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