Laptop for pursing a Major in Cyber Security

keven0044714

Honorable
Feb 18, 2013
1
0
10,510
I'm a freshman in college getting a major in Information Technology. I'm on my journey pursuing a career in Cyber Security. I want to buy a laptop good for programming (Java, C/C++, disassemblers, and assembly language, Python). I would assume that the most important part of a laptop for programming. would be the processor and ram. But I'm not sure what laptop I should purchase. $500-$800 is my budget. Obviously, the cheaper the better. If you guys have any suggestions let me know.

Thanks
 

coozie7

Distinguished
Jun 2, 2007
16
0
18,570
Where do you live? The Dollar sign covers plenty of countries and prices vary wildly according to location.
I'm no expert in laptops, but in the desktop world you'd want a decent quad cored CPU and 16Gb of RAM, the quad for multitasking and the memory to give the CPU some breathing room, but I doubt you'll need an i7, an i5 would be plenty, but I'm ready to be corrected here.

And, from the Department of Obvious Suggestions: Please get yourself a good, strong backup system, HDD, USB drive/s, tape storage or an external HDD to secure your work, even if you have to purchase a less capable main system to do so. If I loose a drive it's 'ho hum I have to reinstall my games' but you know full well your system will go down days before your Finals because Murphys Law says it must be so.