Hardware Requirements for Windows Server 2003

by Daniel Petri - January 8, 2009
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What are the Windows Server 2003 Hardware/System requirements?

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Review the table on this page to determine the minimum and recommended system requirements needed to run Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, Datacenter Edition, and Web Edition.

Requirement	Standard Edition	Enterprise Edition	Datacenter Edition	Web Edition
Minimum CPU Speed	133 MHz	133 MHz for x86-based computers 733 MHz for Itanium-based computers*	400 MHz for x86-based computers 733 MHz for Itanium-based computers*	133 MHz
Recommended CPU Speed	550 MHz	733 MHz	733 MHz	550 MHz
Minimum RAM	128 MB	128 MB	512 MB	128 MB
Recommended Minimum RAM	256 MB	256 MB	1 GB	256 MB
Maximum RAM	4 GB	32 GB for x86-based computers 512 GB for Itanium-based computers*	64 GB for x86-based computers 512 GB for Itanium-based computers*	2 GB
Multiprocessor Support **	Up to 4	Up to 8	Minimum 8 required Maximum 64	Up to 2
Disk Space for Setup	1.5 GB	1.5 GB for x86-based computers 2.0 GB for Itanium-based computers*	1.5 GB for x86-based computers 2.0 GB for Itanium-based computers*	1.5 GB

* Important: The 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition and Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition are only compatible with 64-bit Intel Itanium-based systems. They cannot be successfully installed on 32-bit systems.

Also see » Windows 7 Security