BAAAEEE needs laptop for Java 'n stuff

[das affe]

Hey folks, first off: sorry for the b-word in the headline  
So, as said my girlfriend needs a laptop for the uni. 
She is studying (not sure about the english name) business informatics.
She wants some kind of basic laptop thats able of programming with java, python and idk c+ or what they are learning.
Some multimedia-capability would be nice but nothing too fancy since she has a gaming desktop at home and just needs this for casual youtube and mainly programming/writing stuff.

SHORT:
-"big" screen like ~15" 
-capable of JAVA, PYTHON, etc.
-no fancy expensive stuff (ssd and ram can be added later)


What would you recommend? what should i look out for? 
Thank you very much for reading and your time.
 

[TheGeeker]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-pavilion-17-3-laptop-intel-core-i7-6gb-memory-750gb-hard-drive-natural-silver/7894055.p?id=1219686597310&skuId=7894055

[QueenDemetria]

Hey folks, first off: sorry for the b-word in the headline  

So, as said my girlfriend needs a laptop for the uni. 

She is studying (not sure about the english name) business informatics.

She wants some kind of basic laptop thats able of programming with java, python and idk c+ or what they are learning.

Some multimedia-capability would be nice but nothing too fancy since she has a gaming desktop at home and just needs this for casual youtube and mainly programming/writing stuff.

 

Budget and location?

[vanished]

...

What would you recommend? what should i look out for? 

...

 

It sounds like it doesn't have to be a real powerhouse, so you could probably get something that's a lot thinner than most clunky cheap laptops or high-end gaming laptops.

 

That said, you'll want a decent battery and a good CPU, especially in single threaded situations for compiling code quickly.

 

Other than that it's probably personal opinion.

[das affe]

Budget and location?

Germany. as low as possible as expensive as needed for basic java and python programming (so no chromebook i think)

[das affe]

It sounds like it doesn't have to be a real powerhouse, so you could probably get something that's a lot thinner than most clunky cheap laptops or high-end gaming laptops.

 

That said, you'll want a decent battery and a good CPU, especially in single threaded situations for compiling code quickly.

 

Other than that it's probably personal opinion.

so, an i3 or i5 with the screen that my girlfriend likes best thank you, what kind of ram size would i want to install? 8 or is 4 enough? 

[BrightCandle]

Programmers use 4 parts of the machine heavily - CPU, memory, drive and monitor. SSDs are vastly better experiences for programmers and then most of the problem of compilation and run time moves onto the CPU. Our tools use quite large amounts of RAM, IDEs can be multiple GBs and we have full database servers or whole server clusters or VMs running. For a desktop I would say start at 16GB unless you know you need more, 8GB is cutting it close. On a laptop its hard to get 16GB so you'll likely have to suffer a bit and limit the type of development you do, but its not like you can realistically get a 6/8 core CPU in a laptop anyway either but that would also be better. Java doesn't use many threads for compilation but C++ will use as many cores as you have for compilation and once you start loading up on tools like profilers you will use those cores, don't get a dual core. For the monitor you want to go big, 17" big ideally. We need screen space, IDEs take up a lot of space and our command line and everything else always means we can use a least 3 screens on a desktop so on a laptop you have to compensate with as much real estate as you can.

 

Programming is one of those jobs that can utilise everything a machine has and show how truly awful modern machines are. We regularly wait minutes for things we wish were instant which is why most serious developers these days still use desktops.

[vanished]

*snip*

I have a feeling that nothing too super intense is going to be done here, so probably 8GB of RAM is perfectly fine.  I wouldn't go 4 though.

Good comment about the screen though, higher res the better - IDEs to take up a lot of screen real-estate.

And yeah i5 would probably be good.

And I'm always one to recommend an SSD, but in this case you probably won't find a laptop that comes with one that isn't also super high-end, so you might want to just buy one separately and add it, or (dare I even consider) go without.

[BrightCandle]

Hyperthreading is beneficial to programmers, our workloads are often mixed workload and databases are one of the prime gainers from hyperthreading. Thus i7s are usually better although of course real cores are much better still. Don't skimp on the clock speed either, compilation especially is highly clockspeed dependent. SSDs are downright essential for things like Java, it can take compilation time down to 1/4 of a HDD, its a massive improvement. Almost everything we do is small 4k read and writes.

 

If what we are talking about is not realy development work but just a bit of dev on the side then I know people with mac airs that do dev work but anyone serious about it is going to spend thousands to get the best machine they can fit. I use a fully specced out surface pro 2 as a temporary dev machine and its far from ideal mainly because the cpu performance is garbage. It can do it but I usually don't do much more than a bit of javascript on it rather than real Java server side development on it and I would still use my desktop to do much of the work.

[das affe]

Hyperthreading is beneficial to programmers, our workloads are often mixed workload and databases are one of the prime gainers from hyperthreading. Thus i7s are usually better although of course real cores are much better still. Don't skimp on the clock speed either, compilation especially is highly clockspeed dependent. SSDs are downright essential for things like Java, it can take compilation time down to 1/4 of a HDD, its a massive improvement. Almost everything we do is small 4k read and writes.

 

If what we are talking about is not realy development work but just a bit of dev on the side then I know people with mac airs that do dev work but anyone serious about it is going to spend thousands to get the best machine they can fit. I use a fully specced out surface pro 2 as a temporary dev machine and its far from ideal mainly because the cpu performance is garbage. It can do it but I usually don't do much more than a bit of javascript on it rather than real Java server side development on it and I would still use my desktop to do much of the work.

 

I have a feeling that nothing too super intense is going to be done here, so probably 8GB of RAM is perfectly fine.  I wouldn't go 4 though.

Good comment about the screen though, higher res the better - IDEs to take up a lot of screen real-estate.

And yeah i5 would probably be good.

And I'm always one to recommend an SSD, but in this case you probably won't find a laptop that comes with one that isn't also super high-end, so you might want to just buy one separately and add it, or (dare I even consider) go without.

Thank you very much guys for giving those very detailed answers. i will definately get a ssd or buy something with one already installed, but i think i wasn't clear enough on the budget. this is not meant to be a high end laptop just something to learn the java and python basics and do homework on. As my girlfriend doesnt make money with it and does not have loads of cash to spend, she just wants something that works and is capable of the simple stuff. I'll get her a laptop with at least 15.6" , an ssd (maybe install it myself) and an i3 or something that fits in the around 350€ budget. I think for the money it is a good combination considering the money some of us spend on gpus alone. bigger work can be done on her desktop i5 4670k.

sorry for the confusion