Engineering Computer & Calculator Requirements

Laptops

All engineering students must have a laptop computer and reliable internet access.

ComponentMinimum

Better

(Recommended)

Top Level

(Best for computationally-intensive software)

Screen Size13 inches15-16 inches17+ inches
Processor Speed

2.6 GHz or fater

(Typical: AMD Ryzen 7, Intel i7-9750)

5.1 GHz or faster

(Typical: AMD Ryzen 9, Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX)

5.1 GHz or faster

(Typical: Intel i9)

RAM

8 GB or more

(should be upgradable, not soldered on)

16 GB or more32 GB or more
Hard Drive512 GB SSD or more1 TB SSD or more2 TB SSD or more

Typical Built-In Graphics Card

(See below)

NVIDIA GTX 4050 or 4060, 8GB VRAMNVIDIA RTX 4090, 16GB VRAMNVIDIA RTX 5080, 16GB VRAM

Operating System

(See below)

WindowsWindowsWindows

Graphics Cards

Laptops with "integrated graphics" run the display from the CPU and are not sufficient to run required CAD software. You should select a computer with a dedicated graphics card (GPU), with its own separate, dedicated memory (VRAM).

Operating System

Students must use Windows; Mac computeres are not recommended for Maritime Colelge engineering students. Many of the required applications are not available on MacOS, and Maritime College faculty and staff are unable to provide technical support for MacOS.

  • In instances where the software is available on MacOS, the interface may look very different from that of the Windows version, and instructional materials are only provided for Windows.
  • Students who prefer a Mac must select one with at least 16 GB RAM and a 512 GB hard drive. You can run Windows on a Mac in one of two ways:

IMPORTANT NOTE: The newest Macs currently run the Apple Silicon M4 chip. Though they will run Windows in Boot Camp, often they will not run Windows CAD graphics applications such as Rhino. This is because the Apple Silicon M4 chip is an ARM (Advanced RISC Machine) chip, which is not supported by this software for graphics through Boot Camp. Again, Macs are NOT recommended. (Apple has scheduled the release of the M5 chip for their latest computers in fall 2025.)

Example Laptops - May 2025

Below are some examples of suitable laptop computers; these are suggestions only, there are many others. Note that specifications, availability, and pricing change constantly.

Minimum

Better (Recommended)

Top Level

Calculators

Basic SCientific Calculators

Only the models listed below are allowed for many lower-division math and science courses. Students may not use a programmable graphing calculator for these classes.

  • Texas Instruments: all TI-30X and TI-36X models (any Texas Instruments calculator must have "TI-30X" or "TI-36X" in its model name)
  • Hewlett Packard: HP 33s or HP 35s models, no others
  • Casio: fx-115 or fx-991 models (any Casio calculator must have "fx-115" or "fx-991" in its model name)

Programmable Graphing Calculators

Upper-division engineering courses allow students to use any of the following graphing calculators.

  • Texas Instruments: TI-83 Plus or TI-84 Plus
  • Hewlett Packard: HP-50g Graphing Calculator