This is only a recommendation. The best way to know exactly what you need for your program is to talk to your professors. We advise students to not purchase a computer until they get here and see what they really need.
System Recommendations for Student Computers
- Vista-Capable laptop*
- A Core2 Duo processor (anywhere from 1.8GHz on up)
- At least 4GB ram
- 100GB hard drive
- Wireless networking
- Windows XP operating system**
- Microsoft Office
- Two USB flash drives for quick and easy file transfer between laptop and CAE computers, as well as backing up files.
*We generally recommend the purchase of a laptop for most students since this allows them to take the machine to class for note taking as well as the library for research projects, etc
**The recommendation for Windows XP over Vista is due to compatibility with other software currently running on campus. The university will not be switching to the Vista operating system yet until we can insure that our applications all function properly in this environment.
Having a single machine which will meet all of your needs for the full four years is difficult to guarantee. During the first two years, you will be taking a variety of general education courses in addition to courses within the major, and most of the general education courses will only require the use of the Office Suite from Microsoft. Within the major, there are courses which can be completed using the laptop (such as most of the programming courses) and others such as circuit design for which you will need to use specialized software installed in the computer labs.
Later in the program you will need to use more and more specialized software, perhaps including the installation of other OS's such as Linux, and if you decide to switch majors along the way (such as a move to computer science) the machine requirements will increase.
