Recommended Manufacturers
Williams purchases PCs from Dell. We have found them to be reliable machines and when warranty hardware service needs to be performed Dell technicians will come to campus. Other brands will work on our network, but we recommend Dell, with a secondary choice being IBM/Lenovo. Many computer vendors provide educational discounts. These discounts can be several hundred dollars, so be sure to take advantage of them.
Williams students, faculty, and staff can get a special discount on 2 Dell models that OIT recommends. To get the discount, you must use this Premier Dell Auto-Login. This is a direct link to our recommended models and provides customization and purchase options.
Hardware Configurations
Recommended specifications for new PCs.
| Desktop |
Laptop |
| Dell Optiplex 755 (small form factor) |
Dell Latitude D630 |
| Intel Core 2 Duo (not 64 bit) |
Intel Core 2 Duo |
| 2GB of RAM |
2GB of RAM |
| 160 GB SATA hard drive |
80 GB hard drive |
| 8x DVD+/-RW |
8x DVD+/-RW |
| at least 64mb video card |
Wireless a/g or b/g card (a/g is better) |
| Windows XP Professional (NOT VISTA) |
Windows XP Professional (NOT VISTA) |
We do not currently recommend Vista on the Williams network. Our Novell Netware file space is not accessible with it. We strongly recommend coming with Windows XP and upgrading to Vista (if so desired) next year - the upgrade options from XP Pro to Vista are fairly inexpensive.
Minimum specifications for old PCs:
| Desktop |
Laptop |
| 1.4 GHz Pentium 4 |
1 GHz Pentium 4 |
| 512 MB of RAM |
512 MB of RAM |
| 40 GB hard drive |
20 GB hard drive |
| CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive |
CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive |
| 10 Base-T network card |
10 Base-T network card |
| Windows XP Pro |
Windows XP Pro |
Network Card
Modern computers have a network card built in to the motherboard and almost all laptops have wireless so it is unlikely you will need to purchase network devices. Please DO NOT bring a wireless router to campus. Williams is fully wireless and unauthorized wireless devices cause significant interference.
Configuration of the computer for the Williams network will be done after your arrival on campus. There will be technicians to assist in this process prior to the start of classIt can also be done on your own by following the simple instructions on our FirstDays webpage.
