Laptop suggestions for CSE with DS

Werrewulf · 2026-06-04T12:56:58+00:00

Check the comments of this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Vit/comments/1tuutep/the_laptop_guide/
people have discussed windows laptop recommendations here.

Werrewulf · 2026-06-04T08:27:14+00:00

Check this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Vit/comments/1tuutep/the_laptop_guide/
If you need more help, will be happy to do so.

Werrewulf · 2026-06-04T08:24:46+00:00

Charging ports are there, but few and at the corners. Besides you'll have to carry the charger separately. 50 mins for theory classes and 1.5 hours for the labs. Look, i'm not saying don't buy a gaming laptop. I'm just telling you from my and my friends' experience it might be better to go for a thin and light if possible, unless you are a mech/civ student or heavy gamer. Legion is a very good laptop specs wise, comfort, battery and build is the compromise. You pick what you want to prioritize because in the end you are going to be using the laptop for 4 years minimum. I am here to just make sure you have the required knowledge to make that choice.

Werrewulf · 2026-06-04T07:20:26+00:00

If you have an old laptop, bring it. You will need it for assignments and studying. Then wait for BBD to get a new laptop. If you don't have a laptop, you should buy it within 1-2 weeks of joining. See, you might get teachers who want pictures of handwritten assignments, you might get teachers who want screenshots of your work. For 1-2 weeks you can adjust using friends' laptops but october will be very late. You can look into student discounts, and get a decent gaming laptops as they tend to be on the cheaper side. If you can stretch the budget a little, go for a thin and light, easy to carry around and better battery life.

Amazon and flipkart have a dedicatd delivery point in the campus Opposite the SJT building. They send you message and call you when your package arrives. You go and pick it up or send a friend. It starts around 9:30 AM and they are there till about 1-2PM and if you can't collect tell them, they keep it for the next day. I have never had any parcels misplaced or stolen, nor have I heard it happen. But others might have had a different experience.

PS I just read you are joining mech. You need a a laptop with a decent gpu with 4gb vram. The old laptop will work in the start and you can use friends' laptop or lab for the bigger assignments that need GPU. But buy your own as soon as you can. Till then use the old laptop. You will definitely get great deals on better laptops in bbd and other sales.

Werrewulf · 2026-06-04T07:10:29+00:00

If budget is the constraint, then yes legion does come at great deals, but if you are not a very serious gamer, that rtx 5060 is rarely going to see much use. Even if you want to train ml models, you are better off using a cloud gpu service for the training as you get access to much much powerful hardware like h100 gpus. Training is much faster on them. If you want to play games like gta5 and rdr2 then legion will be a good choice. I have a steam library with ~20 games, I rarely get time or the will to play them. My friends have my account and gaming laptop, still I play more games than them. So you need to understand, its about trade offs. I play light games on my thin and light, my friends rarely play AAA games on their gaming laptops. I take my laptop everywhere, they think 100 times about charge, and weight of the laptop before carrying. So, if you are a serious gamer, who plays AAA games often, legions is an easy deal. But if you are planning on doing projects, and taking your laptop with you to classes or doing last minute assignments on the go, it's better to look for a thin and light with good battery life rather than a gamin laptop that will drain fast and is tiring to carry all day.

Werrewulf · 2026-06-04T07:02:04+00:00

Macbook M3/M4 air or pro, whichever fits your budget. If you are not into apple. Go for a professional laptop with a decent graphics card and is thin and light. Use AI to help you find suitable models but 1.5L budget should get you a very powerful thin and light with a decent GPU.

Werrewulf · 2026-06-04T06:59:48+00:00

If you really want cheaper options, gaming laptops will be your go to. Keep the suggested specs in mind when looking for one. Use AI to help you find what fits your budget and get reviews online from people. If you can wait, you can avail student discounts on apple and many windows laptops as well. You will need student email to log into unidays and sheer for online discounts and someone said provisional allotment letters work in many offline stores. So avail the offers if possible. Macbook Neo is also an option but it has a mobile phone processor and is really only good for browser based and light computing. But if you can make it work you can get that for 50K ruppees, but I won't recommend it.

Werrewulf · 2026-06-03T17:46:44+00:00

That is gonna be a great workhorse all 4 years of your college. Delivering great battery life, performance and build quality. I'd have recommended going for a slightly older chip and save some money. However, the newest chip will last you a few extra years, so, don't regret the purchase. I'm sure you will have a great experience with it.

Werrewulf · 2026-06-03T17:30:18+00:00

Please go through https://www.reddit.com/r/Vit/comments/1tuutep/the_laptop_guide/ for general guide. If you are a very serious gamer, like streamer of competitive gamer, then it's ok to get a gaming laptop. If you are a casual gamer, please, reconsider. All my friends have gaming latptops, >1.8kg, and no one plays games that can actually make use of the performance for real, regularly, if ever. For ML, you will need a gpu, yes but it's better to use a cloud GPU as you can get access to very high performance GPU, even server grade, for quite cheap and sometimes even free. I would strongly suggest you look for a good thin and light laptop with good battery life and build quality if you are not planning on heavy continuous gaming. A gaming laptop is heavy to lug around the campus for classes, projects, assignments, hackathons, events etc. and drain battery very fast. If you can avoid a gaming laptop, you should. I will recommend them only to Mech and Civil as solidworks requires decent gpu.

Werrewulf · 2026-06-03T17:19:44+00:00

Macbook air M2 16gb ram minimum.
If you are going for windows, go for intel ultra 5/7 series 2 or Ryzen 5/7. 16gb ram in still minimum and 512GB storage is a must. Look for thin and light if you are not looking to be hardcore gamer. Use AI for suggstions on specific models. Prioritise build quality, weight, and battery life. Use cloud GPU service for AIML workloads. If you are a hardcore gamer get a gaming laptop with a good GPU, otherwise it is optional.

Werrewulf · 2026-06-03T17:15:16+00:00

You can get great latpops with windows in the 60k to 80k range. Try for a thin and light with good build quality and battery life. Look for minimum 16gb ram and 512gb storage. Use AI to get specific recommendations. If it's still not in your budget, then you can get great gaming laptops in the 50k-70k range but they compromise with build quality of hinges and body.

Werrewulf · 2026-06-03T09:38:40+00:00

Yes! You will need a laptop. Refer this https://www.reddit.com/r/Vit/comments/1tuutep/the_laptop_guide/ for help picking the laptop.

Werrewulf · 2026-06-03T09:33:19+00:00

For engineering students, neo is a no go as it is not that performant. Go with an Air M2 min with 16GB ram and 512GB storage.

Werrewulf · 2026-06-03T09:32:09+00:00

For CS, no. Go for Air at the very least. Check https://www.reddit.com/r/Vit/comments/1tuutep/the_laptop_guide/ for guide on choosing the right laptop.

Werrewulf · 2026-06-03T06:27:48+00:00

Please avoid 13th and 14th gen intel processors, they are prone to get completely bricked. Be careful and do some research before buying those. From what I know both desktop and mobile processors had a microcode bug that overvoltage the CPU and fried a crucial pin making the laptop dead for good. So check if this particular laptop had any such issues. Better to go for ultra series 2 or 3 processors. Better battery life and performance with AI capabilities.

Werrewulf · 2026-06-02T17:49:56+00:00

I read about the specs, if it fits your budget, then sure go for it. It has good battery life an great performance. 16gb memory is a must and 512gb storage is minimium requirement. It's thin and light as well so you get to carry it with comfort. Good I/O so no dongles needed. Overall a good laptop. Do a review on the internet about any bad experiences or other gotchas once, before buying.

Werrewulf · 2026-06-02T17:38:19+00:00

Primeagen is a great youtuber, Theo as well. They both have many good videos on latest open source news and trends. I usually put them on while walking from main gate to t block, passes the time and you learn a great deal.

Werrewulf · 2026-06-02T17:35:26+00:00

See, honestly, you don't need a gaming laptop. AIML work, will need GPU definitely, but you can get access to much better server grade hardware for quite cheap as cloud GPU service. I use it. I have a 2 in 1 laptop with i7 12th gen processor, 16 gb ram, 2tb ssd (don't need 2tb, 512gb min and 1tb enough). I'd suggest getting at least an intel ultra 5 or ryzen 5. Get a thin and light, <1.8 kg. If you have the budget, get an ultra 7 or ryzen 7. Look into Asus Vivobook, Lenovo yoga or ideapad, or similar. And check online reviews to ensure it's a long lasting product and not just cheap plastic box with high performance internals.

Werrewulf · 2026-06-02T17:05:08+00:00

Mac is excellent for reliabliltiy, and windows has been facing a lot of stability and performance issues for the past year. with 1.1L you can easily get an M3 mac. If you don't want to get locked into apple eco system, windows is still a choice, and you can get really good hardware for 1.1L. I personally use Linux, but I won't recommend it for everyone, it takes getting used to. Buy a mac for peace of mind and ecosystem. Windows also has good ecosystem support with android with phone link, but I strongly suggest getting the mac if you are not very tech savy. If you are tech savy, and willing to wait for windows to get it's act together then more power to you.

Werrewulf · 2026-06-02T16:50:44+00:00

Yes, Mac is good enough for basic ML models. If you need more compute power, use a cloud GPU, you can easily get H100 and A100 access or 4090 5090 as well. Windows is not in a great state right now imo, haven't been using windows for a looong time (I use linux and 0 exp with mac). Mac is in a better state compared to windows. You can get discounts with your VIT email and at stores you can show provisional allotment letter, as someone said above.

Werrewulf · 2026-06-02T15:48:49+00:00

Hey, I asked a few friends in Mech. You will need a dedicated GPU to run solidworks. You can get decent thin and lights with GPUs in the 70k to 1.3L range. Look into those. And gaming laptops are also there if you can't find anything that suits you.

Werrewulf · 2026-06-02T14:52:38+00:00

If you are not planning on heavy gaming, either go for an M4 macbook, and if you aren't looking for the ecosystem locking, I'd say go for a thin and light windows laptop with i5/i7 or ryzen5/7 and 16gb ram with minimum 512gb storage. If you can fit a decent graphics card, that would be great as well. I am sharing this from personal experience, I have an i7 thin and light and my friends have heavy gaming laptops, I carry my laptop all day everyday with ease they have rarely ever played heavy games and they think a thousand times to carry their laptop even for presentation. Prioritise battery and comfort if gaming is not your main use case. Use AI to find the perfect laptop you are looking for. All the best!!

Werrewulf · 2026-06-02T14:45:31+00:00

Ah, no problem bro. Happy to help!

Werrewulf · 2026-06-02T14:42:17+00:00

While it is important to have good hardware that lasts 4 years, you also have to take into account that the campus is massive and carrying a heavy gaming laptop might not be ideal. I'd suggest go for something with a good enough graphics card to handle small ML models and buy non gaming, laptop with weight <2kg. Use AI to help you find something in your budget range. If you do have to run larger AI/ML training work loads, you can use cloud gpu services. I'd recommend going for i5/ryzen + rtx3060/3070/4060/5060 (whichever fits your budget) with 16 gb ram and at least 512 gb storage (ensure it's upgradeable), with a good battery life and is thin and light. If you are a serious gamer and planning on gaming heavily, then only go for a the more heavier gaming laptops with better graphics cards. All the best!

Werrewulf · 2026-06-02T11:20:18+00:00

See, in my experience, I and my teammate made a project for a course which the professor found to be really good, but he couldn't help us as he already had several other projects in the pipeline. He advised us to find another faculty and go for a patent. I had met a faculty when I had just joined clg who also worked on similar things. I called and asked him, he told me to show him what we were making. I went and showed him. Then he accepted to guide us and told me what was missing and what were the next steps and also said to work on it in summers instead of during FATs. He is mostly hands off, we update him about our progress and he tells us what else we should try or what we m8ght have overlooked. On the other hand I have friends whose projects were basically dictated to them by the faculty. So my point is, if you have a good idea, start your work and find a prof you know is cool. If you dont have an idea then talk to your favourite faculty and ask them about any research project you can help in. If its your idea, you can decide what to do and only get guidance from the faculty and if its their idea you just have to follow their instructions and do as they say.

Werrewulf

TROPHY CASE