FYI: Compaq ProLiant ML530 G1 and Windows Vista

Maybe it's interesting for someone (probably not but who knows):

I had some spare time and still found no solution for the service
partition problem I described in another posting so I did the ridiculous
and tested Windows Vista Business on an old ProLiant ML530 Generation 1
server (2x XEON 1GHz, 2.5GB RAM, Smart Array 6402 w. 576MB Cache, 6x HP
300GB 15k U320 disks in RAID0 config, DVD-ROM). The disk array was clean
and contained no data (or any partitions). I just booted from the
install DVD and set up the whole array (1.8TB) as a single partition.
Installation went fine and was quite fast, Vista recognized all the
hardware and after finishing worked flawlessly. The only drawback was
the gfx part since Vista doesn't support the on-Board ATI RAGE IIc gfx
controller. I installed the W2k driver from the HP site and ended up
with full accelerated gfx. Compaq did a *very* good job with the BIOS
ACPI table, otherwise Vista couldn't have been installed (most desktop
computers from that aera can't install Vista because the BIOS lacks the
necessary ACPI support).

Performance was quite good which probably was due to the amount of RAM
(2.5GB) and the whooping fast disk subsystem (ATTO disk benchmark
reported over 300GB/s). Tried IE7, Firefox, Office 2007, OpenOffice 2.2,
Nero 7.8.5.0 and some other applications, they all were useable very
good. If this thing wouldn't be that loud it would still make a nice
huge desktop system, just pop in a faster gfx card and here you go ;-)

So if you're thinking about converting your old outdated P3 XEON server
into a Vista workstation just give it a try ;-)

Benjamin

"Benjamin Gawert" wrote in message
...
Maybe it's interesting for someone (probably not but who knows):

I had some spare time and still found no solution for the service
partition problem I described in another posting so I did the ridiculous
and tested Windows Vista Business on an old ProLiant ML530 Generation 1
server (2x XEON 1GHz, 2.5GB RAM, Smart Array 6402 w. 576MB Cache, 6x HP
300GB 15k U320 disks in RAID0 config, DVD-ROM). The disk array was clean
and contained no data (or any partitions). I just booted from the install
DVD and set up the whole array (1.8TB) as a single partition. Installation
went fine and was quite fast, Vista recognized all the hardware and after
finishing worked flawlessly. The only drawback was the gfx part since
Vista doesn't support the on-Board ATI RAGE IIc gfx controller. I
installed the W2k driver from the HP site and ended up with full
accelerated gfx. Compaq did a *very* good job with the BIOS ACPI table,
otherwise Vista couldn't have been installed (most desktop computers from
that aera can't install Vista because the BIOS lacks the necessary ACPI
support).

Performance was quite good which probably was due to the amount of RAM
(2.5GB) and the whooping fast disk subsystem (ATTO disk benchmark reported
over 300GB/s). Tried IE7, Firefox, Office 2007, OpenOffice 2.2, Nero
7.8.5.0 and some other applications, they all were useable very good. If
this thing wouldn't be that loud it would still make a nice huge desktop
system, just pop in a faster gfx card and here you go ;-)

So if you're thinking about converting your old outdated P3 XEON server
into a Vista workstation just give it a try ;-)

Benjamin



BLASPHEMY !!!!