By Dawn Brown, Manager of Hardware Services

The hardware services team has been busy this spring with new computer set up and delivery. Funding was made available through the Office of the Provost to upgrade and standardize 217 university-owned computer workstations: 100 Dell Latitude E6400 laptops and 63 Apple MacBook Pro laptops were purchased for faculty and an additional 54 Dell Latitude E6400 laptops were purchased for labs on campus.

By consolidating the university’s purchasing power, WCU was able to save a great deal of money. Purchasing a computer as part of a large batch, rather than buying that computer as a single unit, can be a cost savings for the university. Because IT is dedicated to distributing up-to-date software and to providing efficient maintenance and repair methods, it is vital that aging workstations are replaced on a regular basis.

Specifications for the Dell and Mac laptops are detailed below.

WCU Standard Business Laptop from Dell

  • Intel Core 2Duo 2.53GHz processor
  • 2GB RAM
  • 160GB hard drive
  • Windows 7 Enterprise operating system

WCU Standard Business Laptop from Mac

  • Intel Core 2Duo 2.26GHz processor
  • 2GB RAM
  • 160GB hard drive
  • Mac OS X v10.6 operating system

If you have additional questions about university computer purchases or need a quote or recommendation, contact the IT Services Help Desk at itshelp@wcu.edu or (828) 227-7487.