Beginning Fall 2010, all BFA Design Tech students and any other student taking any of the digital design classes will be required to purchase laptops. Below you will find a range of specifications that should be followed to insure the software we teach will perform properly.

For the first two years, students will be trained to use Adobe Photoshop and Autodesk AutoCAD and can get by with low end computers (specs below). In the final two years, students will be trained in Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, After Effects, 3d Studio Max as well as other programs that will require higher end computers (specs below).

The Department recommends that students purchase a minimum requirement computer for the first two years and then update to a high end computer the next two years to compensate for technological advances.

Students are encouraged to buy laptops and software from the University Co-Op'sTechnology web site. It will provide students with warranty and repair services for Dell, Apple, Sony, Lenovo, and Toshiba laptops.

Low End Laptop Specs

64-bit Windows Vista or higher

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 with SSE2 technology, AMD Opteron processor with SSE2 technology, Intel Xeon processor with Intel EM64T support and SSE2 technology, or Intel Premium 4 with Intel EM64T support and SSE2 technology; 1.8GHz or higher
RAM: 4 GB (8 GB recommended)
Hard Drive Space: 150 GB or higher
Video Card: 16-bit or higher
Video Card Memory: Direct3D® 10 technology, Direct3D 9, or OpenGL®-capable graphics card† (256 MB or higher video card memory, 1 GB or higher recommended)
Other: 3-button mouse

Macbook Pro

Boot Camp 2.0
Operating System: Windows Vista or higher (64 bit), and Mac Snow Leopard
Processor: Intel Pentium 4
RAM: 4 GB (8GB recommended)
Hard Drive Space: 80 GB for Mac partition/80 GB for Windows partition
Video Card: 16-bit video card
Video Card Memory: Direct3D® 10 technology, Direct3D 9, or OpenGL®-capable graphics card† (256 MB or higher video card memory, 1 GB or higher recommended)

High End Laptop Specs

64-bit Windows 7 Professional

Processor: Intel i7-860 (2.8GHz,8MB) or better
RAM: 8GB, 1333MHz, DDR3 SDRAM, NECC (4 DIMMS)
Video Card: nVidia Quadro FX770M, or better
Hard Drive: 250GB SATA 3.0Gb/s with NCQ and 8MB DataBurst Cache
C1, All SATA, NO RAID for 1 Hard Drive
External Hard Drive: 500GB 7200-rpm eSATA 3Gb/s (check to make sure your laptop has an eSATA port - if not you can get an Express Card/34 to connect your eSATA hard drive) or 500 GB 7200-rpm Firewire 400/800/USB 2.0
Other: Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
Optical USB Mouse
Integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet
16X DVD+/-RW or better
Cyberlink Power DVD 8.3, or equivalent (for viewing DVD movies)
Roxio Creator 10.3, or equivalent (for burning cds & dvds)
Monitor: Samsung 2333SW 23" Widescreen LCD Monitor 1920x1080

Macbook Pro

Boot Camp 2.0
Processor: 2.66GHz intel Core i7 or better
RAM: 8GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM
Hard Drive Space: 500GB 7200-rpm SATA internal primary drive
Video Card: 512MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M or better
External Hard Drive: 500GB 7200-rpm eSATA 3Gb/s (The 17" Macbook Pro is the only one that has an Express Card port - you will need an Express Card/34 to connect your eSATA hard drive); or 500 GB 7200-rpm Firewire 400/800/USB 2.0
Monitor: Samsung 2333SW 23" Widescreen LCD Monitor 1920x1080 or equivalent
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit
Optical USB Mouse

Software Purchases

Adobe CS5 Production Premium Student Version - Availible at the Uconn CO-OP

Apple Final Cut Studio, Bootcamp for all Mac computers - Availible at the Uconn CO-OP

A free student version of Auto CAD is availible through the Autodesk web site.

A free student version of Vectorworks is availible through the Vectorworks web site.

Adobe's Software Requirements

For the Adobe Suite CS5, higher end products for the Adobe Suite (AfterEffects and Premiere Pro) require a 64-bit computer. Running Photoshop will work on a 32-bit computer but AfterEffects and Premiere Pro will not install or work on a 32-bit computer. For Mac's, there shouldn't be any effect if you are already running Leopard or Snow Leopard, but they will require at least 4GB (optimally 8 GB) of RAM to run properly with AfterEffects and Premiere Pro.