Shopping for a new laptop for the Computer Science program

• Windows 11
• AMD Ryzen 5 7520U
• 15.6” FHD (1920 x 1080) resolution, and a 16:9 aspect ratio
• AMD Radeon Graphics
• 512 GB disk space SSD
• 16 GB DDR5 memory
• Battery: 42WHrs, 3S1P, 3-cell Li-ion
• WiFi, Camera and speakers
• 1 year warranty
• Weight: 1.63 kg

Pros of this laptop:

• You can install Linux on this laptop
• Budget AMD CPU that has 4 cores / 8 threads and supports DDR5 memory
• 16 GB of DDR5 memory is good (during a memory shortage)
• SSD drive for ‘fast’ reading and writing to the file system
• basic graphics means better battery life
• Not too heavy and has fast charging
• Great value for your money + 1 year warranty

Cons of this laptop:

• Basic graphics; gaming students will want a dedicated video card
• Nice to have but not necessary: Ethernet jack, touchscreen, USB 3 charging, long battery life, lightweight

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,M4 and M5. They are very powerful and efficient processors. The M-chip’s virtualization is ARM-based and not x86 which limits the virtualization software it can run.
Macbook Air

• The 13″ Macbook Air is the recommended budget Macbook pick and is listed at $1,399 (Feb. 2026)

Notes:

• try to purchase the latest M-processor they use industry leading unified memory (UMA) tech
• Please note Macbooks are not appropriate for the gaming stream
• Laptop O/S recommendations: Macbooks

If laptops are 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 Specs
• Don’t purchase any additional software or operating system with your laptop. Students 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 Latitude 7410 i7-10610U 8GB 256 GB SSD Windows 11 Pro 14-inch – Refurbished

Cost: $429 + tax (sometimes shipping is included) – Price was from Feb.  2026

Notes:

• You can read the Intel CPU generation here: i7-10610U the 10 means its an 10th generation Intel (Q2 2020). 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 11 laptop – that is current, avoid Windows 10 or earlier.

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
• ideally 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.

Notes:

• Unified memory computers are the latest tech that is challenging traditional GPU based computers. Unified memory computers allow you to use your main memory as GPU memory, this is ideal for gaming and running AI models. Examples of a unified memory computer are the Apple M-series computers and AMD Ryzen AI CPU’s. Please make sure that these computers run Windows and can run current games.
• 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 expensive parts of a laptop.

At this time
Current gaming laptop
This is a current entry level laptop appropriate for the gaming stream:

MSI Thin 15 15.6″ 144Hz Gaming Laptop – Intel Core i5-13420H – 16GB DDR4 – 512GB SSD – RTX 3050 – Windows 11 Home (On sale for $899 – Sep. 2, 2026)

• 13th gen CPU: Intel Core i5-13420H (good)
• 16 GB of memory (DDR4 – good enough)
• RTX 3050 a dedicated GPU (good)
• SSD (or NVMe is a must)

Interested in the latest tech? Unified memory computers are the next generation tech. Apple M-processor computers have been using it for years already. They are now available for PC’s. The big advantage of unified memory computers is that the memory is very close to the CPU so it is faster and it can act as GPU memory. The latter means that unified memory computers are good for AI programming tasks and gaming – and you don’t need to buy an expensive graphics card. Beware that some unified memory computers are ARM-based and not x86. ARM-based computers lack software support for many mainstream applications. For unified memory computers stick to ‘AMD Ryzen AI’ CPU’s or choose Apple if you like their ecosystem.