It is our wish to use these pages to publish recommendations for hardware and software configurations needed for usual application in education. The recommended configurations are a result of our and other people's experience which we managed to gather, as well as the current market conditions and acquisition possibilities (taking into consideration special conditions which apply to academic users).

Hardware Configurations

We divided hardware configurations into three categories. The first category under the title 'old computers' describes the minimum configuration we believe (based on existing experience) can be successfully used in class. It is a recommendation aimed at those who have old computers at their disposal and wish to check whether they can (still) successfully use those computers in class.

We also put together two configurations for 'new computers'. These recommendations are aimed at those who are planning to acquire new computers. Minimum configuration is the one we think represents the bottom limit of profitable purchase (by trying to predict the demands that software development will impose in the next two to three years). The 'recommended' configuration is the one we consider to be the best buy at this moment taking into consideration the market circumstances (price and performance ratio).

Minimum/recommended hardware configurations Component description Minimum configuration for old computers Minimum configuration for new computers Recommended configuration for new computers Processor Celeron 533 MHz Pentium 4 1.6 GHz Pentium 4 2.2 GHz Operative system Win 98SE Win XP Pro Win XP Pro Win XP Pro Memory 64 MB 256 MB 256 MB, upgrade possibility to 2 GB 512 MB (DDR), upgrade possibility to 2 GB Hard disc 4 GB 20 GB 60 GB Graphic subsystem SVGA XGA, 32 MB RAM Graphic card which is not built into the mother board, AGP 4x, 64 MB DDR RAM (when connecting to LCD monitor, graphic card should have DVI connection) Monitor 15" CRT, 800x600@75 Hz 17" CRT, 1024x768@85 Hz 17" CRT or LCD, 1024x768@85 Hz (LCD monitor should have DVI connection) Optic unit CD ROM device DVD ROM device DVD ROM device Network card 10 Mbps 10/100 Mbps 10/100 Mbps Other 4 x USB 2.0, optic mouse The parts each computer should have, and are not pointed out in the table are: PS2 keyboard and mouse connection, serial, parallel and USB connections, sound card and speakers or earphones, floppy disk, keyboard, mouse.

Software Equipment

We assembled the recommended software configuration based on assessment of usual needs and availability of the mentioned titles to the academic users. The published list is not complete and will be supplemented from time to time (we are looking forward to your help and suggestions).

The specific quality of the configuration you have in front of you is its price for the academic users: all the software is either free of charge or available without compensation for academic users based on the contract which the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports signed with software suppliers or manufacturers. The only exception is the purchase of the basic operative system. Considering that upgrading from any Microsoft system to MS Windows XP Professional is also free for the final users in the academic community, it is sufficient to buy any available (the cheapest) Microsoft operative system such as MS Windows XP Home. This makes the price of the configuration for the academic users equal to the price of the basic operative system. According to current prices, this is approximately 1000 kn. 

Description of recommended software configurations Component description Product Remarks Operative system MS Windows XP Professional, Croatian version, all current security patches and other upgrades installed Upgrade from any Microsoft system to MS Windows XP Professional is available for academic users through Reference Center for MS Products. Office software MS Office XP, Croatian version Available through Reference center for MS products. Antivirus software Sophos Anti-Virus Available through Sophos Anti Virus Reference Center. Development Environment The last version of MS Visual Studio Available through Reference Center for MS products. Statistics software Statistica Although at first sight this sounds like specialist software, we think this program should be a part of standard equipment on all computers used for teaching. It is available through Reference Center for SAS. Additional tools Windows Media Player, QuickTime Player, RealOne Player, Macromedia Flash Player Usual multimedia players. WinRAR ili Power Archiver 6.1 Programs for compressing and archiving files. 6.1 version of Power Archiver is free. WinRAR is commercial software. Adobe Acrobat Reader PDF files Putty Program for safe access to remote computers. Other specialist software (when needed). Mathematica Available through Reference Center for Mathematica. MiKTEX MiKTEX Free DTP system based on TEX/LaTEX platform.

Microsoft Configurations for MOC Courses

Finally, as an interesting fact, as well as a possible reference and an example which can be useful when making a decision, we will name the configurations Microsoft defined for the purpose of maintaining MOC (Microsoft Official Curriculum) courses for computer professionals. The courses are equally demanding as the courses for installing and configuring Windows servers or courses for .NET technology programming. There are 4 minimum configurations (different courses require different configurations). Most of MOC courses can be maintained on computers which fulfil the conditions from the weakest configurations ("Level 1" or "Level 2"). It should, however, be noted that none of the configurations require a particularly high processing power - what is crucial for pleasant and successful work is the amount of memory.

CTEC 2002 Hardware Levels Hardware Level 1 Hardware Level 2 Hardware Level 3 Hardware Level 4 Pentium II, 400 MHz, 256 KB L2 buffer Pentium III, 450 MHz, 512 KB L2 buffer Pentium III, 700 MHz, 512 KB L2 buffer Pentium III, 1 GHz, 512 KB L2 buffer PCI 2.1 bus PCI 2.1 bus PCI 2.1 bus PCI 2.1 bus 256 MB RAM 512 MB RAM 768 MB RAM 1 GB RAM DVD ili CD-ROM device DVD-ROM device DVD-ROM device DVD-ROM device 10/100 Mbps (non-ISA) network interface card 10/100 Mbps (ne-ISA) mrežna kartica 10/100 Mbps (non-ISA) network interface card, full duplex 0/100 Mbps (non-ISA) network interface card, full duplex SVGA, 4 MB RAM SVGA, 4 MB RAM SVGA, 4 MB RAM SVGA, 4 MB RAM 17" SVGA monitor 17" SVGA monitor 17" SVGA monitor 17" SVGA monitor mouse, sound card with earphones or speakers mouse, sound card, speakers mouse, sound card, speakers with amplifier mouse, sound card, speakers with amplifier