Hi everyone đź‘‹
I’m a final-year CS student and currently daily-drive a Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 (Ryzen 5 4600H, GTX 1650 Ti, 16 GB RAM, 256 GB NVMe SSD + 1 TB HDD). I grabbed it mainly for the discrete GPU—those 4 GB of CUDA VRAM are still enough for small PyTorch experiments in my AI/ML classes.
But I’m curious: if you had to recommend one Lenovo machine for a CS student today, which would it be, and why? Here are a few angles I’m thinking about:
Need
Why it matters in CS/AI work
≥16 GB RAM (32 GB if budget allows)
Compiling big projects, spinning up Docker containers, running VMs
Fast CPU with at least 8 threads
Long-running builds, code analysis, simulations
Dedicated NVIDIA GPU (6 GB+ VRAM)
Local model training, CUDA-accelerated coursework
1 TB+ NVMe SSD
Datasets and container images grow fast
Plenty of ports
Hackathons, projectors, on-campus labs
Good thermals & keyboard
We code for hours—no throttling or mushy keys
Decent battery + <2.5 kg
Running between lectures and labs
Some Lenovo options on my radar
Legion Pro 5/7 or Legion Slim 5: RTX 4060/4070 power for deep-learning electives
ThinkPad T-Series (T14s/T16) or X1 Carbon Gen 13: feather-light, legendary keyboard → ssh into a beefy server when you need GPUs
Yoga Slim 7 Pro/Pro X (14/16-inch): Ryzen 8000HS chips; integrated 780M graphics handle light TensorFlow work
LOQ 15: budget-friendly RTX 4050 with solid build quality
IdeaPad Slim 5 16 (Ryzen 7 8845HS): great price-to-core ratio if you can live without a dGPU
Your turn 👇
Which Lenovo laptop are you using (or would you buy) for CS?
What’s the one spec you refuse to compromise on – RAM, GPU, battery?
Any pro-tips on student discounts, campus partner deals, or upgrade gotchas?
Drop your setup, benchmark stories, Linux compatibility wins/fails, and photos if you’ve got ’em. Looking forward to hearing what the community thinks!
(And yes, I’m posting this as part of the Lenovo EDU giveaway… but let’s make it a useful thread for incoming CS freshmen too!)
— Rayen (“abysssdweller”)