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 <sect1 id="minimum-hardware-reqts">
<title>Meeting Minimum Hardware Requirements</title>
<para>

Once you have gathered information about your computer's hardware,
check that your hardware will let you do the type of installation
that you want to do.

</para><para arch="not-s390">

Depending on your needs, you might manage with less than some of the
recommended hardware listed in the table below. However, most users
risk being frustrated if they ignore these suggestions.

</para><para arch="any-x86">

A Pentium 4, 1GHz system is the minimum recommended for a desktop
system.

</para>

<!--
<para arch="powerpc">

Any OldWorld or NewWorld PowerPC can serve well as a desktop system.

</para>
-->

<table>
<title>Recommended Minimum System Requirements</title>
<tgroup cols="4">
<thead>
<row>
  <entry>Install Type</entry>
  <entry>RAM (minimum)</entry>
  <entry>RAM (recommended)</entry>
  <entry>Hard Drive</entry>
</row>
</thead>

<tbody>
<row>
  <entry>No desktop</entry>
  <entry>&ref-no-desktop-ram-minimum;</entry>
  <entry>&ref-no-desktop-ram-recommend;</entry>
  <entry>&ref-no-desktop-hd;</entry>
</row><row arch="not-s390">
  <entry>With Desktop</entry>
  <entry>&ref-with-desktop-ram-minimum;</entry>
  <entry>&ref-with-desktop-ram-recommend;</entry>
  <entry>&ref-with-desktop-hd;</entry>
</row>

</tbody></tgroup></table>

<para>

The minimum values assumes that swap will be enabled and a non-live image is used.
The <quote>No desktop</quote> value assumes that the text-based installer
(not the graphical one) is used.

</para><para>

The actual minimum memory requirements are a lot less than the numbers
listed in this table. With swap enabled, it is possible to
install &debian; with as little as &minimum-memory-strict;.
The same goes for the disk space requirements, especially if you
pick and choose which applications to install; see
<xref linkend="tasksel-size-list"/> for additional information on disk
space requirements.

</para><para>

The installer normally automatically enables memory-saving tricks to be able to
run on such low-memory system, but on architectures that are less tested
it may miss doing so. It can however be enabled manually by appending the
<userinput>lowmem=1</userinput> or even <userinput>lowmem=2</userinput> boot
parameter (see also <xref linkend="lowmem"/> and
<xref linkend="installer-args"/>).

</para><warning condition="lowmem-unchecked"><para>

On &architecture; the lowmem levels have not been tested, so automatic detection
is probably outdated and you thus probably <emphasis>need</emphasis> to pass the
boot parameter if your system has little memory.

</para></warning><para>

Installation on systems with less memory<footnote condition="gtk">

<para>

Installation images that support the graphical installer require more
memory than images that support only the text-based installer and should
not be used on systems with less than &minimum-memory; of memory. If
there is a choice between booting the text-based and the graphical installer,
the former should be selected on such systems.

</para>

</footnote> or disk space available may be possible but is only advised for
experienced users.

</para><para arch="not-s390">

It is possible to run a graphical desktop environment on older or
low-end systems, but in that case it is recommended to install
a window manager that is less resource-hungry than those of the
GNOME or KDE Plasma desktop environments; alternatives include
<classname>xfce4</classname>, <classname>icewm</classname> and
<classname>wmaker</classname>, but there are others to choose from.

</para><para>

It is practically impossible to give general memory or disk space
requirements for server installations as those very much depend on
what the server is to be used for.

</para><para>

Remember that these sizes don't include all the other materials which
are usually to be found, such as user files, mail, and data.  It is
always best to be generous when considering the space for your own
files and data.

</para><para>

Disk space required for the smooth operation of the &debian-gnu; system
itself is taken into account in these recommended system requirements.
Notably, the <filename>/var</filename> partition contains
a lot of state information specific to &debian; in addition to its regular
contents, like logfiles.  The
<command>dpkg</command> files (with information on all installed
packages) can easily consume 40MB. Also,
<command>apt</command> puts downloaded packages here before they are
installed. You should
usually allocate at least 200MB for <filename>/var</filename>, and a lot
more if you install a graphical desktop environment.

</para>

 </sect1>

