Programmer Laptops

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Sigqibo Manzi

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Hi guys. I am a programming student and i have been searching online for a suitable laptop to practice coding . I realised i need professional advice from legends like you guys. I can afford up to R15 000. Any suggestions?
 
You dont need such a high spec(15k) if your just starting off learning programming.

What pushes up the price is the graphics card. If your not programming games then anything
that has at least 8GB Ram, 250GB HDD and an i5 will suffice.


Even something like this will be more than fine: (going for 9k)
  • Window 10 Home
  • 1TB
  • 15.6'' FHD screen
  • 8GB RAM
  • Core i5-8265U processor
  • 3 year onsite warranty

SSD helps
RAM really helps

15.6" Intel Core i5 3580 Laptop | Laptops & Notebooks | Desktops & Notebooks | Computing | All Dionwired Categories | Dionwired

Make the most of every day Featuring Intel® processors and an array of ports, the new Inspiron 14”, 15”, & 17” 3000 laptops meet all of your everyday computing needs and look good doing it. The 14” & 15” offer a portable design that is easy to carry with you everywhere, and the 17” is made for...
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I have been programming at home with a 10-year-old, hunk-of-junk. I actually quite enjoy doing my programming work on Linux, been trying to get into that..

The more I get into Linux the more I realise how bad windows are/were for programming.
 
There are some guys here like Flashgear that could probably help you out with an even better deal
 
Are you working with compiled languages? This can make a large difference in where your priorities lie for system specs.

You'll want a beefy CPU for something like C++ but if you're working primarily in javascript you might not care so much about that.
 
cheesus said:
  • Win 10
The more I get into Linux the more I realise how bad windows are/were for programming.
Click to expand...

I agree fully, and trying to move over to Linux but between MS Visual Studios
and a lot of the applications I work with are only built on Linux you end up getting stuck on Windows.
 
I don't entirely understand why Visual Studio has MACOS support but no Linux support. They go on about .NET supporting multiple formats but oops no Linux support.
 
Decent i5, 16gb ram and a ssd should be fine. If you need more storage, use a USB attached harddrive but keep your ssd for os and environment. You can get away with less ram but it all depends on how you could and if you are spinning up vms etc as well
 
Up to you how much you want to spend. I will say that, if you are going to be programming for a while, it might be worth spending closer to R15k. Reason being, if you want to make a career out of this, it will quickly become frustrating if your computer is too slow.

With a R15k budget, I'd go for:
Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5
16gb of RAM minimum
250GB SSD minimum
Preferred brands: Dell, Acer, Lenovo, HP or Asus
Nice to have: Memory upgradeable from 16GB to 32GB

You should be able to get that for your budget. Windows or Linux? Doesn't make much difference, you can change that later. Which one is more useful depends heavily on what programming language you do. Start with Windows, you can always switch later if you want. You can even dual boot.
 
cheesus said:
I don't entirely understand why Visual Studio has MACOS support but no Linux support. They go on about .NET supporting multiple formats but oops no Linux support.
Click to expand...

VS code works supports linux, and I actually prefer it for some types of projects.
 
Sigqibo Manzi said:
Hi guys. I am a programming student and i have been searching online for a suitable laptop to practice coding . I realised i need professional advice from legends like you guys. I can afford up to R15 000. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

MUST have at least an FHD (1080p) display, and I would say HDMI out for that extra monitor.
8GB can work, but rather go for 16GB. If you don't run extra stuff like Sharepoint etc, this should be sufficient. 16Gb should allow you to run a VM as well, if you want to do that for whatever reason.
An SSD is also a must have. Go for as large as you can, but I would say at least 256GB.
While a CPU is important, it's not as important for your happiness as a decent display, fast SSD and enough RAM. A modern i5 should suffice.

Edit: I'm partial to Dell. Their Latitude and Precision/XPS laptops have served me well.

Edit2: Since you are a student, save money where you can. I don't think you will see much benefit of an i7 over an i5 for student type stuff.
Anything more than 16GB ram is also not necessary, unless you do some specialised stuff.
When you get a job, they will most likely supply you with a laptop anyway.
 
cheesus said:
I don't entirely understand why Visual Studio has MACOS support but no Linux support. They go on about .NET supporting multiple formats but oops no Linux support.
Click to expand...

Because you need to install it using snap, or flatpak. Unless you use Arch then its in AUR.
 
Sigqibo Manzi said:
Hi guys. I am a programming student and i have been searching online for a suitable laptop to practice coding . I realised i need professional advice from legends like you guys. I can afford up to R15 000. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Assuming you will be a varsity student, you can get buy with a laptop that has 8GB of RAM ideally. The SSD with just be a plus.

Secondly, get rid of Windows - unless you will be working in the .NET framework, which I think is unlikely as most institutions tend to teach Java, C/C++ and sometimes Python or another language in computer science courses. Use Linux as your main OS as it is lighter on resources.

Lastly, try and get another screen for reading/having a browser open as you will be doing a lot additional reading and study once things get a little more complicated.

Towards the end of your degree you will be introduced to Web, try and be sure you are familiar with Linux as it runs the Web.
 
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You're a student, you're probably not running anything intensive/making any money off of it so if it compiles in reasonable time it's okay.

Order of importance:
1080p screen
8GB RAM
Keyboard
SSD (even if a tiny 256GB, put movies and stuff on something else)

Oh and CPU should be at least a quad core, even if low spec it's fine.

If you're trying to do machine learning, CPU is good enough for learning. Laptop side I would not buy a Ryzen machine yet, maybe next gen, battery life has quite a large difference for most laptops.
 
Urist said:
Thinkpad

Lenovo ThinkPad E490 Intel Core i7-8565U 1.80GHz Quad Core 14" Full HD (1920x1080) IPS 8GB (On-Board) DDR4-2400MHz 256GB M.2 (2242) PCIe NVMe SSD Windows 10 Pro 64-bit Notebook - Wootware

Buy Lenovo ThinkPad E490 Intel Core i7-8565U 1.80GHz Quad Core 14" Full HD (1920x1080) IPS 8GB (On-Board) DDR4-2400MHz 256GB M.2 (2242) PCIe NVMe SSD Windows 10 Pro 64-bit Notebook at Wootware with fast shipping & superb service.
www.wootware.co.za www.wootware.co.za
Click to expand...
Not the brightest display, but you can upgrade the storage later, everything else about it is pretty good. Worry I have with Lenovo is PartServe, they're a terrible company for warranty service.
@Flashgear could maybe help out?

If you are looking at wootware, go for:

WootBook Pro 1650 GK5CP5V Intel Core i7-9750H 2.6GHz Hexa Core 15.6" Full HD (1920x1080) IPS 60Hz NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 4GB GDDR5 Black Gaming Notebook - Wootware

Buy WootBook Pro 1650 GK5CP5V Intel Core i7-9750H 2.6GHz Hexa Core 15.6" Full HD (1920x1080) IPS 60Hz NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 4GB GDDR5 Black Gaming Notebook at Wootware with fast shipping & superb service.
www.wootware.co.za www.wootware.co.za
and add a 512GB, 16GB RAM, get OS from flashgear.

If you want to save a bit/don't really want to play on it on the side:

WootBook Metal MX250 PF4WN2F Intel Core i5-8265U 1.6GHz Quad Core 14" Full HD (1920x1080) NVIDIA GeForce MX250 2GB GDDR5 Cosmic Grey Notebook - Wootware

Buy WootBook Metal MX250 PF4WN2F Intel Core i5-8265U 1.6GHz Quad Core 14" Full HD (1920x1080) NVIDIA GeForce MX250 2GB GDDR5 Cosmic Grey Notebook at Wootware with fast shipping & superb service.
www.wootware.co.za www.wootware.co.za
Is pretty good, if worried about brand get the 3 year warranty, note that it's just a rebranded Tongfang, they manufacture laptops for others, forgot exactly what brands, but some of the major ones.
 
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CT_Biker said:
Assuming you will be a varsity student, you can get buy with a laptop that has 8GB of RAM ideally. The SSD with just be a plus.

Secondly, get rid of Windows - unless you will be working in the .NET framework, which I think is unlikely as most institutions tend to teach Java, C/C++ and sometimes Python or another language in computer science courses. Use Linux as your main OS as it is lighter on resources.

Lastly, try and get another screen for reading/having a browser open as you will be doing a lot additional reading and study once things get a little more complicated.

Towards the end of your degree you will be introduced to Web, try and be sure you are familiar with Linux as it runs the Web.
Click to expand...

Running Linux on a laptop is a bad idea - always shortens your battery life.

This is mostly because of drivers - the linux drivers for things like video cards are not as good as the Windows drivers, and so your battery life is shorter. Its a well known problem, google it.

I also doubt that something Ubuntu is lighter in resources than Windows, especially not when using the legacy X11 windowing manager. Some Linux Mint flavours are quite lightweight.
 
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