Windows Professional

Colleges & Universities A-Z Georgia Institute of Technology
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<p>So I went to Best Buy the other day to look for laptops, and the guy I was talking to said that Tech requires all of its students to have the windows professional operating system on it. Is this actually true? If it is, it totally screws up my first choice computer because by changing the operating system I would be voiding the warranty :/</p>

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<p>No, he doesn’t know Tech policy. GT’s recommended OS is “Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium or Professional” or “Apple Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or better” The recommendations and requirements are here: <a href=“http://www.sco.gatech.edu/downloads/SCO_2011_Final.pdf[/url]”>http://www.sco.gatech.edu/downloads/SCO_2011_Final.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Also, changing operating systems does not void a hardware warranty.</p>

3

<p>I had this same question when I came to Tech.</p>

<p>I had ordered my laptop, but only found out afterwards that I did not have a recommended version of windows vista listed on the OIT website. I have Vista Basic or something like that. </p>

<p>The thing is, I have never once ran into a problem using this version of the Vista system even though it is not listed on the OIT website as recommended. Really, as long as you are running windows Vista or windows 7, you should not run into any problems (regardless of the version of the operating system). Just make sure your operating system is compatible with MATLAB, AutoCAD, and whatever else you may need for your major (I’m assuming you are in an engineering discipline).</p>

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<p>I talked to a direct employer from the company I’d be buying the laptop from (Lenovo), and he said that changing the operating system would void the warranty on it :confused: I dunno.</p>

<p>But anyway, thanks guys! Right now the specs on the computer I’m thinking of getting are:

  • 2nd generation Intel® Core™ i5-2410M Processor ( 2.30GHz 1333MHz 3MB )
  • 4GB memory
  • 500 GB hard drive
  • 13.3" screen
    … yeah, I feel like that’s the important stuff? Is this going to be compatible with MATLAB and CAD? I’m sorry if these seem like ignorant questions, but when it comes to computers I’m basically in the dark. Oh, and yes, I am going to be majoring in an engineering discipline.</p>
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<p>Also, just out of curiosity, how necessary is an optical drive? And is a 250 GB hard drive enough to get me through college?</p>

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<p>Those specs will be fine.</p>

<p>250GB should be more than enough. I have a 250GB internal hard drive and have filled about 10GB of it with school related files. I would suggest getting an external hard drive to store school files on. </p>

<p>You are going to want an optical disc drive. However, I can’t imagine a commercially manufactured laptop not having one these days.</p>

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<p>He probably meant that they won’t offer any software-related technical support for another OS. If your hard drive fails after a week, they have to replace it regardless of OS. I would talk to him again and double check that.</p>

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<p>If you’re going to use an external HDD, save to your laptop and backup to the external drive. External drives fail more often than people realize.</p>

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<p>Yes, back up everything and do so on a regular basis. My hard drive died one year during dead week and because I had regular, complete backups, the process of having it replaced was stress free. I have had friends who have lost whole projects or other critical files… that is not a position you want to be in.</p>