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What OS for Four Dual Core Opterons?

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breesey said:
No it doesn't belong to me, and I don't think it's owner would like the option of throwing it away.
I'm fully aware that in this day and age it is an extremely stupid set up, but unfortunately it's what I've been tasked with.

As it happens I am a student, I tried that DreamSpark thing but when I put in my university it requests an "Athens Username/Password". However, I am part of the MSDNAA and it seems they have some Windows Server software, so I will download that and see how it is.
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The hardware setup itself isn't stupid at all, the stupid part is MS limiting you to 2 CPUs for no reason other than to force you to buy a higher SKU. Virtually every other OS out there worth using would let you use all of that hardware without any licensing issues.
 
Nothinman said:
The hardware setup itself isn't stupid at all, the stupid part is MS limiting you to 2 CPUs for no reason other than to force you to buy a higher SKU. Virtually every other OS out there worth using would let you use all of that hardware without any licensing issues.
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We all know you hate microsoft. You don't have to come into every windows thread and repeat it. This guy obviously need windows for the software that he needs to run, Photoshop. PS runs great under server versions of windows. I know, I've set it up many times. Other people here are correct is stating that he has the wrong hardware for what he really wants, Win7 and PS, but he's stuck with it. He has MSDNAA access which means he has access to FREE Server 2008 (non-R2). I highly recommend either it or 2003, they are both solid OS's and will use all of your processors.
 
Nothinman said:
Sure it is, it's just as dumb as putting XP32 on a machine with 8G of memory. The OP might as well just sell the thing on eBay and get a new machine with that money if they're dead set on running Windows.
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What he should do is pull out 2 CPUs. Install Win7 64bit. Sell the 2 CPUs for a few pennies in his pocket.

He's got MORE hardware than he needs. To be honest even if he COULD use all 4 and use photoshop, the performance improvement he'd see would be negligible at best.
 
phoenix79 said:
We all know you hate microsoft. You don't have to come into every windows thread and repeat it. This guy obviously need windows for the software that he needs to run, Photoshop. PS runs great under server versions of windows. I know, I've set it up many times. Other people here are correct is stating that he has the wrong hardware for what he really wants, Win7 and PS, but he's stuck with it. He has MSDNAA access which means he has access to FREE Server 2008 (non-R2). I highly recommend either it or 2003, they are both solid OS's and will use all of your processors.
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But it's fun and so easy because MS does so much to aggravate their customers. And it's not obvious that he absolutely needs Windows, running Photoshop under WINE or a VM could be an option depending on his requirements.
 
use vmware esx/i - you can say 4 sockets present to vm as 1 socket with 16 cores 😉 shhhh.. thats naughty! (oracle)
 
phoenix79 said:
He has MSDNAA access which means he has access to FREE Server 2008 (non-R2).
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But it's not his/her computer. MSDNAA licenses aren't transferrable to somebody else. If he/she is getting paid for this, it's a really bad idea to get involved in a licensing violation.

Homerboy said:
He's got MORE hardware than he needs. To be honest even if he COULD use all 4 and use photoshop, the performance improvement he'd see would be negligible at best.
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Most likely, ^^this^^.

As already suggested, I vote "sell the extra CPUs and install Win7" and be done with it. Assuming, of course, that all the user's software and hardware will run under Win7.
 
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Emulex said:
use vmware esx/i - you can say 4 sockets present to vm as 1 socket with 16 cores 😉 shhhh.. thats naughty! (oracle)
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Better hope those chips support AMD-V then 😛, if he's using the old school S939/940 chips he's going to have a problem.
 
A system with 4x Opterons might support ESXi, which is free... you could give a couple of cores to XP, a couple to Ubuntu, Win7, etc. Wouldn't perform as well as current/recent desktop CPUs but it's the only real way you'll leverage a desktop OS with server CPUs.

Storage requirements might end up being your bigger problem here, though, as will the cost of ECC memory (presumably a req't in that server) for a server that old. Worth a shot.

Edit - oops... already been said... that's what happens when you type a post at night but don't hit send :-O
 
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ColKurtz said:
A system with 4x Opterons might support ESXi, which is free...
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I don't know why people keep recommending ESXi. He wants to do graphical work, and if you think that he can do quality graphical work over RDP or the ESXi console, you're on crack.

ESXi is good at a lot of things, but desktop VMs is NOT one of them.
 
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