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Things to consider when purchasing a computer to bring to studio:

The school does not specify any particular type or brand of computer for our students. The computer can be whatever is most comfortable for you, be it laptop/desktop, Mac/ PC, OSX/Windows/Linux. It should be powerful enough to run the required software, but does not need to be top of the line. A decent desktop PC ordered from one of the major manufacturers online should cost less than $1500, including a nice sized monitor and some starter software like Microsoft Office. Avoid “big-box” retail stores, where you may be pressured to buy what is out on the shelf, rather than what you really need.

One thing that you should not skimp on is the video card. A video card with at least 128Mb (preferably 256Mb) of dedicated memory is recommended for decent performance. Inexpensive, good quality “gaming” cards like the ATI Radeon and Nvidia GeForce product lines will certainly work, but for increased performance in 2D and 3D modeling, look for an entry level graphic design-oriented card such as the Nvidia Quadro FX350 or the ATI FireGL V3600.

Your computer will also need a wireless network card, either built-in or externally connected, in order to use the campus network. The School of Architecture does not provide wired network ports for students.

Software that will be useful to have. This is not a complete list, nor do you absolutely need everything on this list. Note that new versions of some software titles come out almost yearly now, so just get the most recent version you can find. Also, look for educational versions; they are available for just about every title:

Microsoft Office
Adobe Creative Suite
AutoCAD
3D Studio Max
AutoDesk Revit (Available free from autodesk.com if you sign up)
Google Sketchup (Freely available from Google.com)

Buying a Mac:

There are several issues to be aware of when choosing a Mac. AutoCAD does not run natively on OSX. If you will be running AutoCAD, then a copy of Microsoft Windows will also need to be purchased and installed in a dual-boot environment. Also, students are not permitted to print on the large-format printers from their personal computers. Therefore all files must be made PC-compatible, and be transferred to a PC in the lab in order to print.