The Right Hardware for Mandriva
As with software packages, look before you leap. It is important to make sure your hardware is up
to the task before you install Mandriva. Fear not, users of less-than-stellar hardware; the hardware
requirements are far from onerous. To use Mandriva you need (or you can use) the following:
x586 class processor or above - The Intel Pentium IIV, AMD K6/II/III, Duron, or Athlon/XP/MP.
RAM - At least 256MB of memory is recommended (although 512MB will work much
better). If you need to run Mandriva on a machine with less RAM, consider starting the
installation from Mandriva Free instead of Mandriva One because live CDs generally
require more RAM to run effectively.
Hard disk - At least 1GB is recommended for installing Mandriva One.
RAID controllers - There is wide support for SCSI RAID controllers. In addition, 3Ware
IDE and Serial ATA controllers are supported.
DVD or CD drive - To run the installation from a CD/DVD source disk, you need the
appropriate drive. This drive will need to support bootable CD/DVD media.
Input/Output - Of course, if you want to interact with your Mandriva install, you'll at
least need a keyboard and a monitor. A mouse is not needed for the installation, but it is
handy and recommended.
NOTE
For those who live life on the bleeding edge, there is a version of Mandriva that supports
the AMD Athlon64 processor. See the Mandriva Powerpack product (www·mandriva·com/en/linux/2007/powerpack).
As you can see from the system specifications, you can use a wide range of hardware to run your
Mandriva installation. Do you have an old PIII with 128MB of RAM, a CD-ROM, and a blank 1GB
hard disk? No problem. How about a "gaming war machine" sporting a 3.2 GHz P4, 1GB of RAM,
a DVD-R, and an ocean of hard disk space? Bring it on!
The vast assortment of hardware supported includes popular video cards such as NVIDIA FX series
and ATI Radeon video adapters. Large numbers of Ethernet and Wi-Fi network adapters, USB 2.0, and
other hardware make your chances of installation and configuration success very high.
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