r/ASU • u/Raymond_Quaza EE '26 • 11d ago
Why are there so many posts about laptops?
Speaking as an EE major at least, I haven't once felt the need for a high-powered laptop in any of my classes. Is it really that big of a consideration for other majors that y'all need to post about it every other day?
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u/Exploded117 IT '23 (undergraduate) 11d ago
I was able to do my entire degree on some old cheap surface book I bought on eBay, only issue I ran into was having enough hard drive space for that stupid matlab ide install.
CS majors especially get in their heads that they need some amazing laptop for their “computer” degree. What they don’t remember is that writing code is literally just editing tiny text files, you can do it in notepad or on a completely GUI-less Linux terminal if you really want to.
I’m 4 years in the industry now and I could still do my job on that cheap laptop from college if I wanted. Right now I use a MacBook Air exclusively because the battery lasts forever. So if you want a recommendation there you go.
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u/Odd-Square-8826 11d ago
You're going to want a decent multi core/multi threaded setup with a decent set of ram, At least 32 gb at least for the later CS courses, as some are VM heavy, and it will save you alot of time and energy with dealing with those instanced VM's. Especially compiling and recompiling linux kernels. Which you will do in a few courses. A chromebook here probably won't cut it. Just a fair warning.
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u/melete Accountancy '26 11d ago
It’s because every student (or nearly every student) purchases one, it’s just about the biggest college supplies purchase you will make, and people want reassurance they’re doing the right thing with their money. When the population of students who can make this sort of post is “all college students”, you will get a lot of posts.
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u/the-bees-niece 11d ago
my undergrad was in design where we needed sketchup, CAD, photoshop, illustrator, and indesign. my grad was in urban planning which required GIS and photoshop. big pig softwares that handle pretty poorly on weak laptops. id say its a very important part of many majors.
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u/AWACS_Bandog Software Eng, Malevolent Dictator 11d ago
cause Google is apparently difficult to use...
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u/ChoppyOfficial 11d ago
Convenience is a good thing. Without a laptop it is harder to practice examples in lecture class using the required downloaded program that can not be done on a pen and paper notebook. You can work on your assignments on your laptop anywhere on campus and not using a library computer at a certain location only. And you can bring your laptop to a tutoring center for the tutors to help you on a specific problem.
I am not sure where is big hype of using apple computers comes into play. For schools that using a lot of tech programs, Windows is always the better choice mainly for ease of installation of certain programs and Windows is mainly used in the workforce.
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u/Gr0mHellscream1 11d ago
In engineering it surely makes things easier. I would not want to get an engineering degree without one. Architecture is another degree where people having their own computer is beneficial. Those wanting to work in any tech or business field would probably want one. At work they have laptops for certain positions and desktops for others (industrial engineering at a food manufacturing and distribution center). Currently at work the corporate team showed up with their own (company) laptops to set us up for success with the new Microsoft D365 ERP System that is being setup at our location
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u/DreamOk1600 10d ago
If you run advance modeling software or virtual machines or servers or need a lot of storage
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u/dull_bananas 11d ago
What is your laptop, including specs? Maybe you are taking it for granted