Student-Owned Computers

STUDENTS:  It's not really necessary to spend a few thousands dollars on a computer. You can get a computer for less than $1,000.  Buying a computer with enough RAM (memory) should be your first priority.  Buying a good graphics (video) card and fast CPU speed are also important priorities.  The remaining specifications, (hard drive, size of LCD monitor, etc.), will not affect the quality of your computing experience, but may be important in your buying decision.

Recommended Specification for Laptop and Desktop Computer:

Sufficient for everday use: email, webcam, web-browsing, spreadsheets, word processing, watching a movie, playing some games, listening to music, simple video and graphics editing and more.

- 2 or 3 GB RAM *

- Graphics card, 256 MB or more, by NVIDIA, Radeon or Intel's latest model

- Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz and higher **

- At least 40 GB Hard Drive ***

- DVD / CD burner drive. (Blu-Ray drive is optional)

- Widescreen Flat Panel LCD, 20-inch or higher

- Integrated (built-in) webcam is recommended. If not, a webcam with USB connection is fine.

* 2 or 3 GB RAM is really sufficient for 32-bit operating system, (Windows and Linux). 4 GB is still fine with 32-bit but it will only allocate up to 2.5 GB RAM and the remaining is left unused. The 64-bit operating system, (Windows, Mac OS X or Linux), performs better with 4 GB and more.

** For lengthy and heavy use of video editing, video effects, 3D renderings and video compressions, go for Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme CPU, (single or dual CPUs). When this is paired with either NVIDIA's or ATI's latest graphics card, the experience with 3D graphics in games is much enhanced.

*** Windows Vista requires at least 15 GB of available space. Mac OS X Leopard requires at least 10 GB. Linux, (provided freely by Ubuntu, openSUSE, Fedora or Mandriva,) requires at least 4 GB.