Laptop:Specs that help programming

[lazurazvan]

Sooo   my budget is 750 $, and i need to buy a good laptop for programming, as ,now, i am a student at an university from Romania in this domain.

After researching, and discussing things on forums and sites like this one is, i throw the conclusion that what i need is :

Lots of ram (8 GB)

Good Processor ( i7 6500)

FHD screen

 

My QUESTIONS are  1 : Is there, something else that i should take into account ?

 

These are the laptops i find the  most advantageous, considering the budget:

Lenovo:

 http://m.cel.ro/laptop-laptopuri/laptop-lenovo-b51_80-i7_6500u-500gbplus8gb-8gb-radeon-r5-m330-2gb-fhd-fingerprint-pMyQ2Mzwr-l/

and ASSUS:

 http://www.pcgarage.ro/notebook-laptop/asus/156-k501lx-fhd-procesor-intel-core-i5-5200u-3m-cache-up-to-270-ghz-8gb-1tb-geforce-gtx-950m-4gb-freedos-dark-blue/?utm_source=mygarage.ro&utm_medium=product&utm_content=1394544&utm_campaign=Notebook %2F Laptop

 

                                   2 : Which one would you choose ?

[another random person]

5 minutes ago, lazurazvan said:

Sooo   my budget is 750 $, and i need to buy a good laptop for programming, as ,now, i am a student at an university from Romania in this domain.

After researching, and discussing things on forums and sites like this one is, i throw the conclusion that what i need is :

Lots of ram (8 GB)

Good Processor ( i7 6500)

FHD screen

 

My QUESTIONS are  1 : Is there, something else that i should take into account ?

 

This is the laptop i believe it will help me the most, and the most advantageous, considering the budget.

http://m.cel.ro/laptop-laptopuri/laptop-lenovo-b51_80-i7_6500u-500gbplus8gb-8gb-radeon-r5-m330-2gb-fhd-fingerprint-pMyQ2Mzwr-l/

 

                                   2 : What do you think about it ?

 

the laptop seems ok for your needs, but if you want to do advanced and professional-grade programming i would recommend getting a more powerful i7 and more ram. graphics is recommended but not absolutely essential.

maybe this? http://m.cel.ro/laptop-laptopuri/laptop-lenovo-ideapad-500_15-i7_6500u-1tb-16gb-r7-m360-4gb-fhd-negru-pMycyMjUu-l/

[Limecat86]

They both will do fine, if you don't need a powerful GPU go with the Lenovo as a better CPU than the Asus.

If you would also like to play games the Asus would be the better choice as it has a much better GPU.

[Mark77]

i7's really are over-rated on laptops.  You can program/compile perfectly fine on an i3 or an i5. 

 

Basically you will want to concentrate on the overall quality of the hardware and the user interface.  Does the laptop have a nice keyboard and LCD.  Does it have a good warranty.  Can you get a docking station so you can hook it to proper external LCDs for your long programming sessions? 

 

Forget GPU's -- they're probably completely unnecessary for your application.  See if you can look at the business-class Dell Latitude, or the T-Series Thinkpads.  Or the HP equivalents.  With a docking station so you can attach your external LCDs with ease.  $800 is lots of money if you have access to eBay or the open box "outlet"s.

[lazurazvan]

1 minute ago, Mark77 said:

i7's really are over-rated on laptops.  You can program/compile perfectly fine on an i3 or an i5. 

 

Basically you will want to concentrate on the overall quality of the hardware and the user interface.  Does the laptop have a nice keyboard and LCD.  Does it have a good warranty.  Can you get a docking station so you can hook it to proper external LCDs for your long programming sessions? 

 

Forget GPU's -- they're probably completely unnecessary for your application.  See if you can look at the business-class Dell Latitude, or the T-Series Thinkpads.  Or the HP equivalents.  With a docking station so you can attach your external LCDs with ease.  $800 is lots of money if you have access to eBay or the open box "outlet"s.

soooo.... which one ? the ASSUS ?

[Mark77]

Yeah I'm not sure what you can get in Romania, or whether buying a business class machine from one of the outlets or eBay is even viable.  I run into this problem in Canada, but fortunately I can just whip into the United States whenever I really need to in order to pick stuff up. 

 

I don't think I'd personally buy an Asus for a machine that I was using intensively, day in and day out.  But I'm not really sure what choices you have.

[Naeaes]

To my experience programming in itself doesn't require much of a computer. Basically any machine will do. But depending on what you're doing you might want excess amounts of processing power and RAM. The abundance is key. That's just for situations where you have bad code on your hands and just want to know if you're on the right track before having to address issues with memory bleed and bottlenecks such. It's better to have a working concept first and optimize the code later on but if you don't have the umph for it, you gotta do it the other way around. I personally have lost all ability do work without two or three screens regardless of the resolution. One for the code, one for the preview and one for googling stuff up. 

 

I'd suggest you veer away from Asus K-series laptops. They're tempting in terms of price/performance, but they're relatively poor build quality. At least for my experience as an Asus Retailer RMA handler, the K- and X-series laptops die consistently around the time their warranty is ending. All sorts of random crap usually on the motherboard. So if you're intending to get a full universities worth out of it, which I'm assuming is in the order of around five years, don't waste your money on that Asus. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the good name Asus has on the gaming and enthusiastic side of things does not mean they're anywhere above others in the lower to mid-range.

 

The company I worked for, carried Lenovo too, but at least back then they weren't selling enough to make cleas distinction between good/bad consumer models. The T- and W-series have always been awesome but they cost actual arms and legs. My wife has a Lenovo Thinkpad Edge 15 in daily use going on four years now. Only minor issues and none with the the actual hardware. But that unit has been mostly in text editing and HTPC use.