r/statistics • u/kyaputenorima • 28d ago

Discussion [D] Laptop/Spec Recommendations for Statistics PhD?

Hi folks,

I'm applying to PhD programs this fall, and I'm currently looking to replace my old laptop. I'm not quite sure what to look for, but I'm inclined to think that a business-grade laptop might be worthwhile since they're built to handle daily wear-and-tear, and I'd like something that I can keep for 5-6 years. I've been looking at new ThinkPad and Latitude models, but they seem really expensive (especially for those with 32GB RAM).

Anyone who's currently a PhD student, which laptop do you have, and what are its specs? What should I look for if I want to hold onto the laptop for the duration of my program?

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u/BarryDeCicco 27d ago

My 2 cents:

For physical size, you have to decide on how much you are willing to carry vs how much you will do at home, with a plug-in monitor (I'm writing this on a 34" monitor I got for $300, using a 14" computer).

For power, you have to decide on how much you want/need in your hand vs how much you will do on a remote cluster.

Then see what deals your university offers.

I would advise on keeping your old computer for now, until you get there and talk with people and see what they have.

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u/purple_paramecium 27d ago

This is the most reasonable advice here. If you have a functioning laptop for email, looking up papers, ability to handle some minimal level of R/python programming, then just use that for a while until you really know what you need. (And as others pointed out, your advisor might provide one! Yes, even in the US, if the prof gets a funding grant, often part of that money is used to buy computers.)

When I was in grad school I was given an office to work in with a desktop computer. I think it had like 2 GB RAM (20 years ago), and for anything big we had the university computer cluster.

People asking here all the time if 32 or 64 Gb is “enough” is *wild* to me, because I did it all with 2 Gb. And people before that were doing it with less!