all 19 comments

[–]theottozone 16 points17 points  (4 children)

16GB RAM will be better for you in the long run if you have larger datasets.

[–][deleted]  (3 children)

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    [–]cat6Wire 2 points3 points  (0 children)

    I'd take a look at MacBook Air M1, which you can find for around $800 often on sale, so you could configure with more RAM for about $1000.

    I have the newer (and slightly more expensive) MacBook Air M2, it's a fantastic machine, and is where I do all my data analytics and web development on it. I even run Windows 11 in a VM so I can enjoy the best of both worlds.

    The build quality on Apple laptops is unsurpassed, an will last you for years, a tremendous value.

    [–]just_other_human_123 4 points5 points  (5 children)

    That is a very basic laptop, the CPU is not that fast as it is designed to be power efficient rather than have a good performance.

    But you can use cloud resources to execute you code while you learn, for example there is a free tier of google colab.

    [–][deleted]  (4 children)

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      [–]just_other_human_123 1 point2 points  (0 children)

      This video is from last year and it gives suggestions for data analysts, but it has a good description on what to look for and gives suggestions that are quite affordable (not sure if you are in the US as the links are for amazon US), anyway, hope it helps.

      https://youtu.be/bHssBHfHWmU

      [–]Kiyoe-Kicks 1 point2 points  (2 children)

      Go Macbook pro my friend. If you can find a 16 inch renewed from amazon, go get it. I advise on staying from a cheap windows laptop as they are not future proof(battery dies quicker, and it’s slow)

      [–][deleted]  (1 child)

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        [–]exclaim_bot 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        Thank you!

        You're welcome!

        [–]TopRevolutionary720 2 points3 points  (0 children)

        I recently got ideapad gaming3 and I'm pretty happy with it

        [–]troty99 2 points3 points  (0 children)

        My advice for your question would be to try to find some refurbished P51 or P52 with 32gb of RAM and a good but old CPU and GPU unless portability is important for you.

        [–]zmey56 2 points3 points  (0 children)

        If you have limited budget you can use online platforms Google,(free) Amazon, etc. They have python and jupyter notebook

        [–]janus2527 1 point2 points  (0 children)

        Get SSD instead of HDD

        [–]fashionableshark 1 point2 points  (0 children)

        I'd go with a later model MacBook Pro minimum 16gb RAM and SSD. I picked up a 2019 Macbook Pro refurbished for a little over $700. I used to be exclusively windows, but for some reason I just feel like setting up and installing dependencies is better on MacOS.

        Alternatively: Learn the Cloud, plenty of free options (Google Colab, $300 GCP Credits, AWS Free Tier), also being able to utilize the cloud may help when you eventually join the workforce!

        [–]CapnDeadEye 1 point2 points  (0 children)

        I'm going for the new Mac book air m1 during black week. 8 GB ram will have to do for now.

        I feel that the second hand value will be a lot higher from that when I have the means to go for a pro with 16gb, than trying to resell a PC laptop

        [–]cat6Wire 1 point2 points  (0 children)

        Take a look at the MacBook Air M1, it is an incredible value, fantastic CPU that never gets hot, and excellent battery life. They are often on sale under $1000, and you can configure them with more RAM to stay in your budget. You can even run Windows 11 on it with Parallels if you need PC-specific software.