What hardware/software should I buy to use during my studies at UQ/ITEE?
NB: The details on this page were gathered in early 2009, and may be out of date by the time you view this page. You should consider your own usage plans and financial situation before making a decision - this is not a general advice service, merely a general guide to what will be required to complete ITEE coursework on personal equipment!
Whilst ITEE does provide facilities which you can use to complete assignments and help you to achieve your best during your studies here with us, purchasing your own equipment or software (especially personal laptops) is becoming an increasingly affordable and worthwhile option. ITEE and UQ have a number of facilities in place which students with personal equipment may use to maximise their investment. For ITEE students who do not wish to purchase a laptop and instead use the facilities provided (and even as a good idea for those who do wish to use their own equipment), the following is recommended:
- a USB memory stick (2GB sticks are under $10 now, but more would come in handy - even 32GB flash drives are selling for under $100 these days)
- some blank writeable CD media (probably a spindle pack of 50 and some cases would be useful for making archive copies, or for submissions, etc.)
The two most obvious advantages to having your own laptop at ITEE is the campus-wide wireless network (with higher speed 802.11G and wired 10/100 ethernet available in most ITEE controlled buildings) and that you have access to a number of quiet labs dedicated to students with personal equipment or the foyer on Level 2.
When it comes to hardware, it depends on what courses you're taking and what you plan to do on your personal equipment. We obviously recommend a laptop for portability, though for remote access from home it really doesn't matter. We recommend as a minimum hardware target:
- a processor running at a minimum clock speed of 1.5GHz (or equivalent for PowerPC and other chipsets which provide equivalent performance at lower clock speeds)
- 1GB of Ram
- 80GB HDD
- Gigabit Ethernet
- Optionally: Modem (to take advantage of ITS' free student internet access from home, if you don't already have broadband internet access)
- Wireless card (preferably internal, and preferably able to handle 802.11G, though 802.11B is also supported - 802.11N is not yet available, but is worth getting)
- USB ports
- CD/DVD+/-RW ("CD / DVD Burner")
- 3/4 year warranty, preferably with completecover if available for a reasonable price.
- Optionally: a printer. Mono lasers and colour bubblejets are under $100, and even colour lasers are only a few hundred these days..
All else is optional, though you may wish to go for more RAM, a larger HDD, or other options. Also recommended is the purchase of a USB memory key as per above; at least 2GB, though higher is better.
As a minimum software target we recommend:
- Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 (Mac, Linux and XP Home/XPSP2/XPSP1/XP/Vista do work in most respects, but we don't specifically test our systems to ensure these operating systems are supported) - Note, Vista has been shown to work reasonably well, and if it's too hard to get downgrade rights to XP when you buy your system don't get too worried.
- Office 2003 (2007 is available at a reduced price of $149 through ITS - though for affordability, you may use the free OpenOffice instead - just be warned it's not as compatible as some claim it to be)
- Adobe Reader 9 (free)
- An SSH2/SCP-SFTP client (PuTTY + WinSCP, both free, will work for Windows users - other OSs have equivalent software included by default)
- Appropriate antivirus software (Symmantec seems fine)
- Java (free from Sun) + any IDE's you require as part of your studies
- AS LITTLE OTHER SOFTWARE AS POSSIBLE! (Seriously, you'll kill your performance by installing large amounts of other rubbish!)
Almost as important as the recommended hardware and software is our recommendations on what NOT to buy/install. ITEE recommends strongly against purchasing or using floppy disks due to their extremely low storage density and extremely high failure rate. We are phasing out the installation of floppy drives in most of our labs for this reason (except for the special purpose machines in each lab which will still have floppy drives to enable you to read any old floppies you may have data on).
We also recommend against installing any sort of third party firewall unless absolutely necessary (specifically zone alarm, though others are usually just as problem prone). This may seem a questionable recommendation until you consider that most third party firewalls have flaws in them which render them useless and also severely intefere with legitimate network usage. The default firewall that comes with XPSP3 is more than enough for most needs and will not interfere unduly with your user experience.
We'd also like to drive home the point we made earlier in the software section: install only what you need, and as little else as possible. Installing large numbers of novelty or desktop programs, especially ones freely available for donwload on the internet is a bad idea. Most of these will at best slow your computer down, at worst infect it with spyware/adware/malware or viruses. If you must install even one of these applications (yahoo messenger and third party installs thereof seems a faily popular one that constantly causes problems) consider obtaining a copy of LavaSoft's excellent Ad-Aware software.
Finally, we'd like to recommend against installing foreign language versions of XP or software. We'd also like to recommend against installing multilanguage packs or input method editors (IMEs). Whilst these pieces of software may assist non-english speakers or english-as-a-second-language speakers to understand their computers, installing these multilanguage options will almost always cause problems with other software on your system, especially with networking or standard windows software such as browsers, editors, or IDEs. If you must install these language packs, please be aware that any problems you experience trying to connect your system to the ITEE network or working with any software required for an ITEE course will be very difficult to diagnose or fix.
One last word on support, also: we can't stress this enough: when you buy a laptop, ensure you get a 3 or better yet 4 year extended warranty. You'll be so glad you did when it blows up in two or three years time :) As an aside to this, ITEE does not provide support or assistance with problems associated with your laptop - this is why you paid for the 3/4 year extended warranty remember?! Always get your money's worth from the warranty!!