Welcome > Laptop Recommendations

Hardware Requirements

Backup Drive

You will be learning amazing things during your time at NSS. However, with great power comes responsibility. You will be pushing your laptop harder that you ever had before. You may also spill water or coffee on your laptop while in class. You may drop your laptop. You may inadvertantly run a command that permanently deletes very important files that make your operating system work.

Because of these common issues that students have, we strongly urge you to buy a backup drive for your laptop to ensure that you don’t lose the investment you’ve made in your computer and your time at NSS.

Buying a Laptop

Having the right laptop will make a difference in your experience at NSS. It’s important that you follow these guidelines for machine specifications.

C# Cohort

Windows Laptop for C#

It is recommended that you get a laptop with the Windows operating system in you are enrolled in a C# cohort. Minimum specs are as follows.

• Memory

  8GB minimum
  16GB preferred

• Hard drive

  512GB minimum

• CPU

  Intel i5 minimum
  Intel i7 preferred

• Operating System

  Windows 10 or 11

Mac Laptop for C#

If you already own a Mac and want to use it for the course, it must meet the following, minumum specifications.

• Memory

  16GB minimum

• Hard drive

  512GB minimum

• CPU

  Intel i7
  Apple Silicon (M1, M2, or M3)

• Operating System

  Monterey or Ventura

Python Cohort

Mac Laptop for Python

It is recommended to have a Mac if you are in a Python cohort.

• Memory

  8GB minimum

• Hard drive

  256GB minimum
  512GB preferred

• CPU

  Intel i7
  Apple Silicon (M1, M2, or M3)

• Operating System

  Monterey or Ventura

Windows Laptop for Python

The Windows operating system will easily work for a Python cohort, but setup and configuration are more difficult.

• Memory

  8GB minimum

• Hard drive

  256GB minimum
  512GB preferred

• CPU

  Intel i5 minimum
  Intel i7 preferred

• Operating System

  Windows 10 or 11