Picking a new computer

Owning your own computer is not a requirement of any of our courses because we operate laptop lockers at all our teaching locations that can be used anywhere on that site, and desktop PCs in open access and technical areas.

That being said, it is more advantageous to have your own computer as it gives you flexibility about when and where you can study as all our courses are .

If accessing your own laptop is financially difficult for you, you may be able to access limited funding through the hardship fund which kicks off after the start of each year.

If you are specifically looking at a Windows or Linux computer you may get better value from purchasing a desktop computer for home use, then taking advantage of the large number of PCs and MacBook Pro laptops that are available on campus during and between classes.

~~UAL Diploma in Apple Development~~
~~Students studying on UAL Diploma in Apple Development you should choose a Mac as the Apple software development tools only work on macOS.~~

~~BSc Creative Computing~~
~~In year 2 of this course the unit "Coding Four: Collaborative App Development Studio" has previously focused on macOS development which due to the tools Apple provides is only possibel on macOS.~~

~~There are modifications planned from 2023/24 academic year which will broaded the remit of app development.~~

Recommended specs

This information was updated Summer 2023 for the 2023-24 academic year.

Mac

If you are you are looking to purchase a new Mac we recommend the MacBook Pro 14" with M2, however if you need to save a bit of money the MacBook Air 14" with M2 is similar.

The main difference being it has no cooling fans which means as it gets hotter the computer will slow down to avoid overheating, which on longer workloads can be an issue.

At the time of writing, Apple is still selling the previous MacBook Air and Pro 13" with the M1 chip which is also a good option.

Memory: Make sure you buy a computer with at least 16GB RAM.

MacBook Pro 13" with M2

	A	B	C
Processor	10 core	12 core	12 core
Graphics	16 core	19 core	19 core
Neural	16 core	16 core	16 core
Memory	16GB	16GB	16GB
Storage	512GB	512GB	1TB
Price with discount	£1,989	£2,299	£2,479

MacBook Air 13" with M2

	A	B
Processor	8 core	8 core
Graphics	8 core	10 core
Neural	16 core	16 core
Memory	16GB	16GB
Storage	256GB	512GB
Price with discount	£1,329	£1,629

AppleCare+ 3 years	MacBook Air 13" with M1	MacBook Pro 13" with M1
Price with discount	£175	£183

Around August/September each year Apple will run the Apple Back to School deal which in addition to the discounted prices above will include some kind of free giveaway, this has been gift cards or AirPods in the past.

PC Laptop

Generally we're pretty big fans of Dell (XPS, G Gaming, or Alienware) and Razer brand computers, however there is a large market and you should pick whats best for you, the following specs give you an idea of what to look for...

Check for USB-C charging and display connection as plug in stations at CCI all use this.

	Minimum	Recommended
Processor	Intel i5 10th, 11th or 12th generation processor	Intel i7 12th or 13th generation processor
Graphics	See info below!	Any NVIDIA RTX 3xxx series GPU
Memory	16GB	32GB
Storage	512GB	1TB or better
Display	13" 1080p	27" 1440p (QHD) or 2160p (4K)

Minimum graphics
The minimum graphics required will depend on the course, if you are studying areas including machine learning, data science or 3D you should try to obtain any NVIDIA RTX 3xxx series GPU or higher.

PC Desktop

At CCI we primarily use Dell computers can't really fault them for their value, reliability and performance, elsewhere in UAL we also use HP.

	Minimum	Recommended
Processor	Intel i5 10th, 11th or 12th generation processor	Intel i7 12th or 13th generation processor
Graphics	Any NVIDIA RTX 3xxx series GPU	NVIDIA RTX 4xxx series GPU
Memory	16GB	32GB
Storage	512GB	1TB or better
Display	24" 1080p (FHD)	27" 1440p (QHD) or 2160p (4K)