What do you need for hardware?


Your first choice that you have to make is what processor build.  Alpha, PowerPC*, MIPS, or x86.  Since I only have experience with the x86 version, that is what I will concentrate on here.

* The PowerPc Platform is no longer supported by Microsoft due to a lack of popularity.

What will the primary role of your server/workstation be?  If you are going to use it as just a workstation, you will want to use NT workstation.  If it is going to be a file server, a Primary Domain Controller, a Backup Domain Controller, or any other resource server, you will need to use NT Server.  The difference between Server and Workstation is Workstation is designed to be used for running applications, the server module can only handle a few threads, therefore, it doesn't make a good file server.  Server has more features including:

    If you need these features, I would recommend that you use Server.

For any NT system you need at least:

A good system would be:

To install easily, you need a machine that has at least a hard drive with a CD-ROM, the CD should be a SCSI, IDE, MKEPanasonic, or Sony.  Let's overview the installation process.

  1. The main NT files are copied to the hard drive
  2. NT boots with in the setup mode, analyses the configuration and asks for networking and other setup options.
  3. NT copies the rest of the files.
  4. NT writes the configuration to the disk.

Now lets go to the setup!