Compatiblility issue NT4 Server and AMD processor

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.misc (More info?)

Till now, for NT4 server machine I have always used Intel Pentium processor.

Is there any compatibility problem for NT4 Server on AMD Athlon XP
processors?

Thank you for your answers
Gio

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.misc (More info?)

Giobibo wrote:
> Till now, for NT4 server machine I have always used Intel Pentium
> processor.
>
> Is there any compatibility problem for NT4 Server on AMD Athlon XP
> processors?
>
> Thank you for your answers
> Gio

I've tried NT4 on Athlon XP, Athlon MP (1P and 2P),
Opteron (1P and 2P), and Athlon64. No problems.

I suggest you skip the Athlon XP and go with an
Opteron, an Athlon64, or even an AthlonFX. You
get the benefit or running NT4, W2K, XP, 2003 Server,
and every other 32 bit OS and an easy upgrade path
to 64 bit versions of Windows, Linux, Solaris, etc.

NT4 and W2K really fly on a dual-Opteron system.

 

[Calvin]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.misc (More info?)

Hi Rob,

A question or two if I may ? How do you go with NT4 running on these later
motherboard chipsets. Can you get things like the DMA HDD access to work. How
about things like software power off etc... ?

From what I have been reading, in the Intel world the P4 causes problems for
NT4. The hyperthreading will cause a STOP error at boot, so you need to be able
to manually disable this processor feature in BIOS. Are there any similar
problems in the AMD world ?

We've actually had questions raised over 'later hardware' issues in these
newsgroups in the last couple of weeks, but since I'm still back in the P3 era,
I'm not really able to offer much helpful information.

Calvin.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.misc (More info?)

Calvin wrote:
> Hi Rob,
>
> A question or two if I may ? How do you go with NT4 running on these
> later motherboard chipsets.


Basic functionality works right out of the box - the
problem is to find NT4 drivers for now standard "extras"
that are included on the motherboard - sound, ethernet
and USB. In other words, it is really not much different
than setting up NT4 on a nForce2 or other AthlonXP/MP
system.

Quite often you can get away with old generic drivers
such as AC97 sound and RTL8029 ethernet.

USB keyboards and mice seem to work just fine without
drivers on both the AMD 8xxx and nForce3 chipsets.



> Can you get things like the DMA HDD access
> to work.

With an nForce3 motherboard it is no different
than with an nForce2/AthlonXP system. With an
AMD chipset - such as in virtually every dualie -
it is similarly OK. With the Via K8T800 chipset
it is supposedly tricky but I haven't personally
tried it.



> How about things like software power off etc... ?

Not with nForce3 or the AMD 8xxx chipsets. And
the "Cool and Quiet" feature of the AMD64 processors
doesn't work with NT4 either.


>
> From what I have been reading, in the Intel world the P4 causes
> problems for NT4. The hyperthreading will cause a STOP error at boot, so
> you need to be able to manually disable this processor feature in BIOS.

The one and only time I tried to run NT4 on a HT-capable
P4, I did a wipe and reinstall and all was well. The 2P
HAL got installed and Task Manager would show two processors.

Note, however, that I found that performance suffered a
little bit in just about every test I ran so I ended up
disabling HT and I restored an image that had the uniprocessor
HAL.


> Are there any similar problems in the AMD world ?
>
> We've actually had questions raised over 'later hardware' issues in
> these newsgroups in the last couple of weeks, but since I'm still back
> in the P3 era, I'm not really able to offer much helpful information.

I might be back in the P3 era soon myself. Someone in my
area is advertising an MSI dualie motherboard with a pair of
866 MHz P3's for only $170 Canadian - or about $130 US.

>
> Calvin.

but no Hobbes.

 

[Calvin]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.misc (More info?)

Rob Stow wrote:

>> Calvin.
>
>
> but no Hobbes.

Nup, my name REALLY is Calvin

Thanks for the info Rob. I'm really interested to hear from anyone who has tried
NT4 on the Intel i865 chipset or later motherboards. I'm seeing many conflicting
stories over this, but all of it appears to be hearsay. Hopefully somebody out
there has actually done it, and can report firsthand on success or failure.

Calvin.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.misc (More info?)

Calvin wrote:
> Rob Stow wrote:
>
>>> Calvin.
>>
>>
>>
>> but no Hobbes.
>
>
> Nup, my name REALLY is Calvin
>
> Thanks for the info Rob. I'm really interested to hear from anyone who
> has tried NT4 on the Intel i865 chipset or later motherboards. I'm
> seeing many conflicting stories over this, but all of it appears to be
> hearsay. Hopefully somebody out there has actually done it, and can
> report firsthand on success or failure.
>
> Calvin.

And I'd be interested in hearing about NT4 on an i855
chipset. Been thinking about getting myself one of
those rare micro-ATX boards that can take a Pentium-M.

I expect a 2 GHz P-M to compete with an equally clocked
Athlon 64 or Athlon FX while using so much less juice
that passive cooling might be an option - albeit with
something like one of the huge Zalman flower coolers.