Laptop for a computer science major?

[Uknowitbro]

My mother is buying me a laptop for me as I am going into college as a computer science major next year. I really want to make a smart decision with the money she is spending for me and don't want to spend money on unnecessary specs.
The best bang for the buck I found is this laptop...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834266056

It's got the 8gb of ram which I would prefer over 4gb, an i5 processor rather than an i3 or amd, and a 256gb ssd rather than an hdd for only $420.00

Do you guys believe this computer is a good deal and will work well for this major, and if not can you give me another recommendation?

 

[GreyCatz]

My mother is buying me a laptop for me as I am going into college as a computer science major next year. I really want to make a smart decision with the money she is spending for me and don't want to spend money on unnecessary specs.
The best bang for the buck I found is this laptop...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834266056

It's got the 8gb of ram which I would prefer over 4gb, an i5 processor rather than an i3 or amd, and a 256gb ssd rather than an hdd for only $420.00

Do you guys believe this computer is a good deal and will work well for this major, and if not can you give me another recommendation?

You seem to have hit a home run with this one, bro. It's always a bit awkward spending someone else's money on yourself, especially your mother's. But this one you can definitely justify given your background details.

A few caveats: If you intend to use this laptop until graduation day, you may want to find out about the educational/professional software you'll be expected to use (compilers, databases etc.) A dual-core Skylake i5 is a very capable CPU but I don't know the recommended specifications for the software you'll come across over the next few years.

Also, if at any point during college you decide to play games, the Intel HD 520 IGP will handle games like League of Legends and World of Warcraft, and that's about it.

Cheers,
GreyCatz.

 

[Uknowitbro]

My mother is buying me a laptop for me as I am going into college as a computer science major next year. I really want to make a smart decision with the money she is spending for me and don't want to spend money on unnecessary specs.
The best bang for the buck I found is this laptop...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834266056

It's got the 8gb of ram which I would prefer over 4gb, an i5 processor rather than an i3 or amd, and a 256gb ssd rather than an hdd for only $420.00

Do you guys believe this computer is a good deal and will work well for this major, and if not can you give me another recommendation?

You seem to have hit a home run with this one, bro. It's always a bit awkward spending someone else's money on yourself, especially your mother's. But this one you can definitely justify given your background details.

A few caveats: If you intend to use this laptop until graduation day, you may want to find out about the educational/professional software you'll be expected to use (compilers, databases etc.) A dual-core Skylake i5 is a very capable CPU but I don't know the recommended specifications for the software you'll come across over the next few years.

Also, if at any point during college you decide to play games, the Intel HD 520 IGP will handle games like League of Legends and World of Warcraft, and that's about it.

Cheers,
GreyCatz.

I didn't think anyone was going to reply so thank you so much for your input.
Much appreciated!