The hardware requirements appear to be more in support of Hyper-V than of SQL Server itself. The specific requirements in the Training Kit are:

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Virtualization Hardware Requirements:

- x64-based processor that includes both hardware-assisted virtualization (AMD-V or Intel VT) and hardware data execution protection. (On AMD systems, the data execution protection feature is called the No Execute or NX bit. On Intel systems, this feature is called the Execute Disable or XD bit.) These features must also be enabled in the BIOS.

- 8GB of RAM

...and then a few other things that don't really contribute much.

Software Requirements:

- Windows Server 2008 R2

- SQL Server 2012

- the AdventureWorks dbs

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The alternative to using virtualization is to set up a network of six 64-bit PCs.

Am I making this out to be more of an investment than it is? Because this sounds pretty expensive.

ron