As with most Microsoft products, every time there is a new version the hardware requirements to run the new software increases to keep up with evolutions in hardware and to provide more resources to the new features within the product. SharePoint 2013 is no different…here is a table that shows the evolution of hardware requirements from from 2007 to 2013:
Component |
2007 |
2010 |
2013 |
Web Front End |
Dual processors that are each faster than 3 GHz 2 GB RAM 3 GB of free space plus adequate free space |
64-bit, four cores 8 GB RAM for production use in a single server or multiple server farm 80 GB for system drive |
64-bit, four cores 12 GB RAM for production use in a single server or multiple server farm 80 GB for system drive |
Application Server |
Dual processors that are each faster than 2.5 GHz 4 GB RAM 3 GB of free space |
64-bit, four cores 8 GB RAM for production use in a single server or multiple server farm 80 GB for system drive |
64-bit, four cores 12 GB RAM for production use in a single server or multiple server farm 80 GB for system drive |
SQL Database |
Pentium III-compatible processor or higher Recommended: 1 GHz or higher Recommended: 1 GB or more |
64-bit, eight cores for medium deployments 8 GB RAM for small deployments 16 GB RAM for medium deployments |
64-bit, eight cores for medium deployments 8 GB RAM for small deployments 16 GB RAM for medium deployments |
For those of you looking to use existing hardware for SharePoint 2013, you may need additional hardware to keep up with the latest version…this could be another good reason to move to the cloud!