Ok, I am going to be entirely ignorant here. ( nowt new yeah yeah whatever )
But, I have over the years had a few looks into various WindowsServer Operating systems, installed them onto a PC in more of a "Ooh lets have a peek" kind of thing more than actually needing to.
A few years back, I actually got hold of Server 2008 with the idea of properly going ahead and setting my entire setup up, using the Server as a true server, so that I can fully install all my PCs over the LAN aand well, I had plans that simply never came about simply becaise there was only one tiny flaw in my plan.
Me. Im useless.
This flaw is still present, and a short while back, I saw a server bundle on the MM and so I thought ah stuff it, lets have it for a giggle. I have now setup this thing and Im having some fun with it, let down in some ways, ( 2.5Ghz ) impressed with others etc ( 32 cores wohoo! ) spent a fortune on it ( 256GB RAM ) and so far, I have gone entirely OTT on it but hey, why not eh?
Anyway, its currently running Win 8.1 64Bit. I have had a good bit of fun with it, and I am thinking that its just simply a bit of a waste of money in so many ways. I also feel that the O/S is limiting it.
Now, I have had a play with Windows Server O/S over the years, but what benefits would I truly see if I was to reinstall it?
I know that there is a fair number of programs that I use, that simply do not work under the Server O/S, the obvious like NOD32 and even the free version of Avast dont work under it, O&O DeFrag dont work and so Iw ill have to buy the Server version of that and there are a few more, but I also play a few games too, like Dawn Of war, and International Snooker etc, I have a fairly good Steam Collection and while I dont give two hoots about 90% of it, I still would like to know that I cn play them if need be.
Now, I kow that its a simple case of suck it and see as is the case for many things really, but simply going from one version of Windows to another, in which case 99% of everything runs on everything else, going to a server O/S is vastly different in many ways.
So, could anyone tell me what are the real differences?
As I said, I will be using the PC for my family's everyday Living room PC, I will be playing games and the wife will be spending my hard earned on ebay, as will my daughter, and my eldest son will be buying guns and ammo for his xbox while my youngest son will be looking at lingerie in teh catalog- you know, the usual stuff, and I myslef will be doing things like Video processing and so on.
I know that most of this will be fine, but what I have noticed, is that the software that I use, even when I select multiple cores, still seems to often top out at a certain number of cores.
I will give you an example or two :-
If I dump a load of Audio files into one app, it will only actually work on 4 files at a time, even though my other PCs are 8 core. I had thought, that since the I7 are 4+HT, then that could be why, but the AMD is also doing the same, so is that because the AMD is also kind of a 4+4 effort in a way, but it does the same on the hex core AMD and the Hex core I7 too! - and now even this 32Core bugger.
There is one program that seems to work on 8 files at one time and so, would running it on a server O/S free up the rest of it?
I also notice, that when this PC and indeed my other previous non server PCs, have been working on a Video file, lets say converting from AVI to a DVD format, if I looked at the Task Manager, and ?I see the CPU useage, it is only really actually eating up about 15% and twiddling its thumbs for the rest of the time? - what the hell?
When I noticed that, I did a whole load of various tests and trials and I actually found that if I loaded up 4 copies of the program, and then gave 2 cores to each program, I could actually convert 4 files at the same time as it would take to convert just the one?
Why the hell does it do that?
It almost makes multicore a total waste of time in some ways.
Only a few days ago I had a really huge laugh when I converted my entire colection of Modern Family - all 7 series' from MKV to AVI ( Yes, I have bought them all legally - I dont do any of that stuff ) but I wanted them on my tablet and so what I did, purely for the giggles, is I loaded up 7 copies of the video converter, one for each season, and I dumped each season into each program, all the programs were being copied from my Drive E: whcih is one of the HDs in this PC, but then they were being output to my Drive R: which is a 32GB RAMDisk. The files were being output as 640x480 AVI and so I knew that they should fit ( the app says how big they will be once converted ) and I ran the lot, and that set about converting all the episodes, and what it did, was convert one episode for each core and this seemed to be 32 episodes were being converted all at once, and yet the entire convertion only actualyl took about 13 minutes from start to finish - now that was VERY impressive.
But like I said, I had to do that with 7 copies of the program running... Surely if the proigram used up the full power of the CPU and not seemingly only allow itself to run at 15% or so when its doing one copy, then there is something wrong surely? Will a Server OS allow this?
Now, ok, some apps do things differently I grant you, but that seems to be the case with so many apps that its really annoying.
Will a Server O/S open up the full access to the full power of the CPUs?
I dont want to go ahead and install Windows Server 2008 and then realise that its not going to be any benefit for me.
I dont have a newer version of Server than that and so I am fully aware that I should get a more up to date one, but I am not going to buy another one if I am not going to seriously benefit from it because I am simply not good enough to warrant having to spend anymore money in that way.
Ok, I think I have simply waffled on far too much and I appologise about that but there is just so much going on in my head, and I have a hundred more uselss and just as irelevant questions to ask, but if anyone can at least give me a few reasons to, and not to go with a Server O/S in this particular PC, then I will be entirely grateful for it.
Thank you very much indeed.
But, I have over the years had a few looks into various WindowsServer Operating systems, installed them onto a PC in more of a "Ooh lets have a peek" kind of thing more than actually needing to.
A few years back, I actually got hold of Server 2008 with the idea of properly going ahead and setting my entire setup up, using the Server as a true server, so that I can fully install all my PCs over the LAN aand well, I had plans that simply never came about simply becaise there was only one tiny flaw in my plan.
Me. Im useless.
This flaw is still present, and a short while back, I saw a server bundle on the MM and so I thought ah stuff it, lets have it for a giggle. I have now setup this thing and Im having some fun with it, let down in some ways, ( 2.5Ghz ) impressed with others etc ( 32 cores wohoo! ) spent a fortune on it ( 256GB RAM ) and so far, I have gone entirely OTT on it but hey, why not eh?
Anyway, its currently running Win 8.1 64Bit. I have had a good bit of fun with it, and I am thinking that its just simply a bit of a waste of money in so many ways. I also feel that the O/S is limiting it.
Now, I have had a play with Windows Server O/S over the years, but what benefits would I truly see if I was to reinstall it?
I know that there is a fair number of programs that I use, that simply do not work under the Server O/S, the obvious like NOD32 and even the free version of Avast dont work under it, O&O DeFrag dont work and so Iw ill have to buy the Server version of that and there are a few more, but I also play a few games too, like Dawn Of war, and International Snooker etc, I have a fairly good Steam Collection and while I dont give two hoots about 90% of it, I still would like to know that I cn play them if need be.
Now, I kow that its a simple case of suck it and see as is the case for many things really, but simply going from one version of Windows to another, in which case 99% of everything runs on everything else, going to a server O/S is vastly different in many ways.
So, could anyone tell me what are the real differences?
As I said, I will be using the PC for my family's everyday Living room PC, I will be playing games and the wife will be spending my hard earned on ebay, as will my daughter, and my eldest son will be buying guns and ammo for his xbox while my youngest son will be looking at lingerie in teh catalog- you know, the usual stuff, and I myslef will be doing things like Video processing and so on.
I know that most of this will be fine, but what I have noticed, is that the software that I use, even when I select multiple cores, still seems to often top out at a certain number of cores.
I will give you an example or two :-
If I dump a load of Audio files into one app, it will only actually work on 4 files at a time, even though my other PCs are 8 core. I had thought, that since the I7 are 4+HT, then that could be why, but the AMD is also doing the same, so is that because the AMD is also kind of a 4+4 effort in a way, but it does the same on the hex core AMD and the Hex core I7 too! - and now even this 32Core bugger.
There is one program that seems to work on 8 files at one time and so, would running it on a server O/S free up the rest of it?
I also notice, that when this PC and indeed my other previous non server PCs, have been working on a Video file, lets say converting from AVI to a DVD format, if I looked at the Task Manager, and ?I see the CPU useage, it is only really actually eating up about 15% and twiddling its thumbs for the rest of the time? - what the hell?
When I noticed that, I did a whole load of various tests and trials and I actually found that if I loaded up 4 copies of the program, and then gave 2 cores to each program, I could actually convert 4 files at the same time as it would take to convert just the one?
Why the hell does it do that?
It almost makes multicore a total waste of time in some ways.
Only a few days ago I had a really huge laugh when I converted my entire colection of Modern Family - all 7 series' from MKV to AVI ( Yes, I have bought them all legally - I dont do any of that stuff ) but I wanted them on my tablet and so what I did, purely for the giggles, is I loaded up 7 copies of the video converter, one for each season, and I dumped each season into each program, all the programs were being copied from my Drive E: whcih is one of the HDs in this PC, but then they were being output to my Drive R: which is a 32GB RAMDisk. The files were being output as 640x480 AVI and so I knew that they should fit ( the app says how big they will be once converted ) and I ran the lot, and that set about converting all the episodes, and what it did, was convert one episode for each core and this seemed to be 32 episodes were being converted all at once, and yet the entire convertion only actualyl took about 13 minutes from start to finish - now that was VERY impressive.
But like I said, I had to do that with 7 copies of the program running... Surely if the proigram used up the full power of the CPU and not seemingly only allow itself to run at 15% or so when its doing one copy, then there is something wrong surely? Will a Server OS allow this?
Now, ok, some apps do things differently I grant you, but that seems to be the case with so many apps that its really annoying.
Will a Server O/S open up the full access to the full power of the CPUs?
I dont want to go ahead and install Windows Server 2008 and then realise that its not going to be any benefit for me.
I dont have a newer version of Server than that and so I am fully aware that I should get a more up to date one, but I am not going to buy another one if I am not going to seriously benefit from it because I am simply not good enough to warrant having to spend anymore money in that way.
Ok, I think I have simply waffled on far too much and I appologise about that but there is just so much going on in my head, and I have a hundred more uselss and just as irelevant questions to ask, but if anyone can at least give me a few reasons to, and not to go with a Server O/S in this particular PC, then I will be entirely grateful for it.
Thank you very much indeed.
