2003 server. Why?

Mr. Dipity · Post by **Mr. Dipity** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 6:22 pm

Could someone enlighten me on why this makes more sense for DAW use than XP pro?

Thanks!

mrc · Post by **mrc** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 8:19 pm

ummm, because none of us have it, and we didn't know we needed it until M$ marketeers told us it was the ultimate, must have, new box of headaches that would cost an arm, leg and at least 2 personal faovrite parts to obtain

?
mrc

stillafool · Post by **stillafool** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 8:39 pm

No shit. I've spent months on the cubase/sonar/protools windows forums, and I've never even heard of 2003 server. XP home is fine. Hasn't crashed in over year on any of my four computers. Go for xp pro if you're using dual processors.

Mr. Dipity · Post by **Mr. Dipity** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 9:16 am

stillafool wrote:No shit. I've spent months on the cubase/sonar/protools windows forums, and I've never even heard of 2003 server. XP home is fine. Hasn't crashed in over year on any of my four computers. Go for xp pro if you're using dual processors.

'Not crashing' is no longer the only prerequisite for an operating system :> More effiecient use of resources and better function are finally issues as well :>

Mr. Dipity · Post by **Mr. Dipity** » Fri May 28, 2004 2:14 pm

bizzump...

Someone, anyone got an answer? I'm perplexed, and I'm in the process of rebuilding a couple of my DAW machines, so it would be nice to find out before I do.

Thanks.

mrc · Post by **mrc** » Fri May 28, 2004 4:17 pm

The only thing that pops to mind is I believe it's a 64 bit OS? So if you have a dual Opteron setup {and IWill now has a dual Nforce 3 mobo:) } you need it. Other than that, XP pro Sp1 or 2 works real well here.
mrc

pedalboy · Post by **pedalboy** » Fri May 28, 2004 4:19 pm

Keep in mind that protools only supports windows XP as of now. I'm i'm guessing they will only support one serious of OSes for simplicity and compatability reasons.

Mr. Dipity · Post by **Mr. Dipity** » Fri May 28, 2004 10:35 pm

mrc wrote:The only thing that pops to mind is I believe it's a 64 bit OS? So if you have a dual Opteron setup {and IWill now has a dual Nforce 3 mobo:) } you need it. Other than that, XP pro Sp1 or 2 works real well here.
mrc

No - it's just an upgraded version of XP. It's not 64 bit - that hasn't come out yet, and even if it did, wouldn't make any difference until the software was re-written to support it. And even then, 64 bits isn't going to make much of a difference - all it does is increase the amount of addressable memory space.

pedalboy wrote:Keep in mind that protools only supports windows XP as of now. I'm i'm guessing they will only support one serious of OSes for simplicity and compatability reasons.

I'd be mildly surprised if protools didn't run on 2003 - from a I/O standpoint, it is identical - same drivers, same look and feel (ie UI processes). So what isn't different? I think I'm going to track down whoever made the comment in the first place, and message them.

When I find out, I'll post it here.

chriss · Post by **chriss** » Sat May 29, 2004 5:48 am

2003 is for file, print, dns, web serving etc it is what it says a SERVER if you want a workstation DAW go XP pro 2003 server will most likly not perform as well for audio I/O tasks as it runs many more background services that xp pro.

Mr. Dipity · Post by **Mr. Dipity** » Sat May 29, 2004 10:53 am

chriss wrote:2003 is for file, print, dns, web serving etc it is what it says a SERVER if you want a workstation DAW go XP pro 2003 server will most likly not perform as well for audio I/O tasks as it runs many more background services that xp pro.

Yes, yes, I know that. However, there are directions online on how to remove the >server< services, from the install, turrning it into a workstation version.

I'm looking for definite reasons why one would do this - is it more stable? Does it have improved resource management? What is the deal? Someone recomended it on this board for audio use. I need to find the message and ping them

mrc · Post by **mrc** » Sat May 29, 2004 12:24 pm

http://www.certificationsuccess.com/ind ... 7&siteid=1
Perhaps it due to the increasing use of over lan type programs such as fxteleport or Vegas 5's distibuted processing (rendering). Just more baseless speculation

It does turn out that there is 64 bit support in some versions of Server 2003:
The performance and scalability story is further enhanced by the addition of Microsoft? SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition (64-bit), also released today. SQL Server 2000 (64-bit) is designed to support memory-intensive and high-performance applications running on 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2003. Customers will particularly benefit from performance on Intel's largest Itanium 2-based, 64-way multiprocessing systems.

Customers of all sizes benefit from increased efficiencies that improve their bottom line in a number of ways, including reducing hardware expenditures and administrative costs while consistently delivering leading price/performance. By delivering both the best value and exceptional performance, Windows Server 2003 and SQL Server 2000 (64-bit) will fundamentally change the landscape of high-end enterprise computing.

mrc

Mr. Dipity · Post by **Mr. Dipity** » Sat May 29, 2004 7:32 pm

Ok, I found the answering - it was posted to a thread that I had missed.

From this thread

Reminor wrote:Windows 2003 Server is essentially a newer XP version with ALL CRAP TURNED OFF by default. No annoying MSN Messenger popping up, not much those dolly visuals, and all that stuff. It's a business oriented OS, not compromised and tweaked to appeal to a 13-year old girl wanting to IM her friends and DL mp3's.

Under the hood it is reworked and optimized a lot. It is highly efficient with resources. It takes only 84Mb of RAM to boot. And its stability is out of this world (out of Microsoft world I should say ). There are still some services like Wireless Service which needs to be adjusted (disabled). But again in comparison with XP it is all peanuts.

That all makes it a viable upgrade. Microsoft gives 120-day free trial copy for Windows 2003 Server. You owe yourself to try it eventually. You'll see why I consider it the best PC DAW platform to-date. It is a bit on the expensive side, but for Server 2000 upgraders the cost is bearable.

All drivers for XP work just fine in 2003.

I mentioned I use RME Multiface and I am happy with its stability. Sound card drivers is a big part of the whole equation (so if you have a different card, YMMV -- Your Mileage May Vary).
I tried a lot of different software products and demo versions -- Sonar3, Cubase SX, VSampler3, HALion, Samplitude, Fruity Loops Studio, Adobe Audition, GigaStudio 160, Reason, FM, all kinds of DX and VST plugins, etc., etc. etc. -- You name it. I did not try ProTools or Nuendo. I saw ZERO problems with my hardware. I know it sounds like a sales pitch, but belileve me I am not affiliated with DELL, or Microsoft, in any way. I am just giving you a friendly advice. It's up to you to follow or not.

Peace,
Remi

P.S. Don't forget to format your audio hard drive (or any hard drive I'd say) with maximum sector size - 64k. This is important as you need to stream continuous flow of large data chunks. You'll loose some drive capacity as the disk will allocate 64k even for a 2kb file, but for audio with all those megabytes it is not important. You'll gain speed big time.

Hint. You cannot select that large cluster size when formatting disk from Windows Explorer -- instead go to Disk Management applet (right click My Computer, select Manage, go to Disk Management). Ther you can select Format with cluster size 64k.

mrc · Post by **mrc** » Sat May 29, 2004 8:40 pm

Unless you have a 64 bit processor, I'm just not sold on it. There is a XP lite version of the software that made 98SE survivable for the software we had back then.
http://www.pcaudiolabs.com/setuptips.asp This site really gets you there

mrc

scott anthony · Post by **scott anthony** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 12:41 pm

sserendipity wrote:Could someone enlighten me on why this makes more sense for DAW use than XP pro?

Thanks!

What OS are you using now? Is it unstable for you? It's hard to imagine spending the money and time for what is imho a lateral move. I run 6 2003 servers at work, it's a wonderful OS, and can see the benefit for doing this if you are starting new/over.

Terminal services on 2003 has opened up tons of time to stay home and work on audio/day gig simultaneously.

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