Information For

New Student Computer Requirements

Your minimum and recommended specifications, based on your major, are listed below. Please use these to decide on what laptop you should bring to Norwich for your studies. 

Below you will find the computer requirements for various programs. These are the minimum and recommended specifications that students should use to make the decision on what laptop they should bring to Norwich for their studies. You are highly encouraged to purchase a four year service plan that includes accidental damage as there are limited repair facilities in Vermont.

Select your school (majors by school listed below) if listed for specific computer requirements, otherwise, select General Requirements.

Norwich recommends purchasing from the Dell or Apple Education Stores. If you have any questions, please email Dane Abernathy at dabernat@norwich.edu.

David Crawford School of Engineering Majors:

  • Civil Engineering
  • Construction Management
  • Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • Interdisciplinary Engineering
  • Mechanical Engineering

School of Architecture and Art Majors:

  • Architectural Studies
  • Design Arts

Senator Patrick Leahy School of Cybersecurity and Advanced Computing Majors:

  • Computer Science & Information Systems
  • Computer Security and Information Assurance

School-Specific Computer Requirements

  • Operating System:
    • Windows 11 
    • macOS is NOT recommended
  • Processor:
    • Intel Core i7 or Core Ultra 7 or better
    • AMD Ryzen 7 or better
  • Memory (RAM):
    • 16GB minimum
    • 32GB recommended *
  • Storage:
    • 512GB minimum
    • 1TB recommended
  • Dedicated Graphics Card (NOT INTEGRATED):
    • NVidia RTX 3060 or higher model NVidia Required*

Notes From The Faculty: 

Civil Engineering and Construction Management students run Autodesk’s AutoCAD (system requirements) and Revit (system requirements), while Mechanical Engineering students run Dassault Systèmes’ SOLIDWORKS (Windows PC only - recommended hardware) and MathWorks MATLAB (system requirements).

Apple computers are not compatible with all engineering software and will not be able to have software used in classes installed, and should not be purchased.

 *Additional RAM and a Dedicated Graphics Card may better serve your needs if your major requires graphic-intensive software.

  • Operating System:
    • Windows 11 
  • Processor:
    • Intel Core i7 or Core Ultra 7 or better
    • AMD Ryzen 7 or better
  • Memory (RAM):
    • 16GB minimum
    • 32GB recommended
  • Storage:
    • 512GB minimum
    • 1TB recommended
  • Dedicated Graphics Card (NOT INTEGRATED):
    • NVidia RTX 3060 or higher model NVidia Required*

Notes From The Faculty

Students may also choose to purchase, or may already have, an Apple laptop  (a MacBook Pro with, at minimum, an M3 processor, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage) but students should be aware that they are often more expensive and sometimes do not support desired software! Check with your degree program admin, or adviser for assistance with making the decision.

 *Additional RAM and a Dedicated Graphics Card may better serve your needs if your major requires graphic-intensive software.

  • Operating System:
    • Windows 11 
    • macOS is NOT recommended
  • Processor:
    • Intel Core i7 or Core Ultra 7 or better
    • AMD Ryzen 7 or better
  • Memory (RAM):
    • 16GB minimum
    • 32GB recommended *
  • Storage:
    • 512GB minimum
    • 1TB recommended
  • Dedicated Graphics Card (NOT INTEGRATED):
    • NVidia RTX 3060 or higher model NVidia Required*

Notes From The Faculty:

Students may also choose to purchase, or may already have, an Apple laptop  (a MacBook Pro with, at minimum, an M3 processor, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage) but students should be aware that they are often more expensive and sometimes do not support desired software! Check with your degree program admin, or adviser for assistance with making the decision.

*Additional RAM and a Dedicated Graphics Card may better serve your needs if your major requires graphic-intensive software.

  • Operating System:
    • Windows 11 
    • macOS Sonoma or higher 
  • Processor:
    • Intel Core i5 or Core Ultra 5 or better
    • AMD Ryzen 5 or better
    • Apple M2 or better
  • Memory (RAM):
    • 16GB minimum
  • Storage:
    • 512GB minimum
    • 1TB recommended

Notes from the Faculty:

Students may also choose to purchase, or may already have, an Apple laptop  (a MacBook Pro with, at minimum, an M2 processor, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage) but students should be aware that they are often more expensive and sometimes do not support desired software! Check with your degree program admin, or adviser for assistance with making the decision.

How to check if your computer meets requirements

Look at the logo that appears when your computer starts up. If you see a Windows logo, you're running Windows; if you see an Apple logo, you're running macOS. 

  1. Windows

    1. Select the Start menu
    2. Select Settings
    3. Select System
    4. Select About
    5. Under Windows specifications, you can see the version and edition of Windows 
    6. Under Device specifications, you can see the system type, which indicates if your device is running a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows.

  2. Mac

    1. Click the Apple menu
    2. Select About This Mac
    3. You can see the version of macOS you're running

Use the Task Manager, Control Panel, or Settings.

  1. Windows

    1. Right-click the taskbar and select Task Manager
    2. Select the Performance Tab
    3. The processor name and speed will be displayed next to the "CPU"

  2. Mac

    1. Click the Apple icon in the top-left corner of your screen
    2. Select About This Mac
    3. The Processor information will be displayed on the Overview tab.

Open the Task Manager and navigate to the Performance tab. You can also open the System Information tool. On a Mac, you can click the Apple icon and select About This Mac.

  1. Windows

    1. Open the Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc or right click on the task bar.
    2. Select the Performance tab
    3. Choose the Memory view from the left navigation panel
    4. View your RAM speed and other details

  2. Mac

    1. Click the Apple icon in the upper-left corner of the screen
    2. Select About This Mac
    3. In the Overview tab, you'll see a list of specs, including the amount of memory currently installed.

  1. Windows

    1. Click the Start menu
    2. Select Settings
    3. Select System
    4. Select Storage

  2. Mac

    1. Open the Apple menu
    2. Select System Settings
    3. Select General
    4. Select Storage