Need Help for Virtual Math Teacher Laptop

[Dhenier]

Budget (including currency): $2,000 USD

Country: United States

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Virtual math instruction and lesson planning. Programs used during instruction (often simultaneously - switching back and forth as needed): Google Suite (Sheets, Docs, & Slides), calculator emulator software, whiteboard software, Adobe Acrobat (usually 4-6 pdfs open at once), Chrome browser (usually 12-20 sites open at a time - grade portal, email, lesson sites, student work for live feedback, etc.), pen tablet software, document camera, webcam (live streaming lesson), MS Teams, and robotics 3D virtualization software. Programs used during lesson planning: OBS (video recording), Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, Paint, Kuta math suite, MS Office, and most of the ones already listed for instruction. Need at least 500 gb ssd. 

Other details: Laptop needs to support 2 monitors (normal business type flat panel), pen tablet, document camera, and webcam. Currently using a (remote managed) Dell that has 4gb ram and 256 gb hard drive. With the current system it can take up to 35 minutes to boot and open all software needed for instruction. Some apps take 30s to a few minutes to respond after switching. MS Teams and Whiteboard can take up to 5 minutes to load and often 2-3 minutes after bringing them up after minimizing. The calculator emulator, whiteboard software, Teams, and Adobe Acrobat often freeze and have to be restarted. As you can imagine it is very frustrating for me and the students to have to wait for the computer to catch up. I think I need at least 32 gb of ram for all the programs that have to run at the same time while streaming instruction. Our district doesn't have money to update teacher computers so I am going to have to pay for this out of my own pocket. I can afford about $2,000. I want to find a laptop for less than $1,000, if possible. A laptop is needed because I never know when a quarantine wave will hit and I'll have to teach from home.   

 

I mainly need help finding a good pre-built laptop to buy. I think I need at least 32 gb, but not sure if 8 or 16 will work just as well. 

 

I also hope that LTT will do a video to help out teachers who have to do virtual education.

 

Thank you

[Beanman]

With those specs at that price point I would honestly recommend a desktop unless you’ll be moving it around allot. If you need a laptop I have herd that the Microsoft laptops are good also Apple just announced some new ones.

[Random_Person1234]

1 hour ago, Dhenier said:

A laptop is needed because I never know when a quarantine wave will hit and I'll have to teach from home.   

 

20 minutes ago, Beanman said:

With those specs at that price point I would honestly recommend a desktop unless you’ll be moving it around allot. If you need a laptop I have herd that the Microsoft laptops are good also Apple just announced some new ones.

To answer OP's question, do you have any screen size you prefer?

[Dhenier]

17 inch. The two monitors at work are at least 17 inches.