The School of Industrial Design requires students coming into the school to have adequate tools to fulfill program requirements.
Below, we have provided examples of recommended (high-end) versus adequate laptops to show a range of configurations for both Windows and macOS systems. Please note that any Apple product should be ordered online as the in-store systems might not have enough memory.
Windows Computer
Example of a recommended and certified Solidworks-compliant computer:
| Dell Precision 7680 Series Workstation | $4,389.00 |
| Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-13850HX vPro® | |
| Video Card: NVIDIA® RTX™ 4000 Ada Generation | |
| Memory: 32GB, 1x32GB 5600MT/s CAMM, non-ECC | |
| Hard Drive: 512 GB, M.2 2280, Gen 4 PCIe x4 NVMe, SSD | |
| Other Company Recommendations with similar specs would be Asus, Lenovo, HP, MSI | |
| Tax (13%) | $570.57 |
| Total | $4,959.57 |
Example of an alternative good graphics-oriented computer:
| DELL XPS 15 Laptop | $2,899.99 |
| Processor: 13ᵗʰ Gen Intel® Core™ i7-13700H | |
| Video Card: NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4070 | |
| Memory: 16 GB, 2 x 8 GB, DDR4, 3200 MHz | |
| Hard Drive: 512 GB, M.2, PCIe NVMe, SSD | |
| Tax (13%) | $377.00 |
| Total | $2,975.99 |
Notes:
The recommended computer has a Solidworks-certified graphics card. The alternative computer has a very good graphics card that has not been tested by Solidworks, which is less of an issue for students (since they tend to work on smaller assemblies and files) and saves money. Solidworks lists all certified graphics cards at http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/videocardtesting.html.
When selecting a Windows computer, please make sure its specifications are equal to or higher than those of either system listed above.
Apple Computer
Recommended Apple Computer:
| MacBook Pro (M-Family) | $3,249.00 |
| Processor: Apple M3 Pro chip with 12‑core CPU, 18‑core GPU and 16‑core Neural Engine | |
| Video Card: Integrated | |
| Memory: 18GB unified memory | |
| Hard Drive: 1TB SSD storage | |
| Tax (13%) | $422.37 |
| Total | $3,671.37 |
Alternative Apple Computer:
| MacBook Air (M-Family) | $2,199.00 |
| Processor: Apple M3 chip with 8‑core CPU, 10‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine | |
| Video Card: Integrated | |
| Memory: 24GB unified memory | |
| Hard Drive: 512GB SSD storage | |
| Tax (13%) | $285.87 |
| Total | $2,484.87 |
Notes:
Neither of the Apple MacBook systems above are fully Solidworks compliant and certified. Many students and faculty run MacBook Pros of similar configurations with no issues.
Solidworks requires that you also install Windows 10/11 on the computer using Parallels software. The University/SID does not cover the subscription cost for Parallels software. Standard Edition can be purchased with a student discount for $59.99 here.