School of Design + Construction
Student Resources
Windows
All certified students are required to have computers that meet certain specifications. SDC’s computing infrastructure is Windows-based and all software/class instruction is given on Microsoft Windows-based computers.
- Processor Intel Core i5 or i7, gen. 3 or newer (Quad core i7 recommended);
- Intel Xeon E7 or newer;
- Memory 8 GB or more (12+ GB recommended);
- Storage 128 GB (256+ GB recommended / SSD drive recommended);
- Operating System Windows 8.1 64-bit;
- Video Adapter (integrated Intel graphics cards do not provide adequate performance);
- Nvidia GeForce GT 650 or newer (Nvidia based card recommended);
- AMD Radeon HD 7790 or newer;
- Video Memory 1 GB or greater (2+ GB recommended);
SDC Computer Requirements Information Sheet (revised requirements coming soon).
MAC
Students utilizing MAC based computers need the following:
- Host Operating System & Hardware type Mac OS X “Yosemite”;
- MacBook Pro 10,1 (Early 2013) or newer;
- Memory (RAM): 8GB (Boot Camp) or 16 GB (Parallels / VMware Fusion);
- CPU Type 2.7 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 or newer (Parallels);
- Hard Drive 256 GB (500+ GB recommended / SSD drive recommended);
- Video Adapter: AMD Radeon R9 M390x, Nvidia GeForce GT 650 or newer;
- Video Memory 1GB ( 2GB recommended);
- Windows Virtualization Requirements: Virtualization Software: Parallels Desktop 10 or VMware Fusion 7 or newer;
- Virtual Machine Requirements: Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-bit, 8GB+ RAM, 512MB+ of Video memory, 100GB+ dedicated hard disk space for Windows and applications.