student could be running a few virtual machines. Lirs of ram too. 8gb minimum. More of you can stretch.

Although I finished comp sci in DIT 3 years ago now, I never had much need. I had a debian VM for a while, but it's such a light OS and all it was doing was running basic web services.

I certainly wouldn't be worrying about soldered processors ffs. Who ever needs to upgrade their CPU? Any current enough generation i5 will be more than enough. People here are overestimating what you your requirements will be. For the most part I would see it as needing a machine to write code on, and compile really basic programs for the most part.

I'd say your requirements should be:

14" screen or larger. You can still get slim and light machines in this size, but the larger screen should be better for multitasking. i would also aim for a resolution of 1080p, it makes it far easier to utilise window space with those extra pixels.

8GB of RAM, fairly standard for almost all machines these days.

Storage, completely up to you but i cant see you needing too much storage for your college needs. I'd aim for an SSD if possible but it's not essential.

i5 5th generation or later, it doesnt matter if its a ulv processor.

Now the above might be a tad tricky on your budget, but its what I would want. At the end of day you dont need a powerhouse of a computer for a comp science course.

Grab All Association

Alanstrainor wrote: »

I certainly wouldn't be worrying about soldered processors ffs. Who ever needs to upgrade their CPU? Any current enough generation i5 will be more than enough. People here are overestimating what you your requirements will be. For the most part I would see it as needing a machine to write code on, and compile really basic programs for the most part.

Fair enough if you plan to keep the laptop. You'd be surprised how much value a processor upgrade adds 2-3 years down the line. I sold an Alienware M17 with an i7 (2nd generation) processor for €694 last July. It originally came with an i5 processor. You wouldn't get €500 for it with an i5. I actually bought/won the processor for €47 on eBay.

To add the processor was included with a broken latitude with no screen that turned out to work perfectly. Dodgy ram was all

Alanstrainor

Grab All Association wrote: »

Fair enough if you plan to keep the laptop. You'd be surprised how much value a processor upgrade adds 2-3 years down the line. I sold an Alienware M17 with an i7 (2nd generation) processor for €694 last July. It originally came with an i5 processor. You wouldn't get €500 for it with an i5. I actually bought/won the processor for €47 on eBay.

To add the processor was included with a broken latitude with no screen that turned out to work perfectly. Dodgy ram was all

I'd imagine your alienware was quite a bit more expensive than the OP's budget. Laptops are increasingly moving towards soldered CPUs, I just think avoiding a soldered CPU is a bit silly, and would rule out a lot of great machines for the OP for a *just in case* scenario. I can't see why a 5th gen i5 wouldn't last someone 5 years, even when doing a comp sci course. And at that point a 5 year old mid range laptop wont have much value no matter what processor it has.

ED E

Probably too late but my 2cents:

Take your budget and buy an awesome 2nd hand ultrabook rather than a clunky mid range regular notebook that'll be a pain. I commute by bike and my €500 unit was €1300 new 24mo before I bought it and is more than capable of development work. There are deals to be had if you put the effort in.

bren2002

How's your battery after 2 years of use?

ED E

bren2002 wrote: »

How's your battery after 2 years of use?

Double sheet battery, up to 8hrs of video playback

Joejoanne123

ED E wrote: »

Probably too late but my 2cents:

Take your budget and buy an awesome 2nd hand ultrabook rather than a clunky mid range regular notebook that'll be a pain. I commute by bike and my €500 unit was €1300 new 24mo before I bought it and is more than capable of development work. There are deals to be had if you put the effort in.

Hi Ed. What machine do you have yourself and what do you think of the lenovo thinkpqd 450t or the dell xps 13? Cheers

ED E

Mines a Sony but theyve since left the laptop market completely.

XPS13 is a lovely unit. I've stopped recommending Lenovo after multiple breaches of consumer trust.

AlmightyCushion

I went to IT Sligo and did the software development course as well. I have a few friends that finished it recently and one that is going into second year. You won't need an a super computer for it. A decent laptop with an i5 and 8GBs RAM will do the job perfectly. Anything more powerful is a bonus. No need for an upgradable processor either. I'd try and not get something too heavy. I had a 17" gaming laptop in third year and whilst it was powerful it was an absolute balls for getting into college. Thankfully I lived close enough to the college. I'd try not to go too small either as smaller screens can be a pain for coding. A 14" or 15" screen would be best.

Joejoanne123

Hi Almighty. Are you able to chat with your friend that is starting 2nd year at IT Sligo doing Comp. science? And ask them what books they had to buy, please. Cheers

AlmightyCushion

Joejoanne123 wrote: »

Hi Almighty. Are you able to chat with your friend that is starting 2nd year at IT Sligo doing Comp. science? And ask them what books they had to buy, please. Cheers

It'll depend on what stream you go with. Someone doing the software stream will have different classes and need different books than someone doing the networking stream. He only finished first year so he won't know what books he'll need for a couple of months yet.

Joejoanne123

That's the same for me. As my first year is a common year. I've been accepted to software development (Comp. Science). So what ever book he used last year, should be the same as I'll need this year. Will you ask him? Cheers

gleNine

Macbook Air or Pro.
Alternatively a Thinkpad T420 or T430 with Linux.

AlmightyCushion

Joejoanne123 wrote: »

That's the same for me. As my first year is a common year. I've been accepted to software development (Comp. Science). So what ever book he used last year, should be the same as I'll need this year. Will you ask him? Cheers

Ah sorry, thought you meant what books he'll be using in second year. I'll ask him and drop you a PM. The books may change from year to year so I wouldn't go out and buy any books just yet. Plus, you can usually get them handily enough second hand.