Computing guidance: recommended equipment and technical specifications

Some courses will make use of online teaching and learning. If this applies to your course, it's important that you have a suitable study environment and adequate equipment.

What you'll need

A laptop or desktop PC is recommended with either an up-to-date version of Windows or macOS. See below for more detailed requirements.

Operating systems

  • MacOS X with macOS 10.7 or later
  • Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.4 or higher
  • iOS 7.0 or later
  • iPadOS 13 or later
  • Android 4.0x or later

Other technical requirements

  • Processor: Dual Core 2Ghz or higher (i3/i5/i7 or AMD equivalent)
  • RAM: 4GB

Screen size

The screen of your device should have a resolution of at least 1024 pixels horizontally and 768 pixels vertically.

Additional equipment

An appropriate work area with a supportive chair is important.

You will need a microphone, speakers or headset and a video camera. Inbuilt cameras, microphones and speakers are fine, although if you are going to work in a noisy environment, a headset with integrated microphone would be best.

Internet connection

You will need good connectivity via a reliable, stable broadband connection, preferable using Wi-Fi rather than mobile data. This should provide at least 2.5Mbps (upload speed) 10 Mbps (download speed).

SPEEDTEST allows you to check the speed of your current connection.

Web browsers

Any modern browser will be suitable for most activities.

However, it is best to avoid using Internet Explorer, as this can cause problems when using some of the University's systems. Functionality may be limited on mobile devices.

Recommended browsers

  • Firefox 27+, Chrome 30+
  • Mac: Safari 7+, Firefox 27+, Chrome 30+
  • Linux: Firefox 27+, Chrome 30+

Installing software

Your laptop/desktop will need to be able to run commonly used software such as Microsoft Office 365 and Zoom.

Some activities may have specific software requirements. For this reason, you will need to be able to install and run additional software on your device.