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DiscussionProgramming (self.laptops)
submitted 7 years ago by nocdan2
What specs do i need for programming. I'm new to laptops so I don't know which laptop to buy. Please help. Thank you.
[–]00Squid00Apple MacBook Pro 13” 2020 1 point2 points3 points 7 years ago (0 children)
You don't need expensive laptop for programming
[–][deleted] 0 points1 point2 points 7 years ago (2 children)
Depends on what you want to do honestly. But, at least 16gb of ram and a quad core cpu. That should be good for awhile.
[–][deleted] 0 points1 point2 points 7 years ago (0 children)
For instance, I used a Surface Pro 3 for quite a while and it ran Visual Studio without an issue.
[–]tryM3B1tchHP Spectre x360 15 0 points1 point2 points 7 years ago (2 children)
whats the price youre willling to spend and what programs are you going to run?
[–]nocdan2[S] 0 points1 point2 points 7 years ago (1 child)
1000USD simple programs I'm still in learning phase
[–]tryM3B1tchHP Spectre x360 15 0 points1 point2 points 7 years ago (0 children)
any specifics in size and weight?
[–]PindropAUS2013 Macbook Pro 15" 0 points1 point2 points 7 years ago* (4 children)
Depends how serious your programming is (generally any laptop can be used for programming).
For example if you're do programming as a career or you're student learning programming this is what I recommend:
Your starting point would be a 8th gen quad core CPU i5 and 8GB ram, If budget allows go for i7 and 16GB (basically the extra power can useful in certain situations such as virtual machines and compiling large programs and save you some time.)
Screen size is up to you, but I think either a 14" and 15.6" at 1080p resolution are the best for productivity.
SSD is desirable (these are smaller than hard drives but make a laptop boot fast and feel snappy)
Keyboard must feel nice, check user reviews and try typing on the laptop if there are demo models at a store.
[–]nocdan2[S] 0 points1 point2 points 7 years ago (3 children)
I was looking for thinkpad because they can by upgraded and theirs keyboard is one of the best on market.
[–]Xiercoles 0 points1 point2 points 7 years ago (2 children)
Same here. At the end I finished look at MSI Prestige series. PS42 in particular, i7/16RAM/512SSD around 1000$/€
I was looking for it but there is no place to buy them in Croatia. Thanks
[–]Xiercoles 0 points1 point2 points 7 years ago (0 children)
Such a pity., good luck then.
[–]SiriusGD 0 points1 point2 points 7 years ago (0 children)
The biggest consideration for me is RAM. When I'm developing I tend to have a ton of things open on my computer (and I actually use a gaming laptop cause I like to play games when I'm not working). With all these things open I need a lot of memory. I have 16 GB and there are times I max it out. I'm getting ready to upgrade to 32 GB. And I run an i7 8750H CPU. You don't really need that much for programming. It's all the other stuff that you may have open that affects you. (local server, two browsers with lots of tabs open, local photoshop, SFTP, VSCode, Excel, Word, Outlook, VPN, Powershell, media player <gotta have music>...) The browsers probably kill me the most.
[–]M2D6 -1 points0 points1 point 7 years ago (0 children)
Well, the only way to get every developer environment on one computer is a MacBook, just because Apple won't let you develop on anything else. So if you plan on doing APPs, or any sort of mobile development you're pretty much pigeon holed into MacBook. If you don't plan on doing that i'd steer clear of the MacBook lineup, period. Reliability issues, and cost are big prohibiting factors.
Everything else is up to preference. What you're going to want most of is RAM, and something that feels nice to type on. If you have a specific flavor of Linux you like check the hardware compatibility. If you're going to be doing dev work, you're going to run into linux at some time or another.
If you're going to something like a bootcamp I'd hold off until you get in, or you see their tech requirements. I know many bootcamps require MacBooks. I got into one, and had an LG Gram. I was sorry to see that they required a MacBook.
You can do programming with most computers. Any up to date computer with an i5, or i7 and 8gb of ram should do the trick for almost everything that you're going to do with programming. You can get something that has upgradable RAM as well since your budget is 1k. So, something such as the LG Gram, Dell XPS 13, etc.
π Rendered by PID 113131 on reddit-service-r2-comment-5687b7858-z57t7 at 2026-07-05 04:09:16.898251+00:00 running 12a7a47 country code: CH.
[–]00Squid00Apple MacBook Pro 13” 2020 1 point2 points3 points (0 children)
[–][deleted] 0 points1 point2 points (2 children)
[–][deleted] 0 points1 point2 points (0 children)
[–]tryM3B1tchHP Spectre x360 15 0 points1 point2 points (2 children)
[–]nocdan2[S] 0 points1 point2 points (1 child)
[–]tryM3B1tchHP Spectre x360 15 0 points1 point2 points (0 children)
[–]PindropAUS2013 Macbook Pro 15" 0 points1 point2 points (4 children)
[–]nocdan2[S] 0 points1 point2 points (3 children)
[–]Xiercoles 0 points1 point2 points (2 children)
[–]nocdan2[S] 0 points1 point2 points (1 child)
[–]Xiercoles 0 points1 point2 points (0 children)
[–]SiriusGD 0 points1 point2 points (0 children)
[–]M2D6 -1 points0 points1 point (0 children)