CoE Home | students | wireless |

Laptop Purchasing Guidlines

The following information is provided to assist you in making your purchase. Please note that all laptops are required to have wireless network adapters.

Virtually all the software you will need for your classes will be available to you either free or at a substantial discounts through campus channels. We do not recommend that you pay any extra money for bundled or shrinkwrapped software such as Microsoft Office.

Recommended minimum hardware specifications for new purchase
(if you have any questions, contact support@engr.oregonstate.edu)
PC
(strongly recommended for most engineering applications)
Mac
(Must be able to run Windows either through Boot Camp, Parallels,Virtual Box or other solution)
Intel Core 2 Duo, AMD Turion X2 or 2GHz Intel Centrino
2GB RAM
Microsoft Windows Vista ( XP or Windows 7 are acceptable for new laptop purchases)
802.11g/n wireless
Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB RAM
Apple Mac OS X and/or Windows XP
802.11g/n wireless
Getting Software For Your Laptop
  • Obtaining Software for Personal Computer or Laptop
  • Microsoft Developer's Network Academic Alliance
  • OSUWare CD
  • OSU Bookstore

    •  

    *Windows Required for Many Engineering Applications*

    Note that many departments will require you to run software that is Microsoft Windows only.

    If you choose to purchase an Apple laptop, please ensure that you are ready to run Windows programs either through virtualization software such as Parallels or VMWare, or with Apple Boot Camp.

    Note on Netbooks, notebooks, and mini-notebooks: These devices are very popular right now, but please understand that they are ill-suited and even incapable of running many high-end engineering applications because of lack of processing power and sub-standard video support.

    Other Laptop Purchase Options: