4GB is sufficient, 8GB won't be fully used, 16GB is considered standard, because retailers have to justify the 202 5-price levels and Windows 11 requires 6GB as the (practical) minimum, which is not the practical minimum for Zorin or other distros.
| Series |
Zorin Education (8GB) |
Zorin Core (+8GB) |
Zorin Pro (+16GB) |
| Apple M |
— |
— |
Apple M3 Pro |
| 16th Gen (2025) |
— |
Core Ultra 205 |
Core Ultra 225 |
| 14th Gen (2023/24) |
Core i_ 14100 |
— |
Core i_ 14400 |
| 12th Gen |
Core i_ 12100 |
Core i_ 12600 |
12600KF |
| 10th Gen |
Core i_ 10700 |
Core i_ 10900 |
|
| AM5 (2024/25) |
— |
— |
Ryzen 9600X |
| AM5 |
— |
— |
Ryzen 8700F |
| AM5 |
— |
— |
Ryzen 7700 |
| AM4 |
Ryzen 5600G |
Ryzen 5500X3D |
— |
| AM4 |
Ryzen 5500 |
— |
— |
| AM4 |
Ryzen 3600 |
— |
— |
The newest generation in Intel is not the Core i_ 14000, but Core Ultra 200, it's the 16th generation. The lowest is the Intel Core Ultra 205, released only lately and only in some conutries, South Korea to be exact. It's on the level of Core i_ 12600 and 10900.
The next higher (or second lowest) is the Core Ultra 225. It's equivalent to the Core i_ 14400 and 12600KF, Ryzen 7700, Ryzen 8700F and Ryzen 9600X.
Going further up would be ridiculous, because these are CPU speeds considered recommended and fully sufficient for the latest blockbuster 3D action shooters, like Battlefield 6, Cyperpunk 2077. We're talking about CPU speeds that Apple calls M3 Pro, where Pro is mostly an indicator to professional graphic designers and video editing (Adobe Premiere Pro) etc.
Typical office laptops are way slower, the standard office laptop speeds are comparable to these desktop CPUs: 10700, 12100, 14100, Ryzen 3600. The Ryzen 7000, 8000, and 9000 don't have any desktop model for that anymore. I'd say, the probably best low-level desktop CPU, which is still faster than the here mentioned, is the Ryzen 5500 (AM4 socket), it's fast, standard office speed, and has a very low energy consumption during idle. (If you were to pair the Ryzen 5500 with a [not really fancy] Radeon 7600, you could comfortably play the blockbuster titles at medium settings.) The Ryzen 5500 is said to get a re-release, Ryzen 5500X3D, for Latin America due to its suitable desktop speed and low energy consumption. You probably want the 5600G, because it has an integrated graphics card, so you don't need a separate graphics card.
For Intel, you always have a graphics unit in the CPU, unless the CPU name has the F, e.g. 12600KF. For AMD, you need to check https://computercity.com/hardware/processors/list-of-amd-ryzen-processors-with-integrated-graphics for the integrated graphics unit, usually the name has G, but many names don't tell.
