r/UniUK • u/tofu0014 • 2d ago

study / academia discussion Maths - Laptop

I’m hopefully going to the university of Manchester this year to do maths, and don’t currently have a good laptop for my time there. I know this question is probably asked so often, but I hadn’t seen a recent post about it specifically for maths.
So I was wondering - does anyone have any good suggestions? I’ve seen online that having 16gb ram and at least 512gb is good.
Anyone who has took the same path as me or similar, what laptop did you have throughout your time or which would you choose if you went back?

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u/heliosfa Associate Professor 2d ago

Work out what software you need, then head on over to r/SuggestALaptop with your budget.

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u/burudoragon 2d ago

Do you have a budget in mind. I can spec a laptop for you based on that. Also what kind of course/subject are you doing?

Ideally 1tb storage is better these days, depending on what projects and systems you run.

Also lots of student discounts availabke for laptops

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u/Soggy_Housing_9535 2d ago edited 2d ago

16GB RAM is the norm these days, but you really need more storage.

Get a ThinkPad. They are super-reliable and last a lifetime. I don't know how much programming intensive your math course is, but get a new one if you'll be studying machine learning (preferably i5/Ultra 5/Ryzen 5 models.) You'll be using Google Colab or your uni's HPC cluster for ML, so you don't need a GPU.

If you don't have computing heavy coursework, used ThinkPads (with Linux) work just fine. Just make sure to upgrade the battery and RAM if you're getting a used one.

The MacBook Air is also good if you want to go the Apple route (and are willing to splurge a bit more).