[isapros] Re: OT: The Most Powerful PC on the Planet!

  • From: "Thomas W Shinder" <tshinder@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <isapros@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2006 09:04:21 -0500

Hey Tim,

It looks like there are still a lot of limitations to the 64bit platform
regarding driver support. If memory is the only issue, then Windows
Server 2003 Enterprise Edition will support 32GB and Windows Server 2003
Datacenter Edition will support 64GB of RAM.

That's how I'd go if memory we're the only issue. But I thought I heard
from the incognosenti that 64 bit apps "flew" (or it that "blew"?)

Tom

Thomas W Shinder, M.D.
Site: www.isaserver.org
Blog: http://blogs.isaserver.org/shinder/
Book: http://tinyurl.com/3xqb7
MVP -- ISA Firewalls

 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: isapros-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
> [mailto:isapros-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Thor 
> (Hammer of God)
> Sent: Friday, June 30, 2006 3:44 PM
> To: isapros@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [isapros] OT: The Most Powerful PC on the Planet!
> 
> So, I've finally settled into my new HP xw9300 workstation. 
> Dual, dual-core
> 2.8gHz Opterons on a gHz bus, 8 gig of ram, quad 500gig SATA2 
> drives, dual
> GeForce 7800GTX's in SLI mode, and all kinds of other stuff 
> to make you say
> "UG!"
> 
> Seeing as how this is the most powerful PC in the world, and 
> can blow your
> head clean off, you just have to ask yourself one question:
> 
> WTF do I do now?
> 
> The main intent was to have a kickass development box that I 
> can run Virtual
> resources on, but XP with it's memory limitations really 
> nixed that.  I
> didn't want to have to dual boot between XP Pro and Win2k3 to 
> run Virtual
> Server 2005.  So what I've done so far is to run XP Pro x64.  
> So far, no
> real issues with that.  The drivers for my dual GE-Force work 
> fine, and
> while I can still have 2 monitors spanned (dual apple cinema 
> displays ;) I
> can't do all the cool stuff I can do in XP Pro x32.  You 
> can't run Virtual
> PC, and you can't load PGP, Windows Media Player 11, and lots of other
> stuff.  But you CAN run Virtual Server 2005 R2 x64 on it, 
> which totally
> rocks.  So now I've got multiple XP Pro installs with some 
> server stuff
> running, and it is super sweet-- and it is still at something 
> like 3 percent
> or less of CPU.  And the x64 sees all my RAM.  Sweet part II. 
>   The only
> thing is that working on the VM via the web interface was a 
> little, well,
> nasty.  Worst thing was that if I went full screen in the 
> remote control, if
> I clicked off that monitor onto my others, it would minimize down.
> 
> Now, while getting all this done, I was still RDP'ing into my 
> crappy, nasty,
> puny dual Xeon 3.0 Dell to get work done. It was fine- full 
> screen, super
> fast, no problem.  So I figured I'd just RDP into my virtual 
> instances.
> It's just that it seemed kind of nuts to be running virtual 
> machines on this
> computer and to RDP into myself just to get full screen 
> functionality, but I
> have to say- it's really tight.  I customize the 
> screen/experience settings
> per machine, I really can't tell the difference between what 
> would be a
> full-screen RDP session on one monitor, and the same thing if 
> I was in XP
> Pro and had all my dev crap installed and just placed the windows on
> different monitors.
> 
> There are still some limitations of x64, though 
> software-wise.  The Creative
> Xtreame card drivers only work with "standard" output, though 
> I've got a
> full 6.1 discreet audio system set up.  An media player 11 is 
> nice, but
> can't run it.  
> 
> So I don't think I need server at all in a dual boot, but I do need to
> occasionally go back to my good old XP install.  The other thing I was
> thinking about was to install a tight, bare bones XP install 
> for gaming.
> The drivers for the Xtreme actually have a special install mode for
> gaming... And I gotta tell ya, playing F.E.A.R on what 
> amounts to a quad
> processor system with full 6.1 audio on my damn 30 Apple HD 
> Cinema display
> driven by dual 7800 GTX's in SLI mode kicking out 50 frames 
> per second of
> 1280x1024 32 bit color is freaking amazing.
> 
> So what else?  I know a couple of guys on this list have 
> systems close to
> this (kinda ;) and am wondering how you are taking advantage 
> of your power.
> Any other dual-booters out there?
> 
> The other thing I'm trying to figure out is now that I can VNC into my
> Mac's, I don't need to be taking up desktop space with my 
> other 26" Apple HD
> Cinema display-- So I can literally get back to my 3 monitor 
> setup (2x26"
> and 1x30").  That is how I have it now (spanned out in front 
> of me) but the
> Mac is on my left with the 30 in the center and the other to 
> my right.  3
> monitors on the HP would be sweet, and I can put the Mac over 
> to where my
> servers are if I ever need to get "on" that box directly.
> 
> Thoughts?  
> 
> t
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

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