Computer science laptop advice

[cmo30]

Hi guys, I'm currently a computer science student at Northeast State Community College studying networking and cyber security for my degree. Next semester I will start my IT courses. I currently have a Samsung Tab S8 that I'm using for my introductory statistics class I'm currently taking this semester. What would y'all recommend and advise for a laptop or 2-in-1 for my IT courses? I have a desktop with a 5600x, 32GB DDR4 along with a 1TB NVME SSD with an Intel ARC A770. My brother said my tab s8 would work for my IT courses, but after talking to one of my IT professors, they disagree. What would be y'all's recommendation and advice? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, I'm not sure which OS is better for my computer science degree Macos or Windows. 

[Waver]

46 minutes ago, cmo30 said:

Hi guys, I'm currently a computer science student at Northeast State Community College studying networking and cyber security for my degree. Next semester I will start my IT courses. I currently have a Samsung Tab S8 that I'm using for my introductory statistics class I'm currently taking this semester. What would y'all recommend and advise for a laptop or 2-in-1 for my IT courses? I have a desktop with a 5600x, 32GB DDR4 along with a 1TB NVME SSD with an Intel ARC A770. My brother said my tab s8 would work for my IT courses, but after talking to one of my IT professors, they disagree. What would be y'all's recommendation and advice? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, I'm not sure which OS is better for my computer science degree Macos or Windows. 

I have seen people go through 3 years of uni as software engineers, with actual BS old and terrible pcs, so it is doable.

Usually for CS id assume it is quite the same, but prob less programming heavy as you will prob be doing more maths and less actual programming. 

The things you want in your laptop is anywhere from
500gb+ space
Newer gen CPU, with some decent work capabilities
16gb ram 
Usually when you would require a gpu, it is for Machine learning and you can usually just brute force it with CPU power alone at a slower overall time (You mostly just leave your pc on for hours running) or your uni has clusters with GPUS that work for that or your own desktop.

I dont know much about the Samsung Tab S8, but the biggest issues you can get into is support for the software your courses will use, unless you can reliably use either windows or linux, it can be a nightmare in some cases (mac is a hit or miss depending on your specific university).  So idk how it would work with what is i assume andriod OS ?


But the snapdragon 8 gen 3
12gb ram 
should be comfortable enough that you can do all the work you would need to, but might need to be mindfull of the slightly lower ram, if you have courses utilizing Virtual machines etc.

same for the space 256 is doable, especially if you buy an external harddrive or is very good at cleaning up after every course and have nothing else on it (hobby wise). But otherwise your biggest issue again is if the programs you will be using are supported on it. 


As an alternative solution you could look into streaming everything to your tab 8 from your desktop at home, setting up some system to wake up over lan (i cant remember the name) so you can essentially both connect and turn on your desktop remotely and simply stream all of it to your tab 8.

 

[Zenny232323]

1 hour ago, cmo30 said:

Hi guys, I'm currently a computer science student at Northeast State Community College studying networking and cyber security for my degree. Next semester I will start my IT courses. I currently have a Samsung Tab S8 that I'm using for my introductory statistics class I'm currently taking this semester. What would y'all recommend and advise for a laptop or 2-in-1 for my IT courses? I have a desktop with a 5600x, 32GB DDR4 along with a 1TB NVME SSD with an Intel ARC A770. My brother said my tab s8 would work for my IT courses, but after talking to one of my IT professors, they disagree. What would be y'all's recommendation and advice? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, I'm not sure which OS is better for my computer science degree Macos or Windows. 

I'd ask why the professor disagrees. Is it the storage? Is there a lot of CPU/GPU intensive taks needed to be performed? You're buying the laptop for college, I'd heavily suggest ironing out the details so that you know you don't buy something that will become irrelevant next year (like needing a powerful GPU for rendering, it's probably not going to happen, but, if it does, might as well have a laptop with a GPU rather than frantically buying an enclosure and a GPU for the laptop).

[Jimmaphy]

7 hours ago, Zenny232323 said:

I'd ask why the professor disagrees. Is it the storage? Is there a lot of CPU/GPU intensive taks needed to be performed? You're buying the laptop for college, I'd heavily suggest ironing out the details so that you know you don't buy something that will become irrelevant next year.

As an assistant for an ICT program, I can't agree more with this statement. Ask the teachers what the recommended specs are, why they are what they say, and (since not every teacher is always aware of what happens in the full program) check the outline that informs you about the courses included with the program, to make sure the laptop/tablet/you name it, and the OS running on it, matches what is expected.