Computer Equipment Purchase Recommendation

These are only recommended for students in the BA Production Track and/or the BFA.听

Students are not required to have their own computers for video editing, as there is always access to a computer lab with all needed software and programs. However, it is recommended to purchase a laptop or desktop that has editing capabilities.听

An external high speed hard drive and professional headphones will be required in all post-production courses.

See below for specific equipment recommendations.听

Macintosh

  • Desktop
    • Recommended: Studio M4 with at least 30 GPU cores. at least 32 GB RAM
    • Minimum: Mini M4 10 GPU cores 24GB RAM
  • Laptop
    • Recommended: MacBook Pro 16" 14 core 32 GPU cores 32GB RAM
    • Minimum: 13" Macbook Air 8 GPU cores 24GB RAM

Windows

  • Desktop
    • Recommended: i7 or i9 24 core CPU 32GB RAM AMD 7600 or nVidia 4060 32GB RAM
    • Minimum: i7 or i9 14th Gen Intel or AMD 7945WX. nVidia 3060 or AMD RX7600XT 16GB RAM
  • Laptop
    • Recommended: Intel i7 or i9 Gen 14 or AMD 7000 Ryzen 9. nVidia 4090 or AMD 7900XT 32GB RAM
    • Minimum: Intel i7 14th Gen or AMD 4000 Ryzen 5, nVidia 3060 or AMD 7600XT 16GB RAM

Professional headphones are required in editing courses and needed for on-set audio recording. Bluetooth earbuds of any brand will not work.

Recommended Headphones:

    • They are closed-back, studio-recording, reference-level, over-ear headphones. They are the industry standard in headphones.听 We recommend buying a pair with a bag or case for protection in transport to and from class. The CINE equipment rental desk sells them at a significant discount and you can buy a set from us when you get here for about 40% off the list price online.

Minimum Required Headphones:

    • They should have a 1/4鈥 to 1/8鈥 adapter for both standard plug types. (Please do a search for 鈥TRS鈥 headphones if you don鈥檛 know what they are). If you are purchasing a low cost consumer brand, please pay close attention to the list below of options that DO NOT work with our classroom equipment.
  • Common headphones that will NOT work with our equipment:
    • Any headphones with a connected microphone like a gaming headset.
    • Bluetooth headphones.
    • 鈥楾RRS鈥 headphones. (the double 鈥楻鈥 means it has an on-board microphone like a gaming headset)
    • Digital headphones with a USB connection.
    • Wireless headphones of any kind.

On sets or during production, a small SSD style drive that is bus powered is useful. Here is

For editing courses, you will need an AC powered external drive enclosure(not BUS powered - USB, etc.W) with the ability to hold one or more HDDs or SSDs in a single or RAID 0 configuration of data storage 2 TBs or larger.听

Recommended Hard Drive:

    • This is a portable, AC powered (not bus powered), high-speed RAID, external enclosure for 2.5鈥 drives. We recommend this drive enclosure specifically with at least 2TBs of HDD or SSD storage media inside. Search any of the terms in the description above if you are unsure of their meaning. There are also other manufacturers of this quality of drive, like , and you might find other comparable options by searching their site.

Minimum Required Hard Drive:

    • A student editing HD video, or higher quality, will need a hard drive with more speed and performance than a consumer level hard drive. If you are purchasing a low-cost consumer brand, please pay close attention to the list below of options that Do NOT work with our editing classes.
  • Common hard drive choices that will NOT work for editing:
    • Camera SD Cards
    • Camera CF Cards
    • Flash drives of any kind
    • 3.5鈥 internal computer Hard Drives
    • Raw drives with no portable enclosure