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Home > Hardware > Desktop Specs

Recommended Specifications for Desktop Computers:
June 2008

The information in this document expires on June 15, 2009.

If you are planning a computer or hardware purchase in the near future, use the following table as a guide.
For computers that a Wayne State University employee will use to access Banner or Cognos ReportNet, refer to the Administrative Desktop Computing Specifications.
For online purchasing information, see the student and departmental/staff pages for links to manufacturers.

	Plan to Replace¹			Buy
Equipment	Now	Within 1 year	Within 2 years	3 year life span
CPU for PCs	Any Pentium 4 processor without Hyper Threading (HT) or Dual Core (DC) technologies	Pentium 4 with Hyper Threading	Intel Core Duo processor Pentium 4 Dual Core processor	Intel Core 2 Duo processor
CPU for Macintosh	Any Macintosh with a Power PC (PPC) processor, 1.0 GHz or less	Any Macintosh with a Power PC (PPC) processor, 1.8 GHz or less	Any Macintosh with a Power PC (PPC) processor	Macintosh computers with Intel Core 2 Duo processors
RAM	512 MB or less	512 MB	1 GB or more	At least 3 GB recommended
Hard Drive Capacity	40 GB or less	80 GB or less	120 GB or more	Serial ATA, 160+ GB, 7200 rpm
Optical Drive (CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD ± R Drive)	Any CD-ROM or any DVD-ROM or 24x CD-RW or less	Any CD-RW	Any DVD/CD-RW combo drive	16x DVD±R drive with Dual Layer (DL) capability
Display Monitor ---and--- Video Card	19 inch or more color CRT 15-inch analog LCD flat panel	Any color CRT Any analog LCD flat panel	LCD digital flat panel 17-inch or higher with DVI connector	LCD digital flat panel 17-inch or higher with DVI connector
Display Monitor ---and--- Video Card	Any video card with 64MB memory	Any video card with less than 128 MB memory Any Intel built-in video less than GMA950	Any PCIe (PCI Express) video card with less than 128 MB memory Any Intel built-in video less than GMA950	PCIe with 256MB memory, DVI connector, VGA connector if needed Avoid "shared memory" video
I/O Ports	Anything with less than 4 USB ports	Anything with less than 4 USB ports	Anything with less than 4 USB ports	More than four USB 2.0 ports, some on the front of the computer Bluetooth 2.0 if required FireWire if required ESATA if required
Audio for PCs	Sound Blaster and compatibles	Sound Blaster and compatibles	Sound Blaster Live	In general, most built-in sound chips deliver adequate performance; or add a Sound Blaster Audigy series card
Network ---or--- Modem²	10/100 Base-T Ethernet	10/100 Base-T Ethernet	10/100 Base-T Ethernet	10/100/1000 Base-T Ethernet
Network ---or--- Modem²	56 Kbps modem or less	56 Kbps modem	56 Kbps modem	A 56 Kbps v.92 modem can be included only for certain faxing applications, as a connection backup for home or when traveling in rural areas. Otherwise use broadband Internet access.
Operating System³	Windows XP or earlier Windows ME (for home use only) Mac OS X 10.2.x or earlier	Windows XP Mac OS X 10.3.x	Windows XP Mac OS X 10.4.x	Windows XP Pro SP3 or later; Windows Vista Business or Enterprise (recommended) Windows XP Home SP3 or later; Windows Vista Home or Ultimate (for home use only) Mac OS X 10.5 or later
¹ When you replace your computer depends upon the applications you use. These recommendations are for a general-purpose computer that can run the latest applications. ² Use a modem in areas where broadband is not available or as a redundant way to connect to the Internet. If you still use dial-up as the primary way to access the Internet, start exploring broadband (Cable modem or DSL) alternatives. ³ C&IT strongly recommends operating systems that have built-in firewall software because it can help avoid security compromises on your computer. Mac OS X includes a built-in firewall. For Windows computers that have 512 MB of RAM or more, we recommend Windows XP with Service Pack 3. For more information, see Use a Firewall.