Upon entering the AE program, you'll find that the software requirements you've been accustomed to will dramatically change. And with these changes, will come hardware requirements that may force you to purchase a new PC. The following list might be useful as a guide to purchasing a new PC, but may not completely cover all possible computer requirements:
Notebook Computer: (recommended)
- Processor speed of at least 2.0 Ghz. Intel or equivalent
- At least 1 Gig of system memory (2 Gig recommended)
- 80 Gig Hard Disk Drive minimum
- 128 of Video Ram (256 recommended)
- CD burning capability
- Wireless networking capability
- Ethernet port for High Speed Internet
- Portability, a system under 7 pounds will be taken to class and used more often
- extended battery life
- extended warranty, 3 years or more
* All of our lab software runs only on the Windows OS. Vista is recommended.
* Mac OS and Linux will not run the software that AE utilizes, therefore, purchase of a MAC or Linux based OS is not recommended.
Desktop Computer: (acceptable)
- processor speed of at least 2.8 Ghz. Intel or equivalent
- at least 1 Gig of system memory (2 Gig recommended)
- 80 Gig Hard Disk Drive minimum
- 128 of Video Ram (256 recommended)
- CD burning capability
- extended warranty, 3 years or more
- Ethernet port for High Speed Internet
* All of our lab software runs only on the Windows OS. Vista is recommended.
* MacOS and Linux will not run the software that AE utilizes, therefore, purchase of a MAC or Linux based OS is not recommended.
The following is a partial list of AE software,
please view their site for their minimum hardware requirements:
Construction Management
- Primavera
- Means Costworks
- ICE Estimating
- Energy 10
- Visual Anaylsis
Mechanical
- Phoenics
- Fluent
- Trace
- EES
- Eikon
- Hourly Analysis Program
Lighting/Electrical
- AGI32
- Value-Light
- TracePro
- Visual
- Radiance
Structural
- STAAD
- ANSYS
- SAP
- RAM
- MatLab
- RISA
- GTSTRUDL
General Software:
- Microsoft Office (Discounted for students, see PSU Computer Store)
- AutoCAD
- VIZ
- Revit
- Adobe Acrobat
- Chief Architect
- Dreamweaver
- Symantec/Norton Antivirus (Free for students)
For further questions, feel free to E-mail Corey Wilkinson (CoreyW@psu.edu)
or Paul Bowers (PaulBowers@psu.edu) at any time.
See also College of Engineering Computer Recommendation