The Department of Digital Art and Design requires that all students purchase their own laptop, which has enough storage space to accommodate the appropriate software and is strong enough to support their academic coursework and help them excel in the evolving technology, art, and design professions.

The following laptop options are suggested by the department, can be purchased at an educational discount, and will be supported by New York Tech's IT team.

You may be eligible to use your financial aid to purchase a computer. For more information, contact the Office of Financial Aid.

Recommended Computers

Students are encouraged to purchase a specific Dell laptop recommended by New York Tech.

Minimum Required Computer Specification

Optimal/High-End Computer Specification

Hardware and Software Requirements

Students will be required to purchase and install on their machines the software listed below once the computer has been purchased. Some students, depending on their major and courses, will be required to purchase some additional software below. If you plan on purchasing a Mac computer, please note that the required software listed before is for Windows. Note that Google Drive is available for all New York Tech students as a storage and file backup.

• Adobe Creative Cloud and Microsoft Office software are required for ALL degrees.
• Each degree and elective may require additional software, listed below.

Digital Arts, B.F.A. and Digital Art & Design, M.F.A. – Fine Arts & Technology concentration

3D Digital Art/Modeling
Autodesk Maya (Free Academic License)
Substance Painter/Designer (Free Academic License)

Game Engines
Epic Games Launcher / Unreal Engine 4 (Free)
Unity (Free Academic License)

Graphic Design, B.F.A. and Digital Art & Design, M.F.A. – Graphic Design concentration

3D Modeling/ Package Design
Tinkercad (Free; Browser Based)
Autodesk Maya (Free Academic License)

UX/UI Design & Development, M.A.

Prototyping
Sketch (Fee Based) (MacOS Only)
User Testing (Fee Based)

AR/VR
Lens Studio (Free)
Mozilla Mixed Reality (Free)
Alexa Skills Kit (Free)

Important Notes

Students must check with their advisers and instructors what software is used in their courses. Standard software for the first academic year is the Adobe CC (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, After Effects) and Maya. Students should reach out to their professors for any clarification.

Students who wish to purchase a Macbook Pro should be advised of the following issues related to owning and operating a Mac:

• The New York Tech Program Dell laptop discounted price and IT Support plan will not apply to Mac or other alternative laptop model purchased.
• To purchase an adequate and properly equipped Macbook Pro, you will also be required to incur additional initial and maintaining costs including: purchase and download of Bootcamp or VM Ware, a copy of Windows 10x64, and increased or upgraded hardware for to the PC performance equivalency.
• Purchasing a Mac laptop will not permit upgrades to any of the components in the future.
• The performance specification for the Mac will require 200% more power than the required PC. The Mac laptop will require a partition to run both Mac and PC. This splits the computers performance in half.

New York Tech IT Computer Support

Please contact the ITS Help Desk.

School of Architecture and Design Point of Contact

Common Concerns

We understand that the cost of the laptop seems high when compared to off-the-shelf models, but the specified model is planned to last the duration of the program, and to guarantee the right performances to fulfill the assignments required in your courses. The text below will help clarify the reasons to purchase a well-equipped machine from the beginning. If you have additional questions, please direct them to the point of contacts listed above for each campus location.

• Some laptops do not allow aftermarket upgrades of memory, so it is necessary to purchase a computer which will perform well throughout the program, as software updates require more memory with updates and newer versions.
• Some laptop manufacturers split storage into a small initial partition, and a larger secondary partition. A laptop must have a 512GB initial partition (the C: drive on Windows) to meet the computer requirements.
• Laptops do not allow the addition of new video hardware. In order to run all of the required 3D modeling software programs, it is important to have a computer that has a video card that meets the minimum specifications.