System Hardware Requirements

Microsoft has finally revealed the system hardware requirements for Windows 7. They are as follows :

• 1 GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1 GB RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB available disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics processor with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Additionally, some features provided by certain Windows 7 editions require additional hardware, as outlined here :

• Internet access
• Depending on resolution, video playback may require additional memory and advanced graphics hardware (e.g. HD videos)
• For some Windows Media Center functionality, a TV tuner and additional hardware may be required.
• Windows Touch and Windows Tablet require specific hardware
• HomeGroup requires a network and PCs with Windows 7
• DVD/CD authoring requires a compatible optical drive
• BitLocker requires TPM 1.2, while BitLocker To Go requires a USB flash drive
• Music and sound require audio output
• Windows XP Mode requires an additional 1 GB of RAM, an additional 15 GB of available disk space and a processor capable of hardware virtualization, with Intel VT or AMD-V turned on.

The hardware requirements above apply to all versions of Windows 7. Microsoft has released a separate set of maximum hardware specifications for the Small Notebook PC segment. This limits the following SKUs to certain hardware specifications :

• Windows 7 Starter
• Windows 7 Starter for Small Notebook PC
• Windows 7 Home Basic For Small Notebook PCs (China only)

Please see the next page for the new specification limitations on these small notebook PCs.

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