To ensure the best possible experience here at Notre Dame, ESC recommends that your laptop has the following minimum configuration:
Hardware and OS (Operating System)
- Windows Laptop
- Intel Quad Core i7 or higher is preferred (AMD equivalent Ryzen 7)
- 16GB RAM
- 512GB of SSD or NVMe storage
- Physical spinning disk (i.e. SATA) is not recommended
- Microsoft Windows 11 Pro (preferred) or latest version of Windows 10 Pro (22H2)
- Home edition is not recommended. It is possible to upgrade from Home to Pro later by purchasing an upgrade license from Microsoft.
- Apple Mac Laptop (Note: Some software needed for your work may not be available for MacOS *)
- Apple M1 (or higher) processor
- 16GB RAM
- 512GB of SSD Storage
- Latest MacOS version
We do not recommend a Chromebook, as the Chrome OS will not allow you to utilize many of the services provided here at Notre Dame.
* Note: Many Engineering courses utilize resource-intensive applications or applications (ex. Solidworks, Autodesk Civil 3D, Autodesk Maya, others) which perform better with higher-end hardware or that only run on Windows. In lieu of running these applications on your laptop, ESC provides access to these applications in physical computer labs and virtualized computer labs (ex. Amazon Appstream).
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us at eschelp@nd.edu
Thank you!!