With the upgrade plans underway on the campus to have Windows 10 and Office 365, the perspective from IT Services is to determine what hardware specifications are needed for computers to handle all the tasks thrown at them. We know that many people are editing large documents and working on many tasks at once. Most industry reference documentson this topic will give you the minimum required assets a computer needs just to run Windows 10, not what’s required for an office or student environment.
The “life” of an upgrade is usually 3-4 years, so it’s important that the specifications will be sufficient for this span of time. Here is what we are recommending for the varied computer environments here at the University of Windsor:
- Memory: 8 GB of RAM for 64-bit computers. [32-bit computers will run Windows 10, but not to user’s satisfaction in most work situations.]
- Processor: A multi-processor CPU is best (Intel Core i5 or i7, AMD equivalent). These types of processor are also better for laptops where battery use time or temperature is a concern.
- Mobile devices: Laptops and tablets must have a TPM (Trusted Platform Module) chip/program to ensure hardware-based device security. Protection, authentication and data integrity is more urgent with devices that can go wherever you are. BitLocker drive encryption can be complimentary to TPM, especially when used as an integrative solution for data security.
We have secured discounted pricing for the campus which is available through the Dell punch out catalogue in UWinsite Finance.
We have also created several recommended configurations which are ready for quick delivery from Dell.