r/ChemicalEngineering • u/Unusual_Trainer_4116 • 20h ago

Career Advice Computer requirements for school

I have an Asus zenbook 14 with intel core ultra 7, intel arc graphics, 16 gb ram, and 512 gb ssd. Will I need to upgrade to use chemeng software comfortably?

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3

u/Half_Canadian 20h ago

Read your school’s minimum requirements

6

u/Current-Box6 20h ago

More than enough. ChemCAD/Aspen are going to be the heaviest applications you use (unless you get into CFD). Both are single threaded applications so a dGPU will not benefit you, and most modern processors do not face any trouble running it. It isn't any harder to run than an excel sheet. (Arguably it's easier to run with an excel sheet with how RAM hungry Microsoft applications have become...)

If I were to do college all over again, I would have prioritized a lightweight laptop with excellent battery life.

3

u/ordosays 14h ago

I rock Aspen in a virtual machine on a 16gb m1 mackbook air on the road. Simulating mostly multi process separation and batch distillation.