Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2?

Diamondbuild

Diamondbuild

Diamondbuild

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5 Jan 2010
Posts
34
Let me start by saying that I've been running windows 7 for a year or so now, and have seen nothing but poor performance from it despite reinstalling the OS a number of times.
For example, my favourite game takes up 5 minutes sometimes to start, takes 30 seconds or so to open programs, and some things are even worse.
I recently aquired Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 and installed it for a few hours to test it out, then went back to W7, and now I'm having a hard time deciding which one to use, I absolutely loved Windows Server, although extremely similar to W7 it was a whole lot faster for me and it had a number of things that I liked (quick setup, "your username is administrator" vs "what would you like your username to be?" kind of things), although the ATi graphics driver installer refused to recognise my card so I had to manually install the drivers.

In my opinion:

Windows 7 Pros:
More compatible with things
Designed for personal use

Windows 7 Cons:
Slow (for me at least)
Memory usage much higher on boot than w7
Much more processes and services enabled by default
Much slower boot time
Administrator account not enabled by default
UAC (although can be disabled it just seems like another useless feature)

Windows Server 2008 R2 Pros:
Fast
Light
Seemed to run my games better
I found it much easier to use
Faster boot time

Windows Server 2008 R2 Cons:
Couldn't install ATI graphics drivers
Visual Studio 2010 setup crashed when I ran setup.exe (although it later turned out to be a virus anyway)
Less compatible with things
Not designed for personal use

My specs:
4GB DDR2 RAM
AMD Phenom X4 9850+ BE CPU
ATI Radeon HD 5870 GPU

The main reason I'm not on server 2008 right now is because of the compatibility problems.

Now I'm having a hard time deciding between the two :mad:
Any help would be appreciated
 
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There is one massive difference that you are failing to mention.
Server is £400+
Windows 7 is £60

I really don't think the average home user can splash out £400 on an OS.

If Windows 7 was known to be slow the web would be full of stories about it.
There aren't any.
Because Windows 7 is extremely quick, doesn't crash all the time.

I'm sorry but you must have something faulty somewhere.
If you are building your PC up from scratch with the compnents you list and are then clean installing Windows 7 then you should not be getting the issues you describe.

You either have some faulty hardware or you are polluting the Win7 installation with something software that is slowing your machine down.

I have seen many, many Windows 7 machines running on a lower specification than you describe without any of the issues you describe.

The fix for your system is not to splash £400 on an OS - although the word "aquired" certainly means you didn't pay for this OS.
 
Interesting findings considering they are the same Kernel, allocate memory the same way, use the same processes, etc.

There will be some games that do a sanity check on the OS and probably won't even install because the OS version will be wrong.

You can also quite easily install ATI drivers on Server 2008 R2. I've had to numerous times.
 
I am surprised games work on server because i tried to do something similar with server 2003 years ago and not all my software would install.

I would use windows 7 and just turn off everything you don't need and remove all the microsoft additional software as well. I must have disabled over 10 services and even removed windows media player and internet explorer and disabled everything else that i could find.
 
Something wrong with you setup then... win7 home premium 64bit has been fast and responsive for me even without having to cut out too much of the clutter.
 
Sorry, but you have buggered up your Windows 7 installations or you have a hardware issue.

Server 2008 is a lot leaner than a desktop OS, so the problems you are having in 7 may not be noticeable. You will run into problems down the line running 2008 as a Desktop OS I think. Besides, Dreamspark is meant for students and studying. Using it as your main OS wasn't really the intention.
 
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