Recommended Specifications for Desktop Computers

The information in this document expires on July 11, 2010

  Plan to Replace1 Buy
Equipment Now Within 1 year Within 2 years 3-4 year life span
CPU for Windows PCs Any Pentium 4 processor lacking Dual Core (DC) technology
 Pentium 4 with Dual Core (DC) Intel Core Duo processor Intel Core 2 Duo processor

FSB (Front Side Bus): 1333 MHz for desktops; 1066 MHz for laptops

L2 Cache memory: 6 MB or more
CPU for Macintosh 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 Duo processors Macintosh computers with Intel Core 2 Duo processors
RAM 512 MB or less 1 GB 1 GB or more 4 GB recommended
Hard Drive Capacity 40 GB or less 80 GB or less 120 GB or more Serial ATA, 160+ GB, 7200 rpm; Solid State Disk only if required by application
Optical Drive

(CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD ± R Drive)		 Any CD-ROM or any DVD-ROM

or

24x CD-RW or less		 Any DVD-ROM

Any CD-RW		 Any DVD/CD-RW combo drive 16x DVD±R drive with Dual Layer (DL) capability;

Blue Ray Drive only if required by application
Display Monitor

 ---and---

Video Card		 Any CRT monitor

Any analog LCD flat panel over 3-years old 		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
Any video card with 64 MB 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 X3100 		Discrete graphics capability

PCIe with 256 MB memory or higher,
DVI connector, VGA connector if needed

ATI, NVIDIA, or Intel GMA4500
I/O Ports Anything with less than 4 USB ports

Anything not conforming to the USB 2.0 specification		 Anything with less than 4 USB ports Anything with less than 4 USB ports Six or more USB 2.0 ports, some on the front of the computer for desktops; 2-4 USB ports for laptops (dependent on form factor)

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

or built-in audio		 Adequate performance with built-in sound chips (in general).

Optional: 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 (Gigabit) Ethernet
56 Kbps modem or less 56 Kbps modem 56 Kbps modem A 56 Kbps v92 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

Operating System recommendations will be adjusted in November 2009 to reflect the current state-of-the-art

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 Vista Enterprise with SP2
(recommended)

Windows XP Home SP3 or later; Windows Vista Home or Vista Ultimate with SP2
(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 Only 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 with built-in firewall software to 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.