Heading off to college or university as a first-year student can be very intimidating and stressful. Sure, there is excitement, as you’re about to begin your path to what will hopefully be a successful career, but first, you need to get through school successfully. Studying and hard work will be necessary, but for first-year computer science students, there is also a list of essential must-have tech gear that will make your life a whole lot easier.
Here are the items you’ll want to add to your must-have list.
A Laptop Offers Function and Portability
Because you will want your computer available to you in class as well as at home, a laptop is usually the best option for computer science students. The good news is that today’s laptops can rival desktops in terms of processing power, memory, storage, speed and other important features. Check out these laptops for computer science students to get an idea of the technology available today.
Keep in mind any device you choose needs to be able to handle the complex tasks that you’ll be completing, which means you need a high-end processor and hard drive, long-lasting battery life and at least 16GB of RAM.
External Accessories Increase Laptop Ease-of-Use
While a laptop offers lots of benefits, it can also be lacking in some areas. Although they come with a built-in trackpad, web camera, speakers and microphone, they aren’t usually top-of-the-line. There’s also the fact that the trackpad isn’t always comfortable or intuitive to use. A few simple accessories for your laptop can boost its functionality and comfort level substantially.
The top external accessories worth picking up are:
- Wireless mouse
- Wireless speaker(s)
- Microphone
- Wi-Fi enabled webcam
All of these are very reasonably priced nowadays so there’s no need to break the bank.
An External Hard Drive Provides Storage Space and Peace of Mind
Another must-have item for computer science students is an external hard drive. These provide two extremely important uses. The external hard drive vastly increases storage space and gives you peace of mind, as you can back up all your files to the hard drive. This means if anything happens to your laptop, you’ve got your files saved in a separate location.
When shopping for an external hard drive you want to purchase at least 1TB worth of storage space, but you may be safer with 2TB. It comes down to the file types that you’ll be saving and how much space they eat up.
Blue Light Blocking Glasses Make Studying More Comfortable
Finally, why not buy a little eye gear that can make long hours in front of the screen more comfortable? Blue light-blocking glasses are a relatively new technology and trend and are excellent at reducing eyestrain. And it’s not just your laptop that you can use them with; it’s any device such as your desktop, tablet, smartphone and even the television.
Picking up each of these items means you’ll have all the essential tech gear that will help you to succeed in your first year as a computer science student.
