SQL Server 2012 Hardware Requirements
SQL Server 2012 is designed to run on a wide range of computer
systems—from laptop and desktop systems to supercomputer class
systems—so its minimum hardware requirements are surprising low.
The minimum processing requirement is a 1.0GHz CPU for a 32-bit
x86 implementation and a 1.4GHz CPU for a 64-bit x64 implementation. Microsoft’s recommended minimum processor speed is 2.0GHz.
The minimum memory requirements for SQL Server 2012 are also
quite low. The low-end SQL Server 2012 Express edition requires a
minimum of 512MB of RAM; the other editions require a minimum of
1GB. Microsoft’s recommended minimum RAM for SQL Server is 4GB.
These days, it’s hard to buy even a desktop system with anything
lower than a 1GHz processor and 1GB of RAM, so these hardware
requirements shouldn’t be a problem for most businesses. Of course,
most production implementations will require more processing power
and greater amounts of memory.
SQL Server 2012 OS Requirements
Each SQL Server 2012 edition has different OS requirements, and the
32-bit x86 versions and the 64-bit x64 versions of SQL Server 2012
have somewhat different OS requirements. Table 1 lists all the supported Windows OSs for the principal editions of SQL Server 2012.
Table 1: Supported Windows OSs for the Principal Editions of SQL Server 2012
SQL Server
Edition
Windows OSs That Support
32-Bit SQL Server
Windows OSs That Support
64-Bit SQL Server
SQL Server
Enterprise
Windows Server 2012 64-bit Datacenter,
Standard, Essentials, and Foundation editions
Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 64-bit
Datacenter, Enterprise, Standard, and Web
editions
Windows Server 2008 SP2 64-bit Datacenter,
Enterprise, Standard, and Web editions
Windows Server 2008 SP2 32-bit Datacenter,
Enterprise, Standard, and Web editions
Windows Server 2012 64-bit Datacenter,
Standard, Essentials, and Foundation
editions
Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 64-bit
Datacenter, Enterprise, Standard, and Web
editions
Windows Server 2008 SP2 64-bit Datacenter,
Enterprise, Standard, and Web editions
