Student Laptop Recommendations
Hardware and OS (Operating System)
Updated for Fall of 2026
- Windows Laptop
- Intel Quad Core i7 or higher is preferred (AMD equivalent Ryzen 7)
- 16GB RAM minimum, 32GB or higher preferred
- 512GB minimum (1TB preferred) of SSD or NVMe storage
- Physical spinning disk (a.k.a "HDD") is not recommended
- Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
- 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: A large portion of the software needed for your work may not be available for MacOS *)
- Apple M3 (or higher) processor
- 24GB RAM, 32GB or higher preferred
- 512GB of SSD Storage
- Latest MacOS version
* Note: Many Engineering courses utilize resource-intensive applications or applications which perform better with higher-end hardware or that only run on Windows (ex. Solidworks, Autodesk Civil 3D, Autodesk Maya, others). Many MacOS applications are not as full-featured as their Windows editions (ex. ChemDraw, Microsoft Excel). In lieu of running these applications on your laptop, the University provides access to most of these applications in physical computer labs and virtual computer labs (AWS Appstream). Note that applications, in general, do not perform nearly as well in a virtual environment vs. a local install.
For a centralized guide to the technology resources such as financial assistance available to current, prospective, and incoming University of Notre Dame students and their families, see the following KB Article: Student Technology Resources.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us at eschelp@nd.edu