These are current recommendations from the Office of Information Technology for employees who are shopping for a personal/home are listed below. There are recommendations for both PCs and Macs.
*Note, this is not a University purchase, but a helpful guide for employees who want to buy a home PC for their own use and need advice.
If you are a student looking for similar information, please see the recommendations provided by your academic college. These recommendations can be found this Knowledge Base Article.
We recommend a 15” laptop if no external monitors are being used and have listed three options based upon budget and desired computing power.
PC Recommendations
Budget:
- 15” laptop
- Windows 11 Professional
- 13th Gen core i3 processor
- 16 GB RAM
- 256 GB solid state hard drive
- Bluetooth, wireless 802.11ac
- TPM chip to support hard drive encryption
- Web cam with built in microphone
- 3 year warranty with accidental damage protection.
Mainstream:
- 15” business class laptop (Dell Latitude, Lenovo ThinkPad)
- Windows 11 Professional
- 12th or 13th generation core i5 processor
- 16 GB RAM
- 512 GB Solid State hard drive
- Bluetooth, Wireless 802.11 ac
- Back lit keyboard
- TPM chip to support hard drive encryption
- Web cam with built in microphone
- 4 year warranty with accidental damage protection
High Performance:
- 15” business class laptop (Dell Latitude, Lenovo ThinkPad)
- Windows 11 Professional
- 13th generation core i7 processor
- 32 GB RAM
- 512 GB or 1 TB Solid State hard drive
- Bluetooth, wireless 802.11ac
- Add in Graphics card
- Back lit keyboard
- TPM chip to support hard drive encryption
- Web cam with built in microphone
- 4 year warranty with accidental damage protection
Mac Recommendations
Budget Model - 13-inch MacBook Air:
- 13-inch Retina display with True Tone
- M1 processor
- 8-Core CPU
- 7-Core GPU
- 8GB Unified Memory
- 256GB SSD Storage footnote
- Magic Keyboard with Touch ID
- Force Touch trackpad
- Two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports
- AppleCare+ 3 year warranty
Main Stream Model - 16-inch MacBook Pro:
- M2 Pro Processor
- 10-Core CPU
- 16-Core GPU
- 16GB Unified Memory
- 512GB SSD Storage
- 16-core Neural Engine
- 14-inch Liquid Retina XDR display
- Three Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI port, SDXC card slot, headphone jack, MagSafe 3 port
- Magic Keyboard with Touch ID
- Force Touch trackpad
- 67W USB-C Power Adapter
- AppleCare+ 3 year warranty
High Performance Model - 14-inch MacBook Pro - Space Gray:
-
- M2 Max Processor
- 12-Core CPU
- 38-Core GPU
- 32GB Unified Memory
- 1TB SSD Storage
- 16-core Neural Engine
- 16-inch Liquid Retina XDR display
- Three Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI port, SDXC card slot, headphone jack, MagSafe 3 port
- Magic Keyboard with Touch ID
- Force Touch trackpad
- 140W USB-C Power Adapter
- AppleCare+ 3 year warranty