In response to your questions, we’ve put together the following recommendations for student computers. Devices that meet these specifications will enable your success in classes at Florida Poly.

If you have questions about whether your device supports collaboration or classroom apps—or any other technical questions—please contact the Helpdesk: helpdesk@floridapoly.edu or 863.874.8888.

Collaboration apps

The best way to determine whether your device and connection support collaboration software is to try it for yourself. Cisco Webex has an online self-test that checks your computer, internet speed, audio, and camera.

• Webex Test Meeting: https://www.webex.com/test-meeting.html

To check Microsoft Teams or another collaboration app please contact your faculty or the Helpdesk to arrange a system test session.

Minimum specs

Sometimes you can’t test. If you’re looking for a new device, here’s what our collaboration vendors suggest as minimum specifications. Almost any new computer—and most used computers—will be more than adequate.

Note that these specifications are only guidelines. Your device may perform better or worse than these specifications would suggest. We strongly recommend testing yourself (see above).

References

If you need to dig into the details Cisco and Webex have posted requirements pages:

• Cisco Webex Meeting Suite: https://help.webex.com/en-us/1vek5r/Webex-Meetings-System-Requirements-and-Cross-Platform-Information#Webex-Meetings-Suite-System-Requirements

• Microsoft Teams app: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/hardware-requirements-for-the-teams-app

Class apps

Virtual-desktop and streamed applications

Applications available in our computing classrooms and labs are also available for streaming online at apps.floridapoly.edu. Any device and connection that supports collaboration (above) will easily support streaming apps.

We recommend you install the VMware Horizon client when using streamed applications or virtual desktops: www.vmware.com/go/viewclients.

We recommend against running collaboration software or streaming video in a virtual desktop. Those work better on your own device.

Stand-alone class applications

You may prefer to run some class applications on your own device. Each application has its own requirements: check app vendors websites for details.

To run all or any of our class application, your device should be at least as capable as ours. Our least powerful computing lab system scores around 800 on the Geekbench 5 system benchmark. You can see other systems with similar capabilities in the Geekbench Browser: https://browser.geekbench.com/processor-benchmarks. Geekbench also allows you to search for your own device and compare it to others: https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/search.

Recommending specifications is more difficult because performance can vary widely between devices that appear very similar. Still, if you can’t run a benchmarking tool like Geekbench, here’s what to look for: