Students are expected to have their own laptops in the Engineering School. Any computer that meets the requirements of the selected Major are acceptable. Engineering IT recommends that you consider warranty, accidental damage, and storage needs when making a decision.
Here are some guidelines:
MS Windows 11 (64Bit) Any version)
- Processor
- Minimum - 6 Cores
- Intel Core i5 (12th Gen or newer)
- AMD Ryzen 5 (5000 Series)
- Recommended
- Intel Core i7/i9 released 2024 or later (14th Gen or newer)
- AMD Ryzen 7 / Ryzen 9
- Minimum - 6 Cores
- RAM
- Minimum - 16GB
- Recommendation - 32GB or more
- Hard Drive - Solid State Drive (SSD) 512GB or larger
- Graphics (GPU)
- Minimum - Integrated
- Recommended - Discrete/Dedicated - NVIDIA RTX 4050 or above
- Processor
Apple OS - Current Version or one version behind
NOT RECOMMENDED for Civil or Mechanical Engineering Majors
- Processor
- Minimum - M3
- Recommended - M4 or above
- RAM
- Minimum - 16GB
- Recommendation - 24GB or more
- Hard Drive
- Solid State Drive (SSD) 512GB or larger
- Processor
Newer style processors, derived from phone technology (ARM: Qualcomm SnapDragon.) - Not recommended.
Some of the software you need for your courses may not be compatible with ARM. These systems rely on emulation to run x86 applications, which can slow down performance or cause problems. We hope this situation improves as more hardware vendors adopt ARM processors and more software vendors rewrite their applications to run natively, but for now, we cannot recommend this route.
Warranty and Accidental Damage Coverage
School of Engineering does not provide dedicated student "labs" and students are required to have a laptop. Cavalier Computers is an authorized service center for Apple, Dell, HP, Microsoft and Lenovo. They also offer rentals. The decision for additional warranty coverage should be considered. The Cav Program offers a built in rental option if repairs are needed.