Something that we like to do here at San Antonio's Computer repair, is buying the laptop or desktop
we find that has the closest specs to what we actually want to allow for easier upgrades. For instance,
if we buy a laptop with a Ryzen 7 processor, and a 250GB NVME drive, and maybe 2GB RAM, we can later update the M2 drive,
and Ram when we need to. Whilst still getting the Ryzen 7 processor. Which ultimately saves us money on the initial purchase.
A professional computer can mean several different things.
Do you need a computer for programming? Are you coding full-stack applications?
Will you be watching media, editing media, perhaps making video content for any of the big media outlets such as Youtube or Tick Tock?
If the answer is yes and you are likely going to be editing video content, you will need something with a higher-end GPU, plenty of rams, and of course a decent processor.
If you are solely looking for a laptop to code your projects with you could use a raspberry pi, but let's be realistic
you want something nice to take with you if you get tired of the desk or office right? Well, there are a few things to consider.
If you will be doing front-end development, or game development where animation is a must, or using software like unity,
blender, or other game engines you will need something with a decent GPU, RAM, and of course a good processor. You also want to make sure you have plenty
of hard drive storage to make sure you don't lose your saved projects.
One of the issues we ran into initially, was never having enough storage for all the different websites, games, and apps we develop.
So we ended up saving everything on Github, which is nice. But if there is ever any issue. It is always nice to have copies available.
This also allows you to have plenty of templates, graphics, vectors, logos,
editing software, and other tools you may need for your projects. Imagine needing to migrate a 40GB website and you have no space left on your laptop. It's just so inconvenient.
That being said.
For my projects, I find that these laptops are both affordable and more than adequate to get the job done. For developers (not for apple testing ofc) We recommend the Acer Swift 3, which is currently running 100 off on amazon at only 629.99
and is running a Ryzen 7 processor octa-core processor, 8 GB RAM, 512 GB NVME, wifi 6, a backlit keyboard and Amazon Alexa preinstalled.
The Acer Nitro 5 15.6" Laptop with AMD Ryzen 5 4600H , NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 4GB GDDR6 RAM, 8GB DDR4 RAM, 512GB PCIe SSD, 1TB Hard drive space, a Backlit Keyboard, and Windows 10 Home is our second choice for developers.
This Acer laptop is a bit more pricy. However, this will do great for the more serious developer as the specs are geared more towards power users. If you are a tenured developer or plan to do some serious development in the coming months. This is the laptop for you.
So the laptop needs of a high school student often cross between the needs of a professional and the computer needs of a content creator. So let's talk about a couple cheap laptops for high school students.
As you know, many students are engaging in content creation, video editing and some are even taking on the task of business development and software development.
So what is the best computer for high school students? Well, we want something that will last, be durable, will be affordable and of course can run the latest games like Fortnite, halo, Skyrim Remastered(again), and other big titles.
Acer makes several tiers
of laptops ranging from $300 - all the way to just over a thousand dollars. These affordable flagship laptops are our favorite and your student will love them too. We recommend the Acer Aspire 5 slim laptop. This is best affordable laptop for high school students.
This laptop runs on a Ryzen 5 processor,
vega 8 graphics, 8GB DDR4 RAM, 512GB SSD, a backlit keyboard, and the latest version of Windows 10 Home. This laptop is currently running at only $529.00. This laptop is perfect for the new school year or a gift for the holidays.
We recommend this laptop as it is a durable mid-range laptop that can handle almost anything you can throw at it. This laptop will allow your high school student to excel in graphic editing, computer programming, video calling, video editing, writing, math, research, content creating, gaming, and of course, homework.
This particular laptop has been tested by us and we actually use this one daily, for development, keyword research, gaming, content creation, video editing, programming, video calls, and more.
Alternatively, you can also purchase a laptop from our store.
They are much more affordable, however, their functionality is a bit more basic. They are perfect for nonstem students who just need to write papers for school, stream videos, and do research for in-class projects.