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From: Office of Academic Affairs
Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2015
 
Dear Class of 2018 :
As promised, we are providing the specifications on the laptop you will need to purchase prior to the beginning of the fall semester. It is exceedingly important that you buy the correct unit for your major department so please read the information below very carefully. Also make sure to purchase a 3 year warranty with the laptop. The warranty will be less expensive than even minor repairs.

The Laptop requirements for the 2023-2024 school year have been announced!

High End Windows Laptop: 

Animation*, and Biomedical Art* majors should purchase the following:

  • Dell Mobile Precision 15 5000 Series (5520)
  • 2.9 GHz quad-core i7
  • Nvidia Quadro M1200M/4GB
  • 8GB RAM
  • 500MB hard drive
  • 3 year warranty
  • UHD display

 *(The high-End Macintosh is acceptable, though the student should be aware some software used may only be PC compatible - the student will be responsible for any lack of required software in the course).

Gaming Laptop: 

Game Design majors should purchase the following:

  • Alienware 15 R3 or equivalent
  • Quad-core i7
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 w/ 6GB RAM
  • 16GB RAM
  • 128GB SSD / 1TB HD hard drives
  • 3 year warranty
  • HD display or better

Buy Now From Dell

 

 

Midrange Macintosh: 

Ceramics, Drawing, Glass, Graphic Design, Illustration*, Interior Architecture, Jewelry + Metals, Painting, Printmaking, and Sculpture + Expanded Media majors should purchase the following: 

*Illustration majors: a Macintosh is preferred, but an equivalent Windows-based laptop is acceptable

13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display

13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display

Specifications

  • 2.9GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5
  • 8GB 1866MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM
  • 256GB Flash Storage
  • Touch Bar and Touch ID
  • Accessory Kit

System also includes:

  • AppleCare Protection Plan for MacBook / MacBook Air / 13" MacBook Pro

 

Buy Now from Apple

 

High End Macintosh: 

Industrial Design** and Photography + Video majors

should purchase the following:

 **(For Industrial Design students, the High End PC spec is acceptable, though the student should be aware some software used may only be Mac compatible - the student will be responsible for any lack of required software in the course). 

15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display

15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display

Specifications

  • 2.7GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7
  • 16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
  • 512GB PCIe-based Flash Storage
  • Touch Bar and Touch ID

System also includes:

  • AppleCare Protection Plan for MacBook Pro
Buy Now from Apple

Laptop requirement 2023-2024 Academic Year

Cleveland Institute of Art Laptop Policy

Updated April 5, 2023

All CIA students are required to have a laptop. At a minimum, this laptop should support Adobe Creative Cloud*. Specifications for laptops suitable for Adobe Creative Cloud can be found in the table below.

Adobe Creative Cloud

Minimum Hardware Specifications

Operating System Recommendation

Adobe CC System requirements webpage:

  • 13” HD display

  • 16GB RAM

  • 256GB drive or more (solid state recommended)

  • 3-year warranty

macOS or Windows

The majority of first-year digital work is centered around Adobe Creative Cloud*. Once students enter their sophomore year, they are expected to own a laptop which meets major-specific requirements, outlined in the table below.

* All CIA students are provided with FULL Adobe Creative Cloud subscriptions. Students do not need to purchase subscriptions.  Information will be distributed to incoming students before the start of the semester.

Minimum Specs Majors
  • 13” HD Display
  • 16GB RAM
  • 256GB Drive or More (solid state recommended)
  • 3-year warranty
Ceramics (macOS or Windows) 
Craft + Design (macOS or Windows) 
Drawing (macOS preferred) 
Graphic Design (macOS preferred) 
Glass (macOS or Windows) 
Illustration (macOS or Windows) 
Interior Architecture (macOS or Windows) 
Jewelry + Metals (macOS or Windows) 
Painting (macOS or Windows) 
Printmaking (macOS preferred)
  • 14.2" HD Display 
  • 16GB RAM 
  • 512GB Drive or More (solid state recommended) 
  • 3-year warranty
Photography + Video (macOS preferred)
  • 15" HD Display 
  • 16GB RAM 
  • 512GB Drive or More (solid state recommended) 
  • 3-year warranty
Life Sciences Illustration Acceptable Configuration (macOS or Windows)
Sculpture + Expanded Media (macOS or Windows, 1TB Drive preferred)
  • 15” HD Display (UHD recommended) 
  • I7 processor or Ryzen 7 CPU
  • Mac: 12-Core CPU 
  • 16GB RAM 
  • 512GB-1TB Drive or More (solid state recommended) 
  • Recommended Graphics Card: RTX 2060 
  • Minimum Graphics Card: GTX 1070 
  • Mac Graphics: 19-core CPU
  • 3-year warranty

Animation (Windows)
Game Design (Windows)
Industrial Design/Product Design Track (macOS or Windows)
Industrial Design/Transportation Design Track (Windows)
Life Sciences Illustration Preferred Configuration (Windows)

*If you use macOS, you will be able to accomplish much of what you need in Industrial Design. However, there are certain Windows-based applications that you will use in your Junior and Senior years that will only be available on CIA-owned computers (Solidworks and Alias).

Some students may already own laptops that meet these minimum requirements. Students may continue to use these laptops for as long the device continues to support their curricular needs. In this scenario, students accept the risk that their laptop may not be able to address their needs for their last year(s) at CIA.

The student should select the laptop based on their curricular needs, individual preferences between macOS and Windows, and budget.

Support, and substitutions for the standard recommendations

Personally-owned devices will not be supported by CIA Information Technology, beyond a limited assessment. Hardware issues will need to be supported by the manufacturer, which is why every standard includes a 3-year warranty as part of the requirement. Questions related to how to run software are handled either through faculty or technical specialists, or through online support from vendors.

The Equipment Checkout will continue to provide a limited number of laptops for short term loans. These laptops are not a substitution for students owning their own laptop.

If a student has a question about whether a specific laptop will be suitable for their curricular needs, they are encouraged to check the requirements webpage for the software that they expect to use most heavily. All students should plan to have a laptop that supports the Adobe Creative Cloud suite, at minimum.

 

View requirements for commonly used software:

Software System Requirements

Operating System

Adobe Creative Cloud

macOS or Windows

Autodesk (includes Maya)

macOS or Windows

Microsoft Office

macOS or Windows

Rhino

macOS or Windows

Solid Works

Windows

Substance Painter

macOS or Windows

Toon Boom

macOS or Windows

Unity

macOS or Windows

Please note that this is not a comprehensive list of all software packages used at CIA. In addition, some features or plugins for the above-mentioned software may only run on macOS or Windows, respectively. 

As of April 2021, Apple supports Boot Camp Assistant on computers running Intel processors, which allows users to run Windows on their Mac. Note that Apple is in the process of changing their processors to the M1/M2 chips, and computers using Apple silicon chips cannot use Boot Camp Assistant. While Apple’s M1/M2 chips use the latest technology, software developers are still in the process of converting their applications to be Apple silicon-naitive. In the meantime, some software applications will require a free piece of software called Rosetta in order to run.



 

 

 

If you have any questions, please contact Matthew McKenna, Associate Vice President of Information Systems + Technology, at mkmckenna@cia.edu.

 

If you have any questions, please contact Matthew McKenna, Director of Information Technology, at mkmckenna@cia.edu or 216-421-7384.

Animation, Biomedical Art, and Game Design majors should purchase the following:

Dell Precision M4800. 2.5 Ghz quad - core i7, Nvidia Qua dro K1100M/2GB, DVD - RW, 8G B RAM, 500MB hard drive, 3 year warranty.

Ceramics, Drawing, Glass, Graphic Design, Illustration, Interior Architecture, Jewelry + Metals, P ainting, Printmaking, and Sculpture + Expanded Media majors should purchase the following:

13 - inch MacBook Pro with Retina display. 2.7GHz Dual - core Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB RAM, 256GB flash storage, 3 years of AppleCare protection .

Industrial Design and Photography + Video majors should purchase the following:

15 - inch MacBook Pro with Retina display. 2.5 Ghz Quad - core Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of flash storage, 3 years of AppleCare protection.

High End PC: 

Animation*, Biomedical Art*, and Game Design majors

should purchase the following:

  • Dell Precision 15 5000 Series (5510)
  • 2.7 GHz quad-core i7
  • Nvidia Quadro M1000M/2GB
  • 8GB RAM
  • 500MB hard drive
  • 3 year warranty
  • UHD display

 *(For Animation and Biomedical Art students, the high-End Macintosh is acceptable, though the student should be aware some software used may only be PC compatible - the student will be responsible for any lack of required software in the course).

 

Buy Now From Dell

 

 

Midrange Macintosh: 

Ceramics, Drawing, Glass, Graphic Design, Illustration, Interior Architecture, Jewelry + Metals, Painting, Printmaking, and Sculpture + Expanded Media majors 

should purchase the following: 

13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display

13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display

Specifications

  • 2.7GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz
  • 8GB 1866MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM
  • 256GB PCIe-based Flash Storage
  • Intel Iris Graphics 6100
  • Force Touch trackpad
  • Accessory Kit
  • Backlit Keyboard (English) & User's Guide

System also includes:

  • AppleCare Protection Plan for MacBook / MacBook Air / 13" MacBook Pro
  • Beats Solo2 Wireless On-Ear Headphones - Black

 

Buy Now from Apple

 

High End Macintosh: 

Industrial Design** and Photography + Video majors

should purchase the following:

 **(For Industrial Design students, the High End PC spec is acceptable, though the student should be aware some software used may only be Mac compatible - the student will be responsible for any lack of required software in the course). 

15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display

15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display

Specifications

  • 2.5GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.7GHz
  • 16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
  • 512GB PCIe-based Flash Storage
  • Intel Iris Pro Graphics + AMD Radeon R9 M370X with 2GB GDDR5 memory
  • Force Touch trackpad
  • Backlit Keyboard (English) & User's Guide
  • Accessory Kit

System also includes:

  • AppleCare Protection Plan for MacBook Pro
  • Beats Solo2 Wireless On-Ear Headphones - Black
Buy Now from Apple