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Need on advice on picking desktop computers for a CS shop

Question

I'm a high school teacher in a programming and web dev shop in the US and we're at the point where we need to buy new computers for the shop. I think that we are being very irresponsible with how we have been doing this, so I'm trying to slowly change minds that are pretty set in stone.

At the moment, we buy 20 laptops every 3 years. They're usually pretty good ones, but they're just basic hp models. I hate laptops though. Our students don't move around that much to justify them in my opinion and that's really their only major perk. Our enrollment has been dropping the last couple years and I think part of the reason is that our shop doesn't look like a CS shop. My thought is that flashy gaming computers would impress freshmen more than tiny basic laptops(yes it's vain but we're trying to attract teenagers...that sounds a lot more weird than it really is. We want them to pick our shop over electrical engineering or architecture and engineering or business technologies)

Normally, we spend about $2000 per laptop. I want to pitch this desktop to the admin to purchase 10 of them(I get 10 junior/seniors at a time, the other teacher gets 10 freshmen/sophomores). We have 1920x1080 monitors already. The specs on this desktop look pretty solid and the reviews are okay.

My questions about it would be:

A) Is ABS a solid brand? We usually buy HP, so I want to make sure the brand is reputable.

B) Are the specs good? We program apps, build web sites, develop some video games using Unity.

C) How long should I expect these desktops to last before being updated? I'm guessing I can just replace the hard drive after a couples years if the students fill them up

Desktop in question

Posted Jun 17, 2026, 11:33 AM UTC

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