SCS Laptop Requirement
The School of Computer Science requires that you have a laptop that meets recommended hardware specifications. These hardware recommendations will allow you to have a laptop that is equipped for your Computer Science courses.
Please note the laptop requirement will only apply to any students who are physically taking courses on campus. At home, a desktop computer meeting the laptop specification is adequate.
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Everyone enrolled in a COMP course is required to have a laptop. This includes COMP 1001, 1005, and 1006. Students are expected to retain this laptop for use in subsequent years until the completion of their studies. Not all upper-year courses will require a laptop in class. For those that do, it will be noted in the course outline.
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PC or MAC laptops with the following minimum specifications:- CPU: AMD Ryzen line or Apple M-chip or Intel i5/i7/i9/Xeon
- 8 GB or more of RAM
- 256 GB or larger hard drive (SSD drive recommended)
- wireless networking (WiFi)
- camera, mic, and audio
- current Windows, MacOS or Linux operating system
Computers such as Netbooks, Chromebooks, Smartphones or atom processors are not suitable for the Computer Science program
For the details on laptop requirements refer to:
Tip: Looking to purchase a new laptop for the Computer Science program? Check out this helpful page so you can find the right one: Shopping for a new laptop for the Computer Science program -
The following stream requires specialized hardware:
Computer Game Development Stream
The Computer Game Development Stream requires a Windows laptop and a GPU
The Computer Game Development Stream will be using DirectX that runs on Microsoft Windows. The laptop must include a GPU suitable to run recent PC games. There are no other requirements.
Laptop Requirement Links
- Laptop Specifications
- Laptop Support
- Laptop Operating System
- Shopping for a new laptop for the Computer Science program
- Software Installation
- System Settings and Backups