Windows 7 or Windows 2008 Server R2?

[MichaelL]

I’ve been doing some research into Windows 7 (currently beta 7000) and Windows 2008 Server R2 (Also in Beta). My thoughts are as follows:

I’ve come across one ZDNet test that claims Windows 7 is faster than Vista and even XP too. I think the results could be a bit misleading. Firstly Windows Vista is so crappy, any operating system could outperform it, so no great shakes there, but as far as Windows 7 outperforming XP, I would have to personally see it to believe it. I think Windows 7 will boot quicker than Vista or XP sure, because Microsoft have finally caught on to parallel loading of drivers, and only loading services on demand, unlike XP and Vista which are not that dynamic.

If Windows 7 is all that it claims to be, I think most of us will start using it, in place of Windows 2008 Workstation. But I don’t think Windows 7 will be the death of Windows 2008 Workstation, primarily because for most of us, its just way too convienient to have a server OS running as our local OS (not in VMWare or VPC). Most of us, anyways who develop around MS Server Platforms. So I guess this is where Windows Server 2008 R2 will come into play, but as far as I know, it won’t contain the stuff we would have liked for example: MCE as a server role.

All I know is I am not happy with the way Microsoft are marketing Windows 7, again putting way too much focus on the visuals and features, and hardly any reasurance of performance and business usage viability.

My last thoughts, is that if Linux starts shaping up, and I mean becoming REALLY easy to use, I might even consider switching to linux for home usage and gaming. But as far as I know most of the games I enjoy playing will mostly only run on Windows.

[aviv00]

hey

i tested win7 and win7 server

here the boot time
win7 32bit 35secs
win7 64bit 53secs
win7s 1:17

i used to have server 2008 but the boot time killed me 3-4 mins

now im duno what to do the server 7 is still take time to boot up i think to switch to win7
anyway i wanna try fix the d*** black out screen while booting

i think win7s should be faster then win7 however i tested the both and are the both quick fast

[Wakers]

Are you running server on old hardware there? It boots up in about 35 seconds for me?

About R2 – do we get that as a downloadable update or do we have to download and upgrade?

[aviv00]

nope

only the cdrom is old

CPU Type DualCore Intel Core 2 Duo E4300, 2400 MHz (9 x 267)

Motherboard Name Gigabyte GA-965G-DS3 (3 PCI, 3 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Video, Gigabit LAN)

System Memory 2048 MB (DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM)

Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 7100 GS (512 MB)

Audio Adapter Realtek ALC888/S/T @ Intel 82801HB ICH8 – High Definition Audio Controller [B-0]

Disk Drive WDC WD1600JS-60NCB1 (149 GB, IDE) [ this hdd should be sata its found as ide ]

Disk Drive WDC WD2500JB-00REA0 (232 GB, IDE)

Optical Drive _NEC DVD_RW ND-3520AW (DVD+R9:4x, DVD-R9:4x, DVD+RW:16x/8x, DVD-RW:16x/6x, DVD-ROM:16x, CD:48x/24x/48x DVD+RW/DVD-RW)

Network Adapter Marvell Yukon 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller

and its clean installation

ok i gonna remove it and try i tried via the bios to disable it doesn’t solve it

[Wakers]

There’s no way it should be booting that slow on your system – except I notice you have IDE drives. I know they’re out of date now but i’m not sure how much slower they are than SATA drives.

[aviv00]

my os boot from the sata hdd

and i removed both hdd on ide and cdrom too

and trying booting the system well its make worse around 1:40 20secs more

i did the boot up twice to see if its update it self or something and no changed

someone from ms said its could be the grafic card and suggest me to boot to safe mode

didnt helped much just 10 secs less

i search the log of event log and didnt find somethign just the Task Scheduler few error i tired to disable it give it a try but again didnt helped

and back days when i used server 2008 the boot time was very ugly 3-4 mins

btw MichaelL sorry for offtopic

[frauhottelmann]

@Wakers wrote:

Are you running server on old hardware there? It boots up in about 35 seconds for me?

About R2 – do we get that as a downloadable update or do we have to download and upgrade?

No, a R2 releases are like a new OS, you will have to buy it to use it (or use it for 180 days without activating it…)!
R2 will replace “R1” immediately when it comes out. In contrast to 2003 R2 this will be a major upgrade (new kernel etc.).

[JonusC]

Server 2008 R2 would technically be faster than Windows 7 for the simple reason that it contains nowhere near as much bloat.

However, there may be changes in the Server OS that might actually make your system slower than using the Client version. Laptops seem to be more common to have trouble with Server OS’s, probably because they are just slower.

One thing to keep in mind with Windows Server 2008 – for every Server Role you install, your workstation performance (games for example) WILL BE SLOWER.

Another example is the “Windows System Resource Manager” server role will always use CPU cycles if installed and critically impacts on gaming performance. Proof – Task Manager, “WMI Provider Host” process jumps between 2-10% CPU usage even when sitting on the Desktop and idle. If you still want to have it installed, set the “Windows System Resource Manager” to “Manual” startup type.

This was not a rant, I was simply giving examples of why the Server OS can be slower than the Workstation, despite the lack of bloat. So to sum it up-
Client OS (Windows 7): Pro’s are lots of user features. Cons are lots of bloat.
Server OS (Windows 2008 R2): Pro’s are a lean-and-mean OS still with the core features of the Windows 7. Cons are that it requires advanced configuration, sometimes hacking, to have the same experience and workstation capabilities as Windows 7.

[IgorHW]

@JonusC wrote:

Another example is the “Windows System Resource Manager” server role will always use CPU cycles if installed and critically impacts on gaming performance. Proof – Task Manager, “WMI Provider Host” process jumps between 2-10% CPU usage even when sitting on the Desktop and idle.

It always stays at 0% on my server 2008…

[JonusC]

…do you have the “Windows System Resource Manager” server role installed? And enabled?

If yes, then it must just be my stupud computer. Lol. Or the fact that i’m only on an AMD X2 5000+, which isn’t even as fast as the slowest Core 2 Duo in existence 😆

[IgorHW]

Ahh, sorry i missed that part of your post, i didn’t have it turned on.
I did like the idea of controlling cpu & memory resources so i installed it. WMI Provider Host is still at 0% and i got a new exe in task manager: “wsrm.exe” with description “Windows System Resource Manager”. Something else must be messing with your windows, i don’t think its Windows System Resource Manager.

I also dont have a hot shot cpu, only E2160 at stock speeds (1.8GHz) in my computer 🙂

[JonusC]

Ah… I think the E2160 is a little slower than the Athlon X2 5000+. Only by a bit though from memory lol!

There used to be a site where you could choose any selection of CPU’s and compare the benchmarks they did of them from over the years… can’t remember the site. That was a good tool.

Everest does it too though =) Holy crapola I just discovered my 5000+ is underclocked to 4600+ speeds…. why is my multiplier so low!?!?! *Reboots and ups from x11 to x13*

Anyway, but yeah maybe. I installed it for the same reason – I would of used it for diagnostic purposes as I review a lot of software and do a lot of multitasking, I think it has the ability to set rules to prioritise certain processes depending on your current activity… that’s pretty damn cool. But i’m also working on a software that can do that 😉

But as soon as I stopped the service, my CPU usage went from the constant 5-10% back down to 0%. I even re-started it, it shot back up, and re-stopped it, went back down.

I think it just hates me!

Mind you, that was with Server 2008 R1, now I recall. I havn’t bothered to try it with R2 yet. Coulda been anything though, a driver or something.

[IgorHW]

I totally forgot to tell you that the same problem with cpu usage appeared in my windows and indeed it stopped as soon as i uninstalled “Windows System Resource Manager”. I think cpu usage was more than 30% on my computer, don’t remember exactly.

[JonusC]

@IgorHW wrote:

I totally forgot to tell you that the same problem with cpu usage appeared in my windows and indeed it stopped as soon as i uninstalled “Windows System Resource Manager”. I think cpu usage was more than 30% on my computer, don’t remember exactly.

Well, that’s exactly what I was saying. But I didn’t uninstall the feature, I just stopped and disabled the “Windows System Resource Manager” service.

[JonusC]

By the way, i’ve turned to the dark side…. 😳

I switched over to Windows 7.

The latest build, 7057, which is listed as “Release Canditate 1” (but probably pre-RC1) is faster than EVER, and all the little bugs that were in Beta1 are GONE!

Server 2008 R2 has no leaked build this high, so Windows 7 is for me. Plus, my authentic Windows 7 Public Beta key works 100% 😉

[awalt]

I am sticking with Server, the biggest reason being Hyper-V. I really like being able to run beta software or certain Dev tools in a VM. It’s amazing how much more stable my system has become once the basic system does not have new installs coming and going alll the time.

[hoak]

Well ‘performance‘ is relative to what you’re benchmarking; a while back I ran Futuremark’s frame rate benchmarks on x64 editions of: Windows 7 Professional, Server 2003 Web, and Server 2008 R2. Previously I’d done this with Server 2003 Web and XP and found Server 2003 to be substantially faster then Windows XP.

The results were odd and mixed generally giving Windows 7 small synthetic DirectX 9 and 10 performance leads over the other two Operating Systmes but often results were within the margin of error for the benchmarks. Running real games however was another matter, as Sever 2003 was able to consistently run DirectX 9 games faster then Windows 7 or Server 2008 R2, and running DirectX 10 games Windows 7 was faster then Server 2008 R2…

💡

[Author]

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