Determine Minimum Hardware Requirements and Compatibility with the OS Platform
Operating systems have minimum hardware requirements that must be met for the OS to install and function correctly. Table 5-3 is a chart of the minimum hardware requirements for Windows 2000, Windows XP Pro, and Windows XP Home operating systems.
|
Windows 2000 |
Windows XP Pro |
Windows XP Home |
|
|
CPU |
Pentium 133 MHz |
233 MHz (single- |
233 MHz |
|
or dual-processor |
300 MHz or higher |
||
|
system) |
recommended |
||
|
300 MHz or higher |
Intel Pentium/Celeron |
||
|
recommended |
family |
||
|
Intel Pentium/ |
AMD K6/Athlon/ |
||
|
Celeron family |
Duron family, or |
||
|
AMD K6/Athlon/ |
compatible |
||
|
Duron family, or |
|||
|
compatible |
|||
|
RAM |
64 MB |
64 MB |
64 MB |
|
128 MB or higher |
128 MB or higher |
128 MB or higher |
|
|
recommended |
recommended |
recommended |
|
|
Hard Disk Drive |
2 GB with 650 MB |
1.5 GB available |
1.5 GB available hard |
|
of free space |
hard disk space |
disk space |
|
|
6.4 GB with 2 GB |
More is |
More is |
|
|
of free space |
recommended if |
recommended if |
|
|
recommended |
installing over a |
installing over a |
|
|
network |
network |
||
|
VGA resolution |
Super VGA |
Super VGA |
|
|
SVGA resolution |
(800 x 600) |
(800 x 600) resolution |
|
|
recommended |
resolution |
Higher resolution |
|
|
Higher resolution |
recommended |
||
|
recommended |
Identify the equipment that your customer has in place. If hardware upgrades are necessary to meet the minimum requirements for an OS, conduct a cost analysis to determine the best course of action. In some cases, it can be less expensive for the customer to purchase a new computer than to upgrade the current system. In other cases, it can be cost effective to upgrade one or more of the following components:
■ Hard disk drive
■ Video adapter card
Note
In some cases, the application requirements can exceed the hardware requirements of the operating system. For the application to function properly, it will be necessary to satisfy the additional requirements.
After you have determined the minimum hardware requirements for an OS, you should ensure that all the hardware in the computer is compatible with the operating system that you have selected for your customer.
Continue reading here: Partitioning and Formatting
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