updated system requirements

docs/source/getting-started/requirements.rst

@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ System Requirements
 
 .. _software_requirements:
 
-Software requirements
+Software Requirements
 ---------------------
 
 To use GCHP you need a compute environment with the following software:
@@ -35,22 +35,45 @@ our guide on :ref:`installing GCHP's dependencies with Spack <installing_with_sp
 
 .. _hardware_requirements:
 
-Hardware requirements
+Hardware Requirements
 ---------------------
 
-Minimum requirements (C24):
+These are GCHP's hardware requirements. Note that high-end HPC infrastructure is not required to use
+GCHP effectively. Gigabit Ethernet and 2 nodes is enough for returns on performance compared to
+GEOS-Chem Classic.
 
-* 6 cores 
+Recommended Minimum Requirements
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+These recommended minimums are adequate to effectively use GCHP in scientific
+applications:
+
+* 2 nodes, preferably ≥24 cores per node
+* Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) interconnect or better
+* 100 GB memory per node
+* 1 TB of storage
+
+Bare Minimum Requirements
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+These bare minimum requirements are sufficient for running GCHP at C24. The are adequate 
+for try GCHP out, and for learning purposes.
+
+* 6 cores
 * 32 GB of memory
 * 100 GB of storage for input and output data
 
-Recommended requirements:
+Big Compute Recommendations
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+These hardware recommendations are for users that are interested in tackling large bleeding-edge
+computational problems:
 
 * A high-performance-computing cluster (or a cloud-HPC service like AWS)
 
    * 1--50 nodes
    * >24 cores per node (the more the better), preferably Intel Xeon
-   * High throughput and low-latency interconnect, preferably InfiniBand if using >500 cores
+   * High throughput and low-latency interconnect, preferably InfiniBand if using ≥500 cores
 
 * Lots of storage. Several TB is sufficient, but tens or hundreds of TB is better.