A method and system for sequence independent configuration of adapters installed in a data processing system. Adapters such as disk drive controllers, Token Ring adapters, terminal emulators and the like each include multiple choices associated therewith which specify selected memory allocations which must be utilized in configuring the adapters. A determination is first made of the number of possible combinations of such choices which exist, and if that number is not substantial, an exhaustive evaluation of each possible combination is made to determine if a conflict exists. In the absence of a conflict, each combination is examined for an optimum allocation of memory which maximizes the number of sixteen kilobyte free memory pages remaining within the system memory after configuration for utilization by an expanded memory system. If the number of possible combinations exceeds a predetermined number, only a predetermined number of random combinations are evaluated and an optimum allocation is selected from those random combinations. In order to minimize the probability of chosing combinations with conflicts arising from system utilization of duplicate adapters, a random choice for each successive adapter is selected which, with a high degree of probability, is not identical to a choice selected for a previous adapter.