The hardware requirements for a Windows NT Server or Windows NT Workstation depend on the demands you will put on the particular computer. The Installation Guide for each platform specifies the minimum requirements. This section offers a few recommendations for special cases.
For a production server that will handle more than 100 users at a time, you'll probably want at least 32 MB of physical random access memory (RAM), plus 1GB of disk space to hold the operating system, pagefiles, disk logs, user database, and so on. (Each backup domain controller (BDC) can support up to 2000 users. Up to 40,000 network objects, including user accounts, machine accounts, and group accounts, can be supported in a single domain.)
The following hardware specifications are recommended for a computer that is to be used as a primary domain controller (PDC) or BDC:
Number of users | Minimum CPU needed | Required RAM |
up to 3000 | 486/33 | 32 MB |
7500 | 486/66 | 32 MB |
10,000 | Pentium®, MIPS®, Alpha™ | 48 MB |
15,000 | Pentium, MIPS, Alpha | 64 MB |
> 15,000 | Pentium, MIPS, Alpha | (memory should equal at least 2.5 * the size of the SAM) |
For more information on setting up Windows NT domains, see Appendix E, "Domain Planning for Your Enterprise."