Intel motherboards + artificial limits

[LittleNemoNES]

I don't know if anyone else is annoyed at the fact that Intel refuses to supply server OS drivers for Desktop boards.

We had a perfectly good D975XBX at work we wanted to use for a Windows 2003 Server.
Damn thing has no drivers for it. WTF?

I know you can hack drivers and all that but that's past my level of interest/expertise.
Anyone see any logic other than $$$ for them to do this?

Same thing happened to a friend who wanted to start learning Active Directory,etc at home with his Intel board.

 

[Ratman6161]

Originally posted by: gersson
I don't know if anyone else is annoyed at the fact that Intel refuses to supply server OS drivers for Desktop boards.

We had a perfectly good D975XBX at work we wanted to use for a Windows 2003 Server.
Damn thing has no drivers for it. WTF?

I know you can hack drivers and all that but that's past my level of interest/expertise.
Anyone see any logic other than $$$ for them to do this?

Same thing happened to a friend who wanted to start learning Active Directory,etc at home with his Intel board.

Thats because separate drivers for 2003 server are not needed. Remember that 2003 server is really the same underlying OS as Windows XP. I've yet to see a case where a driver intended for XP would not work in 2003 server. And that is not "hacking" drivers. You just install the driver exactly the same way you would in XP. I've done this many, many times - it works.


Edit: There are some software packages that are deliberately set up to recognize you are using a server OS and not run. For example the Diskeeper defrag utility for the desktop will not install on 2003 server. But thats because the company also sells a server product and if they let you install the desktop product on a server it would undercut server sales. This is pretty typical for many utility type programs - but not for drivers.

 

[hirschma]

I'd think twice about using that board for any real fileserving. I found something bizarre about the Bad Axe 2 (not sure how similar the original Bad Axe is):

Bad Axe2 can't copy a lot of files without crapping out.

My Intel boards are going back, and getting replaced with Tyans.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Originally posted by: Ratman6161

Originally posted by: gersson
I don't know if anyone else is annoyed at the fact that Intel refuses to supply server OS drivers for Desktop boards.

We had a perfectly good D975XBX at work we wanted to use for a Windows 2003 Server.
Damn thing has no drivers for it. WTF?

I know you can hack drivers and all that but that's past my level of interest/expertise.
Anyone see any logic other than $$$ for them to do this?

Same thing happened to a friend who wanted to start learning Active Directory,etc at home with his Intel board.

Thats because separate drivers for 2003 server are not needed. Remember that 2003 server is really the same underlying OS as Windows XP. I've yet to see a case where a driver intended for XP would not work in 2003 server. And that is not "hacking" drivers. You just install the driver exactly the same way you would in XP. I've done this many, many times - it works.


Edit: There are some software packages that are deliberately set up to recognize you are using a server OS and not run. For example the Diskeeper defrag utility for the desktop will not install on 2003 server. But thats because the company also sells a server product and if they let you install the desktop product on a server it would undercut server sales. This is pretty typical for many utility type programs - but not for drivers.

Have you tried this with an Intel mobo? I have also done what you've mentioned with other motherboards from Asus, etc.

In my particular case, Intel does't let me use XP drivers for the integrated peripherals on D975XBX or DG33FB for Server 2003. I can do what you mentioned for non Intel parts, of course.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Originally posted by: gersson

Originally posted by: Ratman6161

Originally posted by: gersson
I don't know if anyone else is annoyed at the fact that Intel refuses to supply server OS drivers for Desktop boards.

We had a perfectly good D975XBX at work we wanted to use for a Windows 2003 Server.
Damn thing has no drivers for it. WTF?

I know you can hack drivers and all that but that's past my level of interest/expertise.
Anyone see any logic other than $$$ for them to do this?

Same thing happened to a friend who wanted to start learning Active Directory,etc at home with his Intel board.

Thats because separate drivers for 2003 server are not needed. Remember that 2003 server is really the same underlying OS as Windows XP. I've yet to see a case where a driver intended for XP would not work in 2003 server. And that is not "hacking" drivers. You just install the driver exactly the same way you would in XP. I've done this many, many times - it works.


Edit: There are some software packages that are deliberately set up to recognize you are using a server OS and not run. For example the Diskeeper defrag utility for the desktop will not install on 2003 server. But thats because the company also sells a server product and if they let you install the desktop product on a server it would undercut server sales. This is pretty typical for many utility type programs - but not for drivers.

Have you tried this with an Intel mobo? I have also done what you've mentioned with other motherboards from Asus, etc.

In my particular case, Intel does't let me use XP drivers for the integrated peripherals on D975XBX or DG33FB for Server 2003. I can do what you mentioned for non Intel parts, of course.

I see you replaced your board but I would think that most likely you had faulty ram or else bells and whistles would go off in the internets...

You could be on to something, however.

 

[Ratman6161]

Have you tried this with an Intel mobo? I have also done what you've mentioned with other motherboards from Asus, etc.

In my particular case, Intel does't let me use XP drivers for the integrated peripherals on D975XBX or DG33FB for Server 2003. I can do what you mentioned for non Intel parts, of course.

Yes I have done it with Intel chipsets many times. I have several Dell desktop systems (Gx 260's and Gx 280's) with Intel integrated sound, NIC, and graphics - no problems whatsoever. In fact, I didn't have to install drivers for those particular machines - Windows 2003 server detected them during install and there was no need to load anything else. The most recent chipset I have worked with under 2003 server is a 965.

I'm perplexed as to why you can't install drivers. If you go to the Intel web site and go to the download center and mouse over chipsets=>desktop chipsets=?Intel 975 Express Family you get to this page:

Intel 975X Express chipset

there in the "select your operating system" dropdown you will find various versions of Windows Server 2003. as an example, I chose Windows 2003 Server standard Edition and got to this page:

Downloads Intel 975X Express chipset


On that page there are drivers specifically listed as being for the 975X family. I don't have a 975 board to try it on, but I've had no problems with a variety of other Intel chipsets including the 965, so I don't know why this wouldnt work.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

this isn't about intel chipsets -- it's intel boards.

look @ this:

http://downloadcenter.intel.co...er.aspx?ProductID=2205

there are no server downloads AND the XP drivers don't work...

not wanting to fight with you but I know what I've been fighting against

 

[Ratti3]

If you want to start installing 2003 Server to learn stuff, the best way to do it is using VMWare. I have 4 W2K3 servers running as domain controllers, dhcp, exchange etc on one pc.

 

[Foxery]

Silly question, but have you checked Windows Update? Microsoft actually carries drivers for some popular products.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Originally posted by: Ratti3
If you want to shttp://forums.anandtech.com/me...&parentid=28455565tart installing 2003 Server to learn stuff, the best way to do it is using VMWare. I have 4 W2K3 servers running as domain controllers, dhcp, exchange etc on one pc.

hehe -- my friends' the one who's starting out
(hey, one can never learn enough, of course!)

We want to use this as a Terminal Server running a lot of users so a VM is not the best deployment scenario. That said, I love VMs. We have ~7 virtual machines @ work w/ ESX Server. VMs are the future!

Foxery: Yeah, I have. I forget where I read but Intel explicitly said they weren't going to support Server OS on desktop boards.

I already made a work around but it cost more money unnecessarily. I had to buy a GB ethernet card (from Intel, no less!) and a vid card. ~ $100 for no real reason. If Install Vista x64 Ultimate, it runs like a charm. (this is actually, for the DG33FB)

 

[heymrdj]

This is like what happens with our LAN Party server for the College Computer Club. The system uses a Biostar T7025 AM2 motherbaord with an AMD Athlon X2 4400+ overclocked to 2.8Ghz. The Biostar disc refuses to install drivers for Windows Server 2003 Enterprise. So I have to go to Nvdia and download a 630a chipset gerneric driverset for XP just to get drivers on.

OP, you might try finding the drivers at Intel.com for XP.

 

[Ratman6161]

Originally posted by: gersson

Originally posted by: Ratti3
If you want to shttp://forums.anandtech.com/me...&parentid=28455565tart installing 2003 Server to learn stuff, the best way to do it is using VMWare. I have 4 W2K3 servers running as domain controllers, dhcp, exchange etc on one pc.

We want to use this as a Terminal Server running a lot of users so a VM is not the best deployment scenario. That said, I love VMs. We have ~7 virtual machines @ work w/ ESX Server. VMs are the future!

I think you may have some conflicting goals there. I.E. "A lot of users" and a converted desktop system.

I'm not sure why you think a virtual machine wouldn't work. I'm pretty much 100% virtualized on the server end including some fairly high usage database servers. As with most tasks, there is no reason why a VM couldn't do the job -- its just a matter of giving it sufficient resources. In fact, if you already have ESX server, you would need pretty good reason NOT to virtualize it. If your ESX server is running low on resources you can always run the VM on your old desktop box (assuming sufficient resources there) which would allow you to move it to the ESX server or to a different desktop box. Once I started down the road to virtualization, I'm finding less and less reason to do things any other way.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Going to try a TS...I was told VM TSs are slow