Shopping for a new laptop for the Computer Science program

• Windows 11
• 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-1235U (12 MB cache, 10 cores, 12 threads, up to 4.40 GHz Turbo)
• 16″ screen and 1920 x 1200 resolution
• 512 GB disk space, M.2, PCIe NVMe, SSD
• 16 GB memory, 2 x 8 GB, DDR4, 3200 MHz
• Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics
• 4 cell battery, WiFi
• 1 year warranty

Pro’s of this laptop:

• Intel i5 processor it supports virtualization in particular Virtualbox
• 16 GB of memory is a good amount to run large applications
• SSD drive for ‘fast’ reading and writing to the file system
• low graphics means better battery life
• Windows 11 is the latest Microsoft OS
• Latest Intel processor implies its faster and has current tech
• Great value for your money + 1 year warranty

Con’s of this laptop:

• Basic graphics; gaming students will want a dedicated video card

Macbooks are excellent laptops and use some of the best components in the industry. One difference is that their recent line of laptops use their own processors which are called M1 and the newest line M2 & M3. They are very powerful and efficient processors but they do have limitation that they will not run Virtualbox which is an application used in the Computer Science program.

• We do have some work-arounds for the Macbook virtualbox issue and many of our students are using Macbooks.
• Please note Macbooks are not appropriate for the gaming stream

Macbook Air

The 13″ Macbook Air is the recommended budget Macbook pick and is listed at $1,449 (June 2023)

Tip: try to purchase the latest M2 processor [summer 2023]

• Laptop O/S recommendations: Macbooks

If the above ‘Dell Inspiron’ is expensive and you are looking at budget options her are some suggestions:

• Most of the major laptop manufacturers offer on-sale laptops. Look for 1 or 2 year old models that may be discounted but still are current.
• The latest and greatest laptop is not necessary for the Computer Science program. Pick a laptop that has minimal spec’s as outlined here: SCS Laptop Spec’s
• Don’t purchase any additional software or operating system with your laptop. Student’s can get all the software required for free: SCS Software
• Refurbished laptops can be a good option if you want to save money. There are several sites that offer refurb laptops like: Best Buy, Newegg, and refurb.io. Good idea to purchase a refurbished laptop with warranty.
• If you are purchasing online check the shipping costs and avoid international customs charges

This refurbished laptop is perfectly adequate for the Computer Science program:

Dell 5490 Latitude 14″ Laptop i5-8350U 1.7GHz 8GB RAM 256GB SSD Windows 10 Pro – Refurbished.

Cost: $359 + tax (sometimes shipping is included) – Price was from June 2023

Notes:

• You can read the Intel CPU generation here: i5-8350U the 8 means its an 8th generation Intel (Q3 2017). If you paste this model number into Google the Intel site will tell you exactly the capabilities and age of the processor. It supports virtualization and has 4 cores 8 threads – adequate. Do your research.
• Windows 10 laptop that means in 2025 you will need to change your operating system. You can do this on a budget.

If you have an older reliable laptop you can run Linux! Linux doesn’t require fast hardware but will use fast hardware if you have it. Beware there is a learning curve but once you learn Linux you will not regret it and you will have a head-start in your computer science career.

The Computer Game Development Stream will be using DirectX that runs on Microsoft Windows. The laptop must include a GPU suitable to run recent PC games. There are no other requirements.

When you purchase a new gaming laptop it must:

• run on the Windows operating system
• have a dedicated GPU that can run current PC games

All the major laptop manufacturers make gaming laptops with dedicated video cards (GPU – Graphics Processing Unit) that are based on NVIDIA or AMD’s architecture. Both can be excellent gaming cards but no two video cards are the same.

At this time NVIDIA has an advantage that their GPU’s have CUDA cores that can be used for AI programming.

Gaming laptops are the most expensive laptops on the market. Entry laptops can cost $1,000+ and high end models as much as $5,000. The high cost is because gaming laptops benefit from a powerful video card (GPU) and fast processor (CPU) which are the two most expensive parts of a laptop.

Current gaming laptop

This is a current entry level laptop appropriate for the gaming steam:

ASUS TUF Gaming F17 17.3″ Gaming Laptop – (Intel Core i7-12700H/1TB SSD/16GB RAM/RTX 3050)

Listed price is: $1,399 (June 2023)

Notes:

• Gamers benefit from a larger 17″ display
• NVIDIA GPU that can be used for AI programming as well as gaming (RTX 3050)
• 12th gen CPU from the year 2022 (quite new)

Gaming laptop on a budget

This budget laptop is a few years old but is perfectly adequate for the Computer Science Gaming Stream:

ASUS TUF Gaming F15 15.6″ Gaming Laptop (Intel Core i5-10300H/512GB SSD/8GB RAM/GeForce GTX 1650)

Sale price is: $799 (June 2023)

Intel also makes videocards and are typically integrated in their CPU or on the motherboard. This type of graphics are getting better and better and gives some hope for budget gaming.

Integrated graphics are a viable options for inexpensive gaming systems. Intel has UHD and Iris  graphics options where as AMD offers iGPU graphics Vega and RDNA. These solutions can offer very good graphics, however only the best integrated graphics options compare to entry level GPU’s.