BXProject

[mat_the_cat]

We've just bought a new server at work, and hence the old one is going spare. It has a pretty high spec, being a server (to me at least!) with a 2.8Ghz Xeon processor, and 5Gb RAM (10 times what I have). Would this be any use to me if I reformatted the hard drives and installed XP on it, or does it need to run SBS to take full advantage of the hardware? I know that XP only supports 3Gb RAM, and I don't know if you can run RAID drives on it. I wouldn't want to keep with SBS as it takes an age to start up and shut down.

[Bx Bandit]

Vanny will answer this one, although I think if you put jam on the hard drive it works faster - just my penneth worth

[docchevron132]

even if you put XP on it and lost the ability to use all the rAM, surely, even without RAID drives, it'll still be massively quick?

[mat_the_cat]

I would hope so, I mean even to work on it it zips along fast, even while it's serving out files to 9 other computers. So as a stand alone PC it should be fine, unless there is something I'm not considering?

Would like to keep the RAID array though, I don't back up as often as I should, so two mirrored drives would keep stuff safe (mainly photos) even if one dies. (Had that happen, and my backup was corrupted too )

[Vanny]

Windows 7 64bit entereprise, thats where you need to go!

2.8xeon is pretty slow though, my laptop and home computer will be quicker, and 5gb ram in a server isn't a lot, and unless it's really fast ram then its not going to be much quicker than 2gb in a tuned xp machine.

Thats if you want to use it as a desktop computer though. If you wanted it as a server, maybe running a proxy and fileshare, then it would be pretty bloody good.

One thought though, its probably got two power supplies, old ones too, it's gonna cost a fair few quid in electricity. If you wanted it as a server, you'd be better off with a NAS drive.

But then if it's free, eBay it, or just have a damn good play.

XP will work, just really really badly.

[Philhod]

I think your right there Vanny

Summat's happened on mine!!! After crowing that Safari never goes wrong, suddenly It has started shutting down with no explaination but restarts ok straight away. Every session AVG tells me it's removing malware and I need to restart, then tells me it's fixed, sometime the offending thing has a name others it says unknown.
Everytime I switch on I get 6 small message boxes telling me that cbbbay, dddgbb, vturss,
mliffd, xxvvtt and rqrppn, all with the suffix.dll, cant be found. various scans produce no viral content when run but the vault has all the stuff it warned me about recorded.
I click an lose the boxes and all works fine if a little slower.

Anyone any ideas.????
sorry to hi jack Mat although it's on topic....err....sort of.

[mat_the_cat]

Windows 7 64bit entereprise, thats where you need to go!

So would that OS work as a desktop machine, that's all I need?

If you wanted it as a server, maybe running a proxy and fileshare, then it would be pretty bloody good.

Why would I want to do that though? I'm not being funny, are there advantages to doing that?

Basically, all I want is a solid, reliable, cheap PC, and I figured a server would be better built and longer lasting. Virtually anything would be a step up hardware wise, I have a 472Mhz laptop with 160Mb RAM, and a 1200Mhz desktop with a whopping 512Mb RAM. Plus the server looks cool!
It dates from 2003, but was fitted with 250Gb hard drives last year so plenty of room on it.

XP will work, just really really badly.

In what way? Would it be likely to be slower than the above?

[Vanny]

Win7 64Bit is 'normal' windows these days, 'enterprise' is pretty much the buisness version and has very useful tools in it, but not essential. 'home' editions should be avoided. It is a desktop OS, and its what i have on my home computer.

If you want a basic PC, then you need to get a basic PC. Servers are no better built or tested than a normal desktop, imho a good desktop motherboard is always more reliable than a server MB, and won't cost £2k to replace! Also the addition of raid and duplication of hardware means there is more to go wrong. But frankly, if it's free, who cares!

You can just lash XP on, it will fly compared to what you have right now, but more speed could be eaked out with more modern OS.

Oh, the graphics card is likely to be old and pants, but probably wont make any difference if you dont play new games.

[mat_the_cat]

So long as it can cope with Minesweeper I'll be fine! I haven't actually asked about it, but as it's just sitting there doing nothing they might let it go for free...

[Bx Bandit]

did you try the jam?

[mat_the_cat]

Not on the computer...

[Bx Bandit]

euwww, a jam rimmage?

[mat_the_cat]

I asked about this at the time and it all died a death really - they'd spent £5-600 on it recently for new hard drives and RAM, hence didn't want to give it away. Fast forward nearly 2 years and they're sick of it getting in the way, so binned it. Only I rescued it from the bin and it's now in the boot of the car

It seems XP can't do RAID 1 normally, but you can modify a few files to get it to work. Thinking seriously about upgrading to a newer version of Windows though, I'm getting left behind technology wise. It all works for what I need it to do, but in looking for jobs I want to be at least up to speed on (semi) current software! We're still on Office 2003 FFS at work!

AFAIK something like this should work, but I suppose I could just upgrade at a later date? I.e. get the thing working for now. I'm also tempted by a second 2.8GHz CPU for £4.99 including delivery!

[jayw]

If you're going to run a second CPU they'll need to be a matched pair.

XP does support RAID but you'll need to set up the ARRAY in the BIOS then find the correct drivers for your adapter for installation during XP setup.

BUT, for your domestic use, RAID is pretty much, well, erm, Redundant.A.I.D

With that kind of hardware and resources, XP will fly along. Of course, you'll need to download a lot of drivers that won't be included so you'll need to identify your components.

[mat_the_cat]

Might be a bit academic anyway, plugged it in and halfway through booting up it started beeping with a particular pattern (fault code?), then just cut out and no response. Smell of burning from the PSU

[jayw]

Stick it on ebay

[mat_the_cat]

Yeah, but I've splashed out £2 on a matched CPU now! Might open up the PSU and see if I can see what's wrong - Dell had problems with dodgy capacitors around that time and I've successfully replaced ones on the motherboard before now. Otherwise it's £100 for a second hand one...hmm, good money after bad?

[Vanny]

Id disconnect the PSU from the board and all components, then jump start it (something like the green wire on pin 19 of the molex connector to the board and jump it to ground, but google it!) to check if the PSU actually works.

The sequence of beeps will tell you what the faulty component was (power, drive, memory, CPU etc), modern boards can give you quite in depth diagnostic from a set of led numbers on the board (such as 5v rail over powered/shorted etc).

As a general rule, if it runs XP it will run Windows 7 Enterprise. The only common problem is sound card drivers normally, though there are a lot of ways around this now.

Hwat sort of PSU is it? I've got a stack of antique PSU's that i have never been able to allow myself to throw away. Okay they may not be the exact form factor, but really its only the connector to the motherboard that is the issue. Modern computers have additional connectors for the graphics card and north/s***h bridge.

[Vanny]

Is it a Dell? Can you get the service number from it? That would give me all the specs and i can pass them on to my very sad and lonely friend who will do more research than you can ever imagine, diagnose the fault, and tell you exactly what to do with it. Saves making decisions for your self!

[mat_the_cat]

Cheers dude, Dell service number is 1N83H1J. Think the sequence was 2 beeps/pause/3/pause/1 but I was waiting for it to do it again and it just stopped. Will have to check some muppet hasn't set it to 110 V...

Puzzlingly the fans came on low speed as soon as it was plugged in, which I didn't expect - I asssumed everything would be off until I pressed power on. Then it did the usual impression of a jet with all fans full speed, loaded the BIOS then stopped to beep at me.

PSU is not like a standard ATX unit but it is a non redundant type. Haven't checked the mobo connections yet.

EDIT - sound card drivers not really an issue, as the mobo doesn't have a built in sound card. I've stuck an old PCI card in it, but as that was from a Win98 system I suspect I've got even less chance of drivers!