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Before purchasing a new laptop to use during your journey 51¸£ÀûÉç Michigan University, please review these 51¸£ÀûÉç recommended laptop specifications. You may also use these specifications to determine if your existing equipment is sufficient.

The general recommended specifications will provide greater computing capabilities than the minimum specifications as well as a longer lifespan. Minimum specifications are designed for typical academic tasks such as email, word processing, creating presentations, taking notes, accessing and participating in Elearning, and web conferencing.

Note: Please refer to the college-specific recommendations if you will be attending one of those programs.

General

PC LaptopMinimumRecommended
CPU:i5 10th generation or neweri7 10th generation or newer
Memory:8 GB16 GB
Storage:256 GB SSD512 GB SSD
GPU (Video):IntegratedIntegrated
Camera:720p/Integrated720p/Integrated
Min screen resolution:1920x1080 1920x1080
Operating system:Windows 10 Home (Or 11)Windows 10 Professional (Or 11)
Warranty:none3 years
Apple LaptopMinimumRecommended
CPU:M1M1
Memory:8 GB16 GB
Storage:256 GB SSD512 GB SSD
GPU (Video):M1M1
Camera:720p/Integrated720p/Integrated
Min screen resolution:2560x16002560x1600
Operating system:macOS 12 MontereyLatest OS
Warranty:none3 years

College Specific

Follow the general minimum (or recommended) unless listed here.

Students in Geography, Environment, and Tourism; Geological and Environmental Sciences; Mathematics; Statistics; Data Science; and Physics should follow the general recommended requirements.

Students in the School of Communication film, video, and media studies program should get at least the general recommended requirements. A larger storage drive and/or more memory could be of benefit as well.

Follow the general minimum (or recommended) unless listed here.

Flight Sciences Students
For students progressing into specific training and licensing such as instrument and commercial flight, an iPad, 128 GB minimum, with cellular-capable is required for GPS MEMS.

Follow the general minimum unless listed here.

Design students:

 PC Laptop
CPU:i7
Memory:16 GB
Storage:512 GB-1TB SSD
GPU (Video):Accelerated, Gaming Support 1920 x 1080 resolution
Camera:720p/Integrated
Min screen resolution:1920x1080
Operating system:Windows 10 Professional/11 Pro

See the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences website for program-specific laptop requirements.
Computer Recommendations

Follow the general recommended for a PC or Apple laptop unless listed here.

Theatre Design students:

An Apple or PC laptop with an i5 CPU and at least 16 GB of memory.

Multimedia Arts Technology students:

An Apple or PC laptop with an i7 CPU and at least 16 GB of memory. An external display is highly recommended.

Product Design and Interior Design students:

Dell XPS 14 Laptop 32GB Memory i7 Intel Core, 512 GB HD, NVIDIA@ GeForce GTX 3050
or,
14-inch MacBook Pro Laptop (with Parallels for Mac), 32 GB Memory, M2 Pro,  512 GB HD

Given the adopted software for both design programs run on Windows OS, the Dell XPS Laptop is preferred.  

If the student desires to purchase the MacBook Pro they will need to purchase Parallels — a software package enabling the MacBook to run Windows OS.

wmich.edu/designinstitute

Photography and Intermedia students:

An Apple or PC laptop with an i7 CPU and at least 32 GB of memory.

Graphic Design students:

An Apple MacBook Pro with an i5 CPU and at least 32 GB of memory. An external display is highly recommended.

Kinetic Imaging students:

An Apple or PC laptop:

Apple
MacBook Pro 16-inch, M3 Max chip with 36GB unified memory or more, with a 14‑core CPU, 30‑core GPU, and 16‑core Neural Engine.

PC (3 recommended options)

  • Alienware m18 R2 Gaming Laptop, Intel® Coreâ„¢ i9 14900HX, NVIDIA® GeForce RTXâ„¢ 4090, 64 GB RAM, 8 TB SSD
  • Alienware m16 R2 Gaming Laptop, Intel® Coreâ„¢ Ultra 9 185H, NVIDIA® GeForce RTXâ„¢ 4070, 64 GB RAM, 8 TB SSD
  • PC Razer Blade 16, Intel Core i9-14900HX, GeForce RTX 4090, 32GB 5600MHz RAM, 2TB SSD. (Recommended for Game Art)

Follow the general recommended unless listed here.

Recommended

 PC Laptop
CPU:i5 U-series 8th generation
Memory:8GB minimum
16 GB recommended
Storage:256 GB SSD
Camera:720p/Integrated
Min screen resolution:1280x800 minimum
Operating system:Windows Pro or greater

An internal or external microphone is also recommended.

See the Cybersecurity program website for specific laptop requirements.
Cybersecurity Recommendations

Haworth College of Business laptop requirements:

HardwareMinimum Requirements
CPU:
  • Quad Core 2.4Ghz, Intel VT or AMD V (Intel i7 or better)
  • Intel 12th Gen i5 or i7 or above is recommended
  • Mac M1 or M2
Memory:16 GB
Disk:256 GB SSD512 GB SSD
Graphics:
  • 1920 by 1080 resolution is recommended
  • At least 1280 by 1024 resolution
  • HDMI output recommended (adapter is acceptable)
Sound:Mic in/Headphone out (either analog or free USB ports)
Mouse:An external mouse (USB or Bluetooth) is desirable
USB:
  • USB 3.0 desirable for an external disk
  • Other USB ports may be needed for: mouse, printer, mic-in and headphones-out, depending on how these are connected.
Wireless:
  • 802.11n required
  • 802.11ac is recommended
Operating system:Windows 11 or macOS 13 or above
Note on Apple Systems:MacBook Air or MacBook Pro can be used with similar hardware recommendations. Some software for certain majors may require the use of a computer lab system (in-person or remote access)
Warranty:An extended warranty is recommended
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