Laptop for CS major - 2023 - ~ €2500

[RebelOfDeath]

Hey guys, I could really use some help choosing a suitable laptop for my bachelors program. From next year I’ll be starting my undergraduate program for computer science and Engineering and I want to buy a new laptop to take me through (at least) my bachelor of 3 years. I want it to have optimal specs for CS related tasks with graphical capabilities for rendering and editing videos. I also want to be able to do light to medium load AI/ML stuff on it. Does anyone here have any suggestions/tips for some things I should be specifically looking for in the laptop I am going to buy? Are there any suitable models / brands that come to mind which have proven to be reliable and a good choice for my purposes? Just some things to keep in mind: 

- My budget is about €2500

- I live in the Netherlands so I should be able to buy it ( cuz I heard some models are continent specific or something? )

Thank you in advance

[filpo]

Just now, RebelOfDeath said:

Does anyone here have any suggestions/tips for some things I should be specifically looking for in the laptop I am going to buy? Are there any suitable models / brands that come to mind which have proven to be reliable and a good choice for my purposes? Just some things to keep in mind: 

- My budget is about €2500

- I live in the Netherlands so I should be able to buy it ( cuz I heard some models are continent specific or something? )

Thank you in advance

Well a gaming laptop will have the best price to performance (doesn't mean you actually have to use it for gaming tho)

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 Gaming Laptop, 16" WUXGA 165Hz, Intel 13th Gen 10-Core i7-13620H Up to 4.9Ghz, GeForce RTX 4060, 32GB RAM, 2TB PCIe 4.0, RGB, WiFi 6E, TB 4, RJ45, US Version KB, Win11 Pro : Amazon.nl: Electronics

or this (this one has a more powerful gpu and still very good cpu) ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 GA503QS-HQ111R - 15,6" UHD IPS, R9-5900HX, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, RTX3080, Windows 10 Pro : Amazon.nl: Elektronica

finally there's this one, but it looks pretty gamery (and you might not like that) ASUS ROG Strix G16 Gaming Laptop, 16" WUXGA 165Hz, GeForce RTX 4060 140W, 13th Gen Intel 14-Core i7-13650HX, 64GB DDR5, 2TB PCIe SSD, TB 4, 4-Zone RGB, WiFi 6E, US Version KB, Win 11 Pro : Amazon.nl: Elektronica

[RebelOfDeath]

Thank you so much for giving such a comprehensive answer. Just a couple of questions that that just came to me:

- Would going for an i7 instead of i9 really impact or bottleneck performance in any noticeable way?

 

- Would It be worth the higher cost to opt for a higher end gpu for example a 4070 mobile instead of a 4050 of 4060? ( given the fact that I am not really that much of a gamer and that I only intend to utilize the gpu for editing, rendering, and AI/ML work )

[filpo]

Just now, RebelOfDeath said:

Would going for an i7 instead of i9 really impact or bottleneck performance in any noticeable way?

if your talking about bottlenecking the gpu inside any of those machines linked above then no they should all be fine. But if you do want an I9 (maybe for the faster rendering times) you might have to go up a bit in budget. 

 

1 minute ago, RebelOfDeath said:

Would It be worth the higher cost to opt for a higher end gpu for example a 4070 mobile instead of a 4050 of 4060? ( given the fact that I am not really that much of a gamer and that I only intend to utilize the gpu for editing, rendering, and AI/ML work )

There shouldn't be, in games there's about a 15% performance uplift. I found this one just 50 euros above budget, it might be worthwhile since its only a bit more (and there's 64 gigs of fast ram) MSI Katana 15 Gaming Laptop, 15.6" FHD IPS 144Hz, 13th Gen Intel 10-Core i7-13620H, RTX 4070, 64GB DDR5, 2TB PCIe SSD, TB 4, USB-C, Wifi 6, Cooler Boost 5, RGB Backlit, US Version KB, Win 11 : Amazon.nl: Elektronica

 

I really wouldn't go with a 4050 since it only has 6 gigs of vram instead of 8

If you can raise your budget up to about 2550 euros then this zephyrus could be tempting with a 13900h (pretty decent upgrade over the 13620h) and a 4070 (decent upgrade over 4060). It only has 16 gigs of ram and a 1tb ssd tho ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 GU603VI-N4015W | 16" QHD+ IPS | Intel Core i9-13900H | 16GB RAM | 1TB SSD | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 | Windows OS | QWERTY Keyboard : Amazon.nl: Electronics

[RebelOfDeath]

8 minutes ago, HomicidalPingu said:

Depends on software you’ll need but going to throw MacBooks in. They’re media creation beasts that will compete with any other laptop (and can actually run on battery), the ML/AI performance is also very good due to the inbuilt hardware acceleration. They’re also very popular for Cs, engineering and data science. 
 

 

The base M2 14” starts under your budget and there’s education/student discounts in many countries. 
 

 

Personally I wouldn’t buy a gaming laptop for anything other than gaming. They’re loud, hot, large and terrible on battery both in terms of performance and battery life. There are other options for windows machines. 

I was also thinking of looking into buying a macbook before consulting the university, but the course director unfortunately ( or luckily idk which ) told me the apple options were completely off the table due to software incompatibility of the education resources used by the program. Either way thanks you for your advice. Probs gonna look into. Macs for my graduate degree  

[RebelOfDeath]

10 minutes ago, filpo said:

if your talking about bottlenecking the gpu inside any of those machines linked above then no they should all be fine. But if you do want an I9 (maybe for the faster rendering times) you might have to go up a bit in budget. 

 

There shouldn't be, in games there's about a 15% performance uplift. I found this one just 50 euros above budget, it might be worthwhile since its only a bit more (and there's 64 gigs of fast ram) MSI Katana 15 Gaming Laptop, 15.6" FHD IPS 144Hz, 13th Gen Intel 10-Core i7-13620H, RTX 4070, 64GB DDR5, 2TB PCIe SSD, TB 4, USB-C, Wifi 6, Cooler Boost 5, RGB Backlit, US Version KB, Win 11 : Amazon.nl: Elektronica

 

I really wouldn't go with a 4050 since it only has 6 gigs of vram instead of 8

If you can raise your budget up to about 2550 euros then this zephyrus could be tempting with a 13900h (pretty decent upgrade over the 13620h) and a 4070 (decent upgrade over 4060). It only has 16 gigs of ram and a 1tb ssd tho ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 GU603VI-N4015W | 16" QHD+ IPS | Intel Core i9-13900H | 16GB RAM | 1TB SSD | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 | Windows OS | QWERTY Keyboard : Amazon.nl: Electronics

Omg this is so helpful. Thank you so much! I think I can squeeze in another 50. After all it is for my education and I mean if it ages better due to the higher end hardware then I might be tempted indeed to go for the Zephyrus. Once again, thank you so much  

[filpo]

1 minute ago, RebelOfDeath said:

Once again, thank you so much  

Of course, no problem

 

1 minute ago, RebelOfDeath said:

I might be tempted indeed to go for the Zephyrus

Just a heads up the Zephyrus will defo be easier to carry around campus or anywhere than the katana and ROG strix model. Since its the thinnest, lightest and is overall the best. It also has Windows hello FaceID as far as i know so I think thats the best out of all of them