Dell Precision M4400 compatible with Win2k Pro?

You should really give Windows Server 2003 a try. Tweak installation quickly using nLite and Blackviper's Windows XP 64-bit tweaker guide. The load times are incredible on my machine 2 GHz, 4GB RAM. Qualitative numbers: 65 seconds from cold boot including BIOS, 14 seconds shut down.
To give you an idea of speed the little progress bar does two iterations on the boot screen before screen goes black and loads into Windows. I too have used W2K before W2K3 and I can say from comparison W2K3 is faster and possibly more stable. You can do away with the childish interface also using classic interface. Noone is forcing you to use that either. You get the benefits from 100% compatability for XP drivers, and update support (until 2010, extended support to 2015).
If you are looking to give that extra boost for a faster machine, you can consider using NTFS if your hard drive is over 32GB (it also has better recoverability compared to FAT32). What you can also do is to create a seperate FAT32 4GB partition for the pagefile (or whatever size you want your pagefile to be, up to first 30% of drive - first 30% have comparable read times) at the beginning of the drivespace, since this area gets the fastest read times and FAT32 gives a faster read on large files.You can use FDISK to do that or UBCD. Both have the tools to do it properly.
I too am a speed freak and I can guarantee you that you won't be disappointed with W2K3!
Regarding booting from CD, all computers should be able to do that, and you can almost guarantee it if it does not include a floppy drive.

Links:
http://www.nliteos.com/
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXPx64/servicecfg.htm\
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

 

Windows XP SP3 only takes 15 seconds to boot on my T61 and NC8430. It could be I use SSD's on both laptops.

 

Another vote for Windows Server 2003 R2. You get XP-like hardware compatibility and 2K stability and speed.

 

Ok it seems Win2K3 is the ticket. Can someone fill me in which version should I get? there seems to be a lot of options (Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, x32, x64, etc etc). Also what is the status of the service packs for this OS, is there a release that has already all the updates?

Is R2 the most up to date version? or does it still need additional updates to be installed (being it windows, probably still needs a truckload of them).

Just need to run it as plain OS on my P4 machine, no server services required.
Would Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard x32 be the right choice?

Thanks.

 

Hey glentium, just curious how fast does your w2k3 machine boot, and at shutdown? Any tune-up tips?

BTW thanks to Enduct for providing some interesting links.

 

Yes R2 is the latest Windows 2003. You can choose either Standard or Web.
Sorry I don't have it installed right now as I am working on a project that requires, sadly, XP, but it's in one of my image snapshots. Regarding tune-up tipsm check out this link.

 

Yes, you can load and format drive from Win2K installation CD.

 

I am currently using the 32-bit (x86) version of W2K3, although I presume the 64-bit version will be faster, but may have driver problems with some hardware. I personally don't see 64-bit programs becoming mainstream in anything for a while either, and there is no major advantage in running 64-bit without 64-bit programs. You can use the service config by BlackViper for XP Professional 64-bit for W2K3 as posted in reply #11, since XP 64-bit is based on W2K3, so everything that is there will work. I generally go with their Power user configuration. Make sure to turn on features you want in services, such as SD cards and such, as the config assumes you have a desktop and will show these as better off disabled when this would compromise functionality. For all processes not listed on the 64-bit, you can disable safely, since they will have to do with servers only. Also R2 is not absolutely necessary, as R2 is basically an extra CD with server functionality upgrades. You will just need the first CD and upgrade to SP2 after you have done installing. After installation, you will need to adjust the DirectX, audio and video components, as the audio will be set to medium and video hardware acceleration will be set to none by default, since it is a server configuration. To make it easier, you can try running sala's Win Server 2003 Optimize Tool, which enables these to be easily accessed. The rest of the options can be precustomised by nLite in a custom W2K3 installation CD. Note that for some programs, particularly antivirus, will require the server edition instead of the standard home editions. Also, Logitech does not seem to support installation into W2K3 for some hardware, for unknown reasons, although if you check their forums you may find workarounds, or use default Windows drivers, no biggie. Other than that it's a great OS.

Links:
http://www.kood.org/?page_id=5

 

Thanks guys! I'm really psyched up about Win2k3. Going to give it a try on a old 4.3GB HD I have lying around. Don't just yet want to rush into changing my everyday system, although I have a full HD Ghost image of it, just in case.

Please, keep the good info coming, I really want to learn as much as possible about Win2k3 performance tricks of the trade. Thanks again.

 

BTW, does the initial installation of Win2k3 need an older windows system to be present on the HD? or can I create a couple of boot floppies as when installing Win2K for the first time?

On second tought... I'm guessing maybe I'll have to set my bios to boot from the install CD?