It is highly recommended that all freshmen engineering students purchase laptop computers. 

Laptop Computer Requirements for Summer/Fall 2024 and spring 2025 Entering Engineering Students

 

Good Engineering Laptop:

Overview

• This laptop will meet the minimum requirements
• This laptop will be outdated quickly and may only be good for 1-2 years.
• Products like AutoCAD, MATLAB and other engineering software will load and run but will take more time to complete their operations.

Specifications

• Processor – Intel Core i3 or Core i5 (12th-gen or newer), or AMD Ryzen 3 or Ryzen 5 (5000-series or newer) 
• Operating System – Windows 10/11 64-bit
• Memory – 8 GB
• Hard Drive – 256 GB SSD (SATA based with 350-500 MB/s read and write speeds)
• Video Card – Integrated or dedicated graphics card with 2-4 GB video memory
• Display – 13" display with 1600x900 resolution or higher (touchscreen optional)
• Warranty – 1 or more years, 7+ days turn around

 

Better Engineering Laptop:

Overview

• This laptop will meet the minimum requirements.
• This laptop will likely be outdated and may only be good for 2-3 years.
• Products like AutoCAD, MATLAB and other engineering software will load and run normally. 

Specifications

• Processor – Intel Core i5 or Core i7 (12th-gen or newer), or AMD Ryzen 5 or Ryzen 7 (5000-series or newer)
• Operating System – Windows 10/11 64-bit
• Memory – 12 GB
• Hard Drive – 500 GB SSD (SATA based with 350-500 MB/s read and write speeds)
• Video Card – Dedicated graphics card with 4-6 GB video memory
• Display – 15" display with 1920x1080 resolution or higher (touchscreen optional)
• Warranty – 1 or more years, 7+ days turn around

 

Best Engineering Laptop:

Overview

• This laptop will exceed the minimum requirements but will not be "top of the line"
• This laptop will likely be outdated after 3-4 years but will continue to function very well into years 4 and 5.
• Products like AutoCAD, MATLAB and other engineering software will load quickly and process data quickly.

Specifications

• Processor – Intel Core i7 or Core i9 (12th-gen or newer), or AMD Ryzen 7 or Ryzen 9 (5000-series or newer)
• Operating System – Windows 10/11 64-bit
• Memory – 16-32 GB
• Hard Drive – 500 GB - 1 TB NVMe M.2 SSD recommended or SSD (SATA based with 400-550 MB/s read and write speeds)
• Video Card – Dedicated graphics card with 6-8 GB video memory
• Display – 15"-17" with High Definition 1920x1080 resolution or Ultra High Definition 3840x2160 resolution (touchscreen optional)
• Warranty – 1 or more years, 7+ days turn around