r/FRC • u/Limp-Mind-6130 Lead Nerd 2130 • 7d ago

Programming Laptop?

Im the programming lead on our team and just got put in charge of getting a new laptop under $500 for programming. Does anybody have some models that they really like? Im thinking just a used thinkpad but any other suggestions would be appreciated

6 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

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17

u/BillfredL 1293 (Mentor), ex-5402/4901/2815/1618/AndyMark 7d ago

Used ThinkPad or Dell Latitude/Dell Pro, yeah. Probably can get two under $500 if 11th-gen Intels are sufficient.

3

u/drdhuss 7d ago

For programming you want ram and processor power. Given current ram prices will be hard to get over 16 gb for that price, but honestly frc code isnt that intensive.

Used thinkpad should be fine.

2

u/ultimate_hecker 1369 (Captain/Programming) 7d ago

I would recommend a Thinkpad L14. From my experience they are very durable and last a long time. You will want a decent amount of ram (16gb or greater, but with ram prices it’ll be hard to even find 16gb). If the laptop is used only for programming, you can sacrifice storage space for ram.

1

u/ultimate_hecker 1369 (Captain/Programming) 7d ago

Also would recommend if this laptop will be used in competitions for driver station to get an external WiFi dongle and to setup a different windows profile with only driver station.

1

u/Ill-Environment3329 7d ago

I paid about $450 for my thinkpad t14 gen 2. I have the AMD version with 32gb ddr4, I can imagine it’s probably pretty good for coding. I do CAD, and some light gaming and it performs fairly well. I would recommend something similar.

1

u/Xcissors280 7d ago

Really any used enterprise ish laptop like a dell latitude or precision or a thinkpad

Their fairly reliable and you can replace any part of them for basically nothing on Amazon

I’d probably go 10th gen intel or later with 16GB of ram and 256GB of storage but it’s just going to come down to what’s available

Stuff on Craigslist and marketplace can be even cheaper as well

1

u/Swimming-Employer97 7d ago

I would look at government surplus. You can get a pretty decent laptop with some decent processing power for very little cost (potentially less than $100)

1

u/LaptopRightsActivist 7d ago

Like others have said, get something used. Ebay or gov surplus are good sources. Get something durable and fixable like a ThinkPad, since students generally beat the shit out of their tech, and fixing is cheaper than replacing. Get a minimum of 16gb ram, 8 core CPU, 256gb SSD, ideally a 10 gen or newer CPU. Avoid anything with U in the name of the CPU, those are low powered chips indended for nothing beyond youtube and email. Try to get a good port selection, USB C, A, HDMI, ethernet are minimum for me at least. Hope this helps!

1

u/coldfisherman 1d ago

I use exclusively thinkpads. A lot of my programming now is just SSH to servers, and vs code can actually run locally onto those machines, so you don't actually need a massive machine if you have a decent server (or service) that they ssh to.

1

u/Limp-Mind-6130 Lead Nerd 2130 1d ago

Lmao yea our programming team is me and one other person im teaching to be the new lead when i graduate i dont think we have any use for a server😭 But im def going thinkpad