4 dual core and windows 2003

[Stupor_Duck]

This is most likely in the wrong section but I am at a loss as to the correct place to put it.

I have a machine with 4 Intel Dual Core Xeon processors. On this machine is installed Windows 2003 standard edition. Now for licensing purposes I am fine with the standard edition. However performance wise I am not so sure. I feel that Windows 2003 EE or Windows 2003 DC should be installed. But I can not find facts to back my gut feelings. Microsoft, Dell, HP, Technet and google were of limited help. What is the general consensus here? When all is said and done windows see 16 cpus.

 

[shinigamiX]

This is most likely in the wrong section but I am at a loss as to the correct place to put it.

I have a machine with 4 Intel Dual Core Xeon processors. On this machine is installed Windows 2003 standard edition. Now for licensing purposes I am fine with the standard edition. However performance wise I am not so sure. I feel that Windows 2003 EE or Windows 2003 DC should be installed. But I can not find facts to back my gut feelings. Microsoft, Dell, HP, Technet and google were of limited help. What is the general consensus here? When all is said and done windows see 16 cpus.

I honestly think different versions of XP - 64-bit aside - perform differently. The fact is that no software today really makes use of more than 2 cores...

 

[Stupor_Duck]

This is most likely in the wrong section but I am at a loss as to the correct place to put it.

I have a machine with 4 Intel Dual Core Xeon processors. On this machine is installed Windows 2003 standard edition. Now for licensing purposes I am fine with the standard edition. However performance wise I am not so sure. I feel that Windows 2003 EE or Windows 2003 DC should be installed. But I can not find facts to back my gut feelings. Microsoft, Dell, HP, Technet and google were of limited help. What is the general consensus here? When all is said and done windows see 16 cpus.

I honestly think different versions of XP - 64-bit aside - perform differently. The fact is that no software today really makes use of more than 2 cores...

XP doesn't come into play here. Unless you are counting the various flavors of Windows 2003 Server as versions of XP. To the best of my knowledge this box is 32 bit.

This is most likely in the wrong section but I am at a loss as to the correct place to put it.

I have a machine with 4 Intel Dual Core Xeon processors. On this machine is installed Windows 2003 standard edition. Now for licensing purposes I am fine with the standard edition. However performance wise I am not so sure. I feel that Windows 2003 EE or Windows 2003 DC should be installed. But I can not find facts to back my gut feelings. Microsoft, Dell, HP, Technet and google were of limited help. What is the general consensus here? When all is said and done windows see 16 cpus.

I honestly think different versions of XP - 64-bit aside - perform differently. The fact is that no software today really makes use of more than 2 cores...

With Hyper-Threading turned on it is 16 CPUs. 4 sockets x 2 cores apiece x 2 for Hyper-Threading. 4x2x2=16. And again we are talking about Windows 2003 Server 32 bit.

I am thinking that I ought to have the Enterprise Edition or the Data Center edition of Windows 2003 put to better utilize the cpus.

 

[TechnologyCoordinator]

Standard Edition

Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition is aimed towards small to medium sized businesses. Flexible and versatile, Standard Edition supports file and printer sharing, offers secure Internet connectivity, and allows centralized desktop application deployment. This edition of Windows will run on up to 4 processors with up to 4 GB RAM. 64-bit versions are also available for the AMD64 architecture and the Intel clone of that same architecture, EM64T (called, collectively, x64 by Microsoft). The 64-bit version of Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition is capable of addressing up to 32 GB of RAM and it also supports Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA), something the 32-bit version does not.


Enterprise Edition

Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition is aimed towards medium to large businesses. It is a full-function server operating system that supports up to eight processors and provides enterprise-class features such as eight-node clustering using Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) software and support for up to 32 GB of memory. Enterprise Edition also comes in 64-bit versions for the Itanium and x64 architectures. The 64-bit version of Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition [64-bit] is capable of addressing up to 1 Terabyte (1024 GB) of RAM. Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions support Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA). It also provides the ability to hot-add supported hardware.


Datacenter Edition

Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition is designed for infrastructures demanding high security and reliability. Windows Server 2003 is available for x86 32-bit, Itanium, and x64 processors. It supports a minimum of 8 processors and a maximum of 64 processors, however it is limited to 32 processors when run on 32-bit architecture. 32-bit architecture also limits memory addressability to 64GB, while the 64-bit versions support up to 512 GB. Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition, also allows limiting processor and memory usage on a per-application basis.

Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition also supports Non-Uniform Memory Access. If supported by the system, Windows, with help from the system firmware creates a Static Resource Affinity Table, that defines the NUMA topology of the system. Windows then uses this table to optimize memory accesses, and provide NUMA awareness to applications, thereby increasing the efficiency of thread scheduling and memory management.

Windows Server 2003, Datacenter edition has better support for Storage Area Networks (SAN). It features a service which uses Windows sockets to emulate TCP/IP communication over native SAN service providers, thereby allowing a SAN to be accessed over any TCP/IP channel. With this, any application that can communicate over TCP/IP can use a SAN, without any modification to the application.

Windows Server 2003, Datacenter edition, also supports 8-node clustering. Clustering increases availability and fault tolerance of server installations, by distributing and replicating the service among many servers. Windows supports clustering, with each cluster having its own dedicated storage, or all clusters connected to a common Storage Area Network (SAN), which can be running on Windows as well as non-Windows Operating systems. The SAN may be connected to other computers as well.

I hope that helps.

 

[Stupor_Duck]

TechnologyCoordinator,

Yes this helps a little. Although I knew most of this already. My problem comes from licensing and the performance issues. Windows 2003 standard will support up to four sockets for licensing. Note I said sockets not processors. In theory you could have 4 quad cores in there for total of 32 processors. But performance wise how does it handle the fact that it has 16 processors, 8 physical and 8 virtual. I am strongly leaning towards Enterprise Edition but need facts to back up my gut.

 

[TechnologyCoordinator]

If you're going to forseeably put more than 4 gigs of RAM you're going to want Enterprise.

 

[TechnologyCoordinator]

If you're going to forseeably put more than 4 gigs of RAM you're going to want Enterprise.

Why not just get vista ultimate then? 8 cpus plus 4gig ram is overkill for even 64bit vista right now until more software becomes available

If Vista licensing is similar to XP he'd be screwed with a 4 Socket system.