3 Best Computers for High School Students Reviewed

Computers for High School Students Compared

What Features to Look for?

When looking for the best computers for high school students, you can go about it in two ways:

1. For Coursework

If you want a computer that is decent enough for all kinds of high school coursework in your period from 9th to 12th grade, then you don’t need an expensive PC.

All you need is an up to date PC that is capable of handling multitasking, word processing, research work, and occasional use of software with relative ease.

As such, here we would recommend that you aim for at least an Intel Core i3 from the 8th or 9th generation. You can also go for the AMD equivalent from the AMD Ryzen 2 and Ryzen 3 series.

You can also look into computers with Intel Pentium processors. These are cheaper and should be able to handle all sort of high school work, especially the Intel Pentium G series.

However, we would recommend that you stay away from Intel Celeron or Intel Atom series.

2. For Advanced Skill Building

If you are a skillful and a creative high school student with a knack for exploring all kinds of newer software out there, then you need a fairly powerful PC.

Of course, by “powerful PC” we  DO NOT mean that you invest in a high end system with an Intel Core i7 processor since they are expensive and not viable for high schoolers.

However, we do recommend that you look in to Core i5 processors preferably with a dedicated graphics card.

A Note on Desktop Vs Laptops for High School Students

Laptops certainly have their advantage: they are mobile so you can work on them from anywhere.

However, in comparison to desktops, they also have a fair share of disadvantages.

For starters, laptops are expensive if you compare them with a desktop of the same category.

Secondly, their hardware is less powerful (again if you compare in the same price range).

Take the Core i5-8400 desktop-based processor and Core i5-8250U laptop-based processor from the 8th generation.

The desktop-based variant is 40% better in performance. On top of that, a desktop featuring a Core i5-8400 would be priced almost the same, if not cheaper, than a laptop with Core i5-8250U.

Thirdly, laptops offer very limited expansion. Desktops, can be upgraded and expanded fairly easily.

List of Best Computers for High School Students in 2021

We have selected the following desktops as the top options in this category.

1. Acer Aspire TC-885-UA91 – Recommend PC Excellent for All Coursework

If you want to save up as much as you can, then we recommend this as one of the best computers for high school students.

For starters, know that this is not the cheapest PC in the market. There most certainly are cheaper still PC that offer Core i3 processors from older generation or offer weaker processors from the Intel Pentium or Intel Celeron series.

This, however, offers the latest Intel Core i3-9100 from the 9th generation. This is not a weak processor at all. In fact, it should last for your entire period in high school fairly easily.

It is quite capable for handling not just your average school work, but also much more.

Besides a decent processor, one of the best features it offers is the 512 GB SSD drive.

If you are not aware of different storage technologies, SSDs are far superior than conventional HDDs. They are faster and thus ensure a smoother performance across the board.

Furthermore, this PC offers a decent 8 GB of DDR4 RAM that is more than enough for the heaviest multitasking requirements.

Finally, it comes equipped with all sorts of peripherals including keyboard, mouse, WiFi, optical drive and plethora of connectivity options.

Unfortunately, since this is not an AIO PC, you will have to invest in a monitor and a webcam separately.

2. Acer Aspire TC-885-UA92 Desktop – Powerful PC with Core i5

Next we have a computer that has the same form factor as the Acer Aspire TC-885-UA91 above.

However, what separates this PC is the more powerful hardware configuration.

Instead of offering an Intel Core i3 processor, this PC offers the powerful desktop based Intel Core i5-9400 hexa core processor. On top of that it offers 12 GB of DDR4 RAM and a decent 512 GB of SSD.

As you can see, this is a fairly powerful system. It is certainly more powerful than what a high schooler would need for average school work.

So who is it for?

This computer is basically for high school students who love to explore new digital hobbies.

As we mentioned earlier, high school is a time of creativity. If your creativity revolves around exploring new and demanding software like Adobe Photoshop, After Effects, etc then you need a computer that is capable.

Basically, this is one of the best computers for high school students who aspire to further their prowess in the digital space.

3. CyberpowerPC GXiVR8060A7 – Gaming PC for Enthusiasts

Finally we have the most powerful PC and also the most expensive one in this list.

This is a gaming PC from all angles. If you aren’t aware already, even a budget gaming PC is far more advanced than a high end conventional PC.

As such, this is a PC that would appeal to a very small fraction of the high school students.

This will appeal to either gamers, or those who work on software on a professional level.

For starters, this PC does not have mundane looks like we saw on the options above. This is far more lively. It has RGB lights, glass panel chassis as well as color accents all over the place.

This is something that would appeal to gamers and enthusiasts.

In addition to the looks, it also offers a highly specialized hardware.

It offers the Intel Core i5-9400F which has the same CPU performance as the Intel Core i5-9400. However, the former does not include an integrated Intel UHD 630 graphics card.

The reason is simple: why have an integrated graphics card when you have a dedicated graphics card already. Thus the processor saves cost.

Speaking of which, this gaming PC offers the NVIDIA GTX 1660 dedicated graphic card which in terms of performance lies somewhere in between GTX 1060ti and GTX 1070.

The graphics card has a whopping 6GB of VRAM and thus should be able to handle large textures not just on gaming but also on software.

It offers a decent 8 GB of DDR4 RAM – which can be expanded, 120 GB of SSD and a 1 TB of HDD.

Here are the benchmark results for this PC.

The system also comes equipped with a gaming keyboard as well as a gaming mouse with 4000 DPI optical sensor.

In the end, this is an expensive PC however, it is one of the best computers for high school students who are gamers, enthusiasts or all out software protégé.

Conclusion

In this article we had a look at the some of the best computers for high school students currently on the market. In addition to that, we also looked at what features to look for in a computer in this category.

Again, here we only talked about the desktops. If you are interested in laptops, visit this page.

In short, a good high school computer would facilitate the high schooler not just in schoolwork but would also enable them to expand on their digital hobbies.

High school is a time of learning great new abilities, skills and exploring new hobbies. While some pickup sports, others may pickup designing, editing, programming etc.

If you fall in the later category, then you need a robust computer. However, if you just want a computer that is sufficient for the coursework in your entire high school period, then you don’t need to invest in a high end PC at all.