New toy & Server 08 as a Desktop OS?

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Yay my server and bits have come. Reading 8Gb so thats good. I near had a stroke when I heard how loud it was at first but it settles down after 60 seconds or so. Great little machine, just prepping it now. Oh by the way, how massive are graphics cards now!

 

Not outside of an already noisy airconditioned server/computer room no

 

Just thought I'd share my recent antics with you;

Had a few days off this week so decided to have a play and install 2008 Server onto my new server but see what happens when I try to use a desktop configuration on it. Have to say it works great! Server 2008 is built on the same kernel as Vista so basically anything that works on Vista will 'probably but not always' run on 2008. Having 8GB of mem I'm running an evaluation copy of 2008 R2 Enterprise x64.

Here's what I did:

• disabled the server manager screens that come up using the tick box at the bottom.
• downloaded a x64 codec pack off the internet that had everything, DivX, audio codecs etc.
• disabled the Shutdown Event tracker (does my head in anyway ) using gpedit.msc to disable 'Display Shutdown Even Tracker'
• as its a server OS you have to install or enable certain services that would be there by default normally so enabled the audio service (and inserted a usb sound card I got off eBay for 3 quid!)
• installed the wireless lan service with the add features wizard and installed the drivers for my wireless n WN111 usb dongle
• installed the desktop experience with the add features wizard
• started the themes service and set it to auto
• went into personalise and turned on Aero to make it look presentable

Think thats about it. Runs like a dream to be honest. There are a load more tweaks you can make but I'm happy for now. Might disable the Ctrl - Alt - Del when it first boots.

In work we use VMWare ESXi but I've played with Workstation at home, and Virtual PC and Virtual Server so out of curiosity I decided to set up 3 servers and 2 XP machines using Hyper-V, just to get a feel for it. Again I'm really impressed with the performance of Hyper-V. I might actually keep this server set up like this!

I do silly things when I'm bored I guess . . . .

Jim

 

Thats exactly why I decided to do it mate. Its the Vista Kernel but minus all the stuff you don't need. It runs like a beast mate. My virtual 2003 machines run like their the only thing there. I'm really impressed with Hyper-V I have to say like. I think its cos it sits on the same level as the host OS when running VM's . . . I think. I know it directly addresses the hardware. I'm just learning about it to be honest but do it mate

 

Spent just under £400 in the end but I knew I'd end up experiementing with it as a workstation so I put a 1GB ATI 4670 graphics card in it . . . .

When I first turned it on I thought, ah no its gonna have to go, my girl will flip ha ha but thankfully it settles down quickly. I didn't even consider it cos in work its noisy anyway, doh!

 

Cheers mate, I hadn't even considered lowering its noise levels, always handy to know so rep'd ya.

It could of been a lot cheaper but once you start adding bits in, the full 8GB mem and a fast HD etc it soon adds up ha ha