Student Personal Laptops

Owned by Garrett Yamada (Unlicensed)
Last updated: May 06, 2022 by Oscar Reyes (Unlicensed)
3 min read

Introduction

The College of Architecture requires all students to have a personal laptop. This laptop is required to perform classroom activities based on the courses taken. As of the Fall 2005 semester, all incoming students in the College of Architecture are required to possess a laptop computer.

Personal Laptop Support

IT will provide assistance in connecting to college of architecture resources, including network connectivity, access to networked file storage, and printing resources. IT staff and student workers are not responsible for any loss of data or functionality while assisting the students in connecting to university/college resources.

The Texas A&M Division of IT Help Desk can provide hardware/software support. For more information please refer to their web pages for Help Desk Central and Getting Help.

Laptop Hardware Recommendations

Overview

Congratulations new Aggies! We're excited for your new journey ahead of you. To help in your success, the College or Architecture has put together a list of generic requirements for your laptop. Because there are so many models and possible configurations of laptops in the market today, we are only able to make minimum hardware recommendations for your laptop at the moment.

Minimum Hardware Requirements for all College of Architecture students:

  • Intel i7 processor 7th generation or higher (This is the brain of the computer. The faster the speed, the faster it can process data/projects.)

  • 16 - 32 GB of RAM or more (The RAM is the computers “working” memory. RAM allows a computer to work with more information at the same time, which usually has a dramatic effect on total system performance. The more RAM a computer has, the more efficient it will be while running large programs such as AutoCAD for projects.)

  • 256 - 512 GB storage Solid State Drive (SSD) or more (the more storage a computer has, the more projects, documents, etc. you can store. SSD storage will allow a computer to turn on and open projects significantly faster than traditional HDD storage but tends to be more expensive.)

  • Graphics Card GTX 1650 or Quadro P2000 equivalent or better. 

  • Screen Resolution 1920 x 1080 or better (A higher resolution will allow projects to fit on the screen more effectively.) 

  • Webcams are strongly recommended, per the University BYOD guidelines.

Architecture Majors

To help you with getting a great start to the semester, the university has implemented a new Bring Your Own Device policy requiring students to have access to technology for online and remote delivery. The Department of Architecture is providing further recommendations based on specific computing needs for the major. Please refer to the attached information when considering purchasing a computer. Please study the list as it provides the specifications of computer and software options that would ensure the best value in relation to expected performance, especially for classes starting the sophomore year. Please be aware that no student will be denied admission to Texas A&M University based on an inability to purchase a computer. Financial aid is available to assist students with a computer purchase. Students with need should contact the TAMU Financial Aid Office. Additionally, students can request emergency aid to help purchase the required technology.

Construction Science Majors

In addition to the requirements for all College of Architecture students, Co-Sci majors are also recommended additional requirements of:

  • Not a macOS laptop (most of the software used in Co-Sci industry is not compatible with macOS. It is possible to load Windows on a Mac via Boot Camp but the hardware found in Mac laptops is often not sufficient for the needs of the software.)

  • Discrete graphics (the additional graphics chip provides the processing power required by industry standard software. The more RAM this chip has, the better it'll be able to handle large, complex models. Nvidia chipset is recommended.)

Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning Majors

To see recommendations specific to the department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning, download their recommendations by clicking here.

Visualization Majors

To see recommendations specific to the department of Visualization, download their recommendations by clicking here.

Vendor Hardware Discounts

Various computer hardware vendors offer academic discounts to students of institutions of higher education: