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 Posted: Thu, 11th Jan 2007 23:16 Post subject: Windows 2003 Experience Edition. |
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It is my understand this version of 2003 server has had a few registry tweaks to make it play XP games. It is also my understanding that it is a really good platform for gaming and I have heard reports of increased FPS on this platform?
Does anyone run this flavour of Windows? Is it everything its made out to be?
Some of the nfo
"Why use Windows Server 2003?" you might ask - because it runs
everything faster than Windows XP. Server 2003 boots up faster
than XP, it even runs GAMES faster than Windows XP, for example,
loading levels in Half Life 2 takes a third of the time it takes
in Windows XP. Also, you get way better frame rates in server
2003 too.
Server 2003 has no Welcome screen and it is simply more responsive
than Windows XP.
Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition with SP1 allows up to eight
processors and 1 TB (terabyte) of RAM, yes, up to one thousand gigabytes
of RAM! So this OS is somewhat future proof, since most home systems
only use one or maybe two processors at the most and usually only use
up to 4Gb or 8Gb of RAM in even the most extreme gaming setups.
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Perhaps it is best not to mention the real world cost of this OS,
but remember, this eXPerience Edition is not meant to be used as
a server OS, although the truth is, it could be used as a server
OS if you wanted, because it has not actually been "converted" to
a workstation, only carefully tweaked for "home use". Bear in mind
that some features have been stripped out of this special edition,
however, this should not affect the use of this OS as a server, but
this is not its intended purpose - the purpose of this OS is to provide
a very fast and very stable home OS that runs software faster than XP
could ever hope to be, especially now XP has over 65 post SP2 hotfixes
you have to cram into it, it seems to get slower with every hotfix that
you install. Microsoft cannot afford to be like that with Server 2003
because it costs too much and professional Administrators would catch on.
Maybe the slowness of XP is down to Vista coming soon, who knows, but XP
is not what it once was, the fastest XP is probably with SP1. The theory
goes that hotfixes protect you from viruses and spyware, but I have yet
to experience any real evidence of that, however there is plenty of evidence
that hotfixes bloat XP and slow it down! Again, just in time for Vista.
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LeoNatan
☢ NFOHump Despot ☢
Posts: 73194
Location: Ramat Gan, Israel 🇮🇱
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| Posted: Thu, 11th Jan 2007 23:27 Post subject: |
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Well, if it was to come with sound, acceleration and themes enabled by default, I'd agree with you it's much faster than XP.
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| Posted: Fri, 12th Jan 2007 00:23 Post subject: |
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I will be taking this for a test drive tomorrow. Will let you all know if its worth it or not.
I'm not up for installing it right now - mainly because I cannot be bothered digging out a bank CD-R!!!
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| Posted: Fri, 12th Jan 2007 11:08 Post subject: Initial Experience |
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Managed to find re-writeable DVD so I used this with the 2003 Server ISO. Rebooted. Luckily I had a free partition to install this on. (Reserved for Vista testing)
Installation was very quick. I think the overall installation from powering on to being able to use the OS was roughly 15 minutes. The installation went without any issue's and did not corrupt my partition tables or delete any other data.
Windows 2003 Experience edition allowed me to install my Nforce4 drivers and the latest Forceware GPU drivers without any problems at all. At the same time I installed DT 4 without any issue what so ever.
Boot time is lighteningly quick. I have rebooted by into XP and the it takes roughly twice as long. I imagine that this additional delay is not just down to my firewall loading at boot.
I proceeded to install Oblivion to test how it plays games. I have only done quick tests, but I can confirm that Windows 2003 experience is able to play games with DirectX 9 graphics and sound. It appears that I have gained an extra 5-7 fps outside (great forest) and 10-15 fps inside. Which is considerable to say the least. (Especially on Oblivion!!!). I think its time to install FRAPS and do some serious testing to see the performance gain on games such as CoH, Fear.
>>> Edit. Having tested Oblivion, I have discovered there is only on average 1fps gain. However, there is less of a drop in FPS when moving around then in Windows XP, which probably explains my initial reasons for quoting such a high FPS gain.
For security reasons I have not connected this OS to the internet. I installed with the Ethernet cable removed. Call me paranoid, but I think I will install a stateful inspection firewall and packet sniffer and see what the OS does when connected to the internet.
As it stands, it looks good. I may just end up using it primarily for playing games on if the performance increase is as good as it appears to be. However from a security point I wouldn't like to use it to browse the internet and do office work on - just because I don't know 100% exactly how it has been doctored (and no firewall is leak proof)
Ok, took a risk and just connected to the internet (actually connected using Server 2003 typing this comment). Also appears to be genuine!! I downloaded IE7 for XP SP2 after passing the activeX validation genuine check!
I have not noticed any outgoing internet activity other than when I actually use my browser.
Big thumbs up at the moment.
(Oh, gothic 3, default is still a pig to run - but that is probably gothic 3 more than anything else!!)
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LeoNatan
☢ NFOHump Despot ☢
Posts: 73194
Location: Ramat Gan, Israel 🇮🇱
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| Posted: Fri, 12th Jan 2007 13:37 Post subject: |
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Don't expect miracles from it... It's not gonna make your CPU a Core 3 Otto and your video card a 9800 GTXXX just because it's more lightweight than XP. That's its strenght, it's light, as in less memory used by OS, more to games. That's why oblivion
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| Posted: Fri, 12th Jan 2007 15:45 Post subject: |
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I was going to try TinyXP, but thought I would give this a try first.
Your right about Oblivion. I used to have a Athlon XP2600+ and a 9800 Pro card. The only way I could get Oblivion to play (on medium textures) decently with more than 2 NPC's on screen and more than 15 fps was to disable as many services as could. I followed Black Vipers guide to services and indeed it does work.
I was going to go down the road of dual booting anyway. One OS with Office, Photoshop for productivity, and another for games. This way I don't end up bloating my Main Windows Insall all the time (as we all know what happens to Windows after multiple installs and un-installs)
This is version is great because it is so slim. I will be using Acronis to backup the whole gaming partition (minus any games of course). So when new games come out it takes no time to restore.
As I don't even have dual core, then reducing the bloatware with Windows is probably my only option of increasing the available CPU resources for my games.
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LeoNatan
☢ NFOHump Despot ☢
Posts: 73194
Location: Ramat Gan, Israel 🇮🇱
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| Posted: Fri, 12th Jan 2007 16:34 Post subject: |
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Get Vista as the productivity OS and Server 2003 as the gaming...
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| Posted: Fri, 12th Jan 2007 16:48 Post subject: |
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I used to play games on w2k3 long time ago. Just enable few services, acceleration and it's all like XP but lighter.
Btw. You can make your own 2k3 edition with all services needed to gaming enabled.
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| Posted: Fri, 12th Jan 2007 18:05 Post subject: |
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currently running on w2k3
playing all the games
i had to crack the installer on a few, like rome:total war, but once they're installed, they all run fine
i made this website for the issue a while ago but it hasn't really caught on yet
http://www.persiist.com/w2k3/
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| Posted: Fri, 12th Jan 2007 20:47 Post subject: |
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| Posted: Fri, 12th Jan 2007 22:06 Post subject: |
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Well that was an interesting hour or so. Seems like I needed Acronis True Image Enterprise Server to bakup my fresh 2003 Install. Finally managed to do this. Its a little bit late (9pm) on a Friday to be testing games... Think this may have to wait until tomorrow.
On a good note - I did manage to reinstall my XP partition so now it only contains my applications. As for using Vista as a primary OS - not just yet - Im still wary of all the zero day exploits that will no doubt hit the fan on Vista's release day.
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| Posted: Sat, 13th Jan 2007 19:33 Post subject: |
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Ok - I think this isn't going to work. I cannot get my Saitek Controller Drivers to Install. As they won't install I cannot get my emulators to work - and there is no point in having a gaming partition if I cannot use my Controller properly.
I shall try TinyXP instead.
Ah well, it was a good idea - turned horribly wrong.
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LeoNatan
☢ NFOHump Despot ☢
Posts: 73194
Location: Ramat Gan, Israel 🇮🇱
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| Posted: Sat, 13th Jan 2007 19:37 Post subject: |
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Lol, I abandoned Server 2003 when SAV didn't work (I used it back then) and WMP10 (at the time) would not install on Server.
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| Posted: Tue, 16th Jan 2007 13:44 Post subject: |
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I use win2k3 as a recovery operating system on my old HDD (currently have 160GB SATA and a old 17.4GB EIDE) and it works great for just that.
I stopped using it primarily because many things just wouldn't install such as anti virus products.. might try this edition though, looks good! Lol guess i just got sick of installing corporate / enterprise editions of day to day apps.
It certainly is faster than XP, if you take a look at the NT build number you will see it uses build 3200 in placve of XP's 2600, so its kernel is newer and probably therefore more efficient.
Now that s_hole has very usefully revelaed how to mod MSI's to force installs under this OS, perhaps I shall give it another look. My XP partition is due for another format soon, these days I just seem to be using Vista.
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