Pardon me to post here, but I have had a challenge with finding correct info on MS site as the hardware compatibility link is not serving up the info.
I decided to follow my son's lead after he built his own gaming box and build my own server for SBS 03. I needed SBS to run Goldmine premium (8.0) CRM for my business using SQL 05 Workgroup edition. At this point, I will be only personaccessing that software.
I have been peer to peer network, but in essence, have been server based using 1 primary system for all file storage to ease backup pains with everyone doing their own thing. All images (photographer) & documents have been like this since my install of Lantastic DOS many, many, moons ago.
2 part question.1. How crazy is it to run the server box as my personal machine as well? I have always run the "fake" server as my machine with no perceptible slowdown. Only 3- 4 other machines accessing data and not for extended periodsSpecs: Gigabyte Mobo P35C-DS3R 45nm either DDR2 or DDR3 1066FSB up to 8G DDR2 (anticipating 64 bit). Mobo is 64 bit compliant. One of the supported processors for the Mobo was the Intel 3110 Core 2 Xeon running at 3.0Ghz. As this is a low end server chip, I thought it should serve my purpose.HD's 1TB seagate partitioned with 100G for Server and future updates/upgrades with 2 640G Maxtor HD's using the onboard Raid controller in Raid 1. Using a 550w Corsair PS.
What problems would I run into using the box in a dual manner- client/server role? And, is it even technically possible with SBS to do this?
2. Bought EVGA 8000 series graphics card to run my dual dvi monitors and believe NVIDIA doesn't support SBS 03 with drivers for it. But, I believe ATI cards are supported for SBS 03 and drivers are more readily available. I tried XP drivers based upon EVGA blog, but the card is not even seen in the box. Could be a Mobo issue as well though.
For question 1, Yea or nay on using as client/server?
Question 2- Since MS site not serving up compatibility for hardware, any suggestions on how to check? Would XP drivers be possible to be used if SBS 03 not available?
Thanks and sorry for length. Spencer
Spencer,
Sorry for the delay in answering this mail. Your question crosses the line between practical use and cost savings. A SBS box should be on 24 hours a day to receive e-mail and should avoid any situation that could cause it to crash as it has services running that could be broken (Active Directory for security and users managment, WSUS for patch management ....). This should be fine, except one area that seems to have more instability in it is the high speed graphics drivers, which used to be a major cause for system crashes.
Now, as you say, you have used your workstation before, so providing the drivers and your applications seem quite happy - and you are really the only user on the network, I would say you can do this in the short term. As the load on the server increases, I would look to moving towards a seperate server and workstation. Your hardware is above what you need for SBS in some ways (eg Graphics, memory today), but sounds good for your console.
As for compatibility - SBS 2003 is based on Windows Server 2003, so that is what you need to look for, although I have often used XP display and printer drivers on SBS boxed.
Thanks
David
(c)David Overton 2006-23