To complete your studies at the School of Engineering you will need a computer that can handle the work you'll be doing. Here are some suggestions for a 'minimum' and 'recommended' specification for your computer.

Minimum Specification

Recommended Specification

Operating System	Recommended Windows 10 Home or Pro (64-bit)
Productivity tools	Microsoft Office 365 is available to undergraduate students for use on personal devices whilst they study at Warwick
Processor type	Intel i7 series (8th generation or newer) or AMD Ryzen 7 series, 4 GHz or greater, 8 or more cores
Memory	16GB DDR4
Storage	500GB SSD (higher capacity is recommended)
Graphics Card	Dedicated graphics card (4GB RAM or higher)

Windows, MacOS or Linux?

The university supports all three architectures to varying levels, with the most support being offered for Microsoft Windows operating systems. If you wish, you can use MacOS or Linux for your studies, but some of the software used in the School of Engineering is available on Windows only. This will mean you will need to virtualise Windows within MacOS or Linux using VMware in order to run the software. VMware Workstation/Fusion is available to undergraduate students on an annual licence for use on personal devices whilst they study at Warwick.

NOTE - At present the Apple Silicon (M1 processor) is not supported by VMware. Until support is available for the new chip set we advise not to buy a Apple device with this hardware

Please note that, while using a virtualised operating system your computer will be ‘sharing’ resources between your virtualised operating system and your native operating system. The amount of resources your computer shares with the virtualised system is configurable, but you will need a computer with higher specifications to run the systems simultaneously. To meet the various software requirements we advise that your Apple device meets the equivalent of the recommended specification or higher if the option is available.

Components Explained

Following is a brief explanation of what each component of the computer does, so you can more adequately gauge the purchase you would like to make.

Processor (CPU)

CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the primary processing unit in your computer. A better CPU will generally mean better performance across the board.

Memory (RAM)

RAM (Random-access memory) is memory that programs use while they are running. The more RAM you have, the more programs your computer can have open or running concurrently. Most laptops can take a maximum of two sticks of RAM and a laptop with 16GB of RAM may be sold with either one 16GB stick or two 8GB sticks. It's generally recommended to find a laptop with one 16GB stick so that you have another RAM slot free should you want to install more RAM.

Storage

In terms of storage, you can either get a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or Solid-state Drive (SSD). Most new laptops will come with an SSD as it is considerably faster than an HDD and should have a longer lifespan. Having more storage means being able to install more programs on your computer and being able to save more media and files. We strongly recommend you buy a laptop with an SSD.

GPU

GPU (Graphics processing unit) is a dedicated processor for graphics. Laptops will either come with 'onboard graphics' or a dedicated graphics card. A dedicated card will give you far better graphics performance, but most of the programs you will be using do most of their processing through the CPU. Onboard graphics will run most programs just fine, but some CAD programs may benefit from the presence of a dedicated card.