<p>generally speaking, what type of computer need engineering majors need in order to do the various programs (matlab, etc) within a respectable time? im in chem e right now at UCI and have an older AMD 3700+ single core amd san diego core which struggled to run maple at times.</p>
<p>My laptop is a 1.83 Ghz Intel Core 2 with two gigs of ram. I don't know if you need to go that far but I definatly can run everything I need just fine.</p>
<p>I'd suggest getting a laptop. Any current generation laptop should be more than powerful enough. The key is keeping its resources free.</p>
<p>The K8 architecture is getting long in the tooth. I'm running on an X2 5600+ right now and it gets the job done quickly. I also have an A64 3200+ Laptop which runs Mathematica. It's not snappy but it gets the job done. Does the university provide lab computers that you can use?</p>
<p>the school does provide computers (unsure if it is enough) but the problem is i am commuting to and from school and do not want to be tied to the computers on campus incase i have some late night work i need to do. i also dont want to be stuck waiting for my things to compute/compile.</p>
<p>If you use one of the pre-java version of Maple it'll run a lot faster. Maple 11 made me switch to Mathematica with how poorly it ran.</p>
<p>A single core system is fine, if there's anything really heavy you need to crunch you'll learn how to telnet/SSH/whatever into servers the school runs in order to execute your code.</p>
<p>Perhaps he's using a pre-JIT version of Java.</p>