Difference between revisions of "IAM Recommended Computers"

Revision as of 15:58, 19 July 2007

General Software Info

Most of the software that we use in the IAM department is cross platform so the whole Mac PC thing really doesn't matter. Of course there are exceptions.

Platform Specific software

Apple

• Final Cut Pro
• DVD Studio Pro

PC

• 3DStudio Max (Game Animation Major)
• Sound Forge (IAM Major Sound for Interaction MTD2)
• Acid(IAM Major Sound for Interaction)
• Adobe Premier Pro (IAM MTD2)
• XNA Game Studio Express (Game Design Major)
• TorqueX (Game Design Major)
• Visual Studio 2005 (IAM Major/Game Design Major Intro to Programming)
• MS MSQL Managment Studio (IAM Major Data Design)

Plan on installing boot camp (parallels or other visualization software usually cannot handle the 3D apps) is you get an Apple and you should be all set.

Software

You can see a list of all the software currently installed in the labs on the IAM Computer Labs page.

Students and Faculty get harware discounts from Apple and Dell.

Students and Faculty also get discounts on software. http://www.colum.edu/Discounts/index.php

The IAM department is a member of Microsoft's MSDN Academic Alliance program so students and faculty can get free Microsoft products. See the MSDNAA Page for more details.

Columbia Student discounts

IAM Major

Apple Laptop

MacBook Pro 15 inch

• 2.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
• 16GB 1600MHz memory
• 512GB PCIe-based flash storage
• AMD Radeon R9 M370X with 2GB GDDR5 memory
• 15-inch Retina display

PC Laptop

Dell Inspiron 15 inch

• 2nd Generation Intel Core i5-2410M processor 2.30 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 2.90 GHz
• 15.6" High Definition (720p) LED
• NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 525M 1GB graphics with Optimus
• 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory
• Up to 750GB SATA hard drive (7200RPM)

Apple Desktop

iMac

• 4.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
• AMD Radeon R9 M390 with 2GB video memory
• 16GB (two 8GB) memory
• 1TB Flash Storage
• 27-inch with Retina 5k

Mac Pro Quad-Core

• One 3.7GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5 processor
• 12GB 1866MHz DDR3 ECC memory
• 1TB PCIe-based flash storage
• Dual AMD FirePro D500 with 3GB GDDR5 VRAM each

PC Desktop

Dell Studio XPS 7100 Quad Core

• AMD Phenom™ II X6 1055T processor
• ATI Radeon HD 5670 1GB graphics card
• 6GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM
• 1TB - 7200RPM, SATA hard drive

Game Design Major

Apple Laptop

MacBook Pro 15 inch

• 2.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
• 16GB 1600MHz memory
• 512GB PCIe-based flash storage
• AMD Radeon R9 M370X with 2GB GDDR5 memory
• 15-inch Retina display

PC Laptop

Dell Studio XPS 17

• 2nd generation Intel Core i7-2630QM processor 2.0 GHz
• 6GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 (You need a 64-bit OS to access over 3.5GB of RAM)
• 500GB 7200 RPM SATA hard drive
• NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 550M 1GB graphics with Optimus

Apple Desktop

Mac Pro Quad-Core

• One 3.7GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5 processor
• 12GB 1866MHz DDR3 ECC memory
• 1TB PCIe-based flash storage
• Dual AMD FirePro D300 with 2GB GDDR5 VRAM each

PC Desktop

Dell Studio XPS 9100 Desktop

• Intel® CoreTM i7 930 (2.8GHz/8MB cache)
• 8GB3 Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz
• 1000GB4 SATA hard drive (7200RPM)
• 1024 (MB) ATI HD6770 Radeon
• Onboard sound is sufficient
• Onboard networking is sufficient

Game Design Major Animation

Game Animation is graphics intensive so it helps to get a computer with powerful graphics card.

We recommend a Desktop with either an ATI FireGL™ 3D and FireMV™ or NVidia Quadro video card. These cards are crazy-expensive, but essential if you plan on being a professional animator.

PC Laptop

ThinkPad W520 Mobile Workstation 15 inch

• Intel Core i7-2620M Processor
• NVIDIA Quadro 1000M Graphics with 2GB DDR3 Memory
• 4 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)
• 320 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
• 15.6" (1366 x 768)

Dell Precision T5500 64bit Dual Processor

• Dual Quad Core Intel Xeon Processors 2.13GHz (64bit)
• 6GB, DDR3 RDIMM Memory
• 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s,7200 RPM Hard Drive
• 2.5GB NVIDIA Quadro 5000