Windows XP Pro x32 will install and run fairly smoothly on the SC1420.
I installed an external USB sound card on it (Creative Labs Sound Blaster MP3+), which works fine. However, I could not get an external USB modem to work on it, so relied on accessing the Internet via my LAN-attached modem. Front USB ports seem to be the slower 12Mbps type, while the rear ports seem the faster 480MBps type, so be sure you know which you're using. I also installed an external USB t.v. tuner, and its required bandwidth demanded a USB 2 port in back. I believe you need install the Intel chipset utility drivers from Dell in order to properly set the USB ports up for high speed.
I am running the ATi Rage XL video card (which came with the system) in the last PCI-X slot it shipped in after searching a bit online to ensure it was compatible (it's a PCI card). XP recognized it as a 66MHz card initially, which gave problems with going into standby mode until I updated the video driver manually (from ATi website) to the regular (33MHz) driver. I have it connected to an older CRT Pivot monitor, drivers of which were included with XP, but which required a manual install.
I'm having very few problems at all running a plethora of business, educational, and leisure applications, including Works Suite 7 (2003), Office XP Pro, Think Free Office, a variety of CD-based tutorials (Learn2, Professor Teaches, MS, and Big Island, the last of which required and installed QuickTime 5), and a few system utilities (Fix-It 5, Power Washer). I'm running Panda Antivirus Platinum and firewall, but plan using ZoneAlarm Pro 5 and McAfee VS Enterprise 8 for the server and x64 systems (or at least trying to do so).
Boot time is about 30 seconds fully loaded (with IOmega QuickSync 3 mirroring My Documents, Program Files, and Windows folders real-time to another partition on the same drive).
I have the 80G SATA drive partioned into several primary and secondary (extended partition) logical drives for 32-bit and 64-bit apps and system drives, server 2003 and XP Pro, and a combined data drive... all were formatted as NTFS; the data drive is compressed. I'm trying to install common apps for 32-bit or 64-bit systems to a single (Program Files) directory to be shared by both XP and Server, but have only gotten through XP Pro x32 so far... most apps seem willing to install the bulk of their stuff to another partition that way.
I'll post more results as I install and test XP Pro x64, and both x32 and x64 versions of Server 2003 (thanks to demos from MS).
mangk_52485f
5 Posts
0
November 8th, 2004 07:00
<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>
mangk_52485f
5 Posts
0
November 8th, 2004 07:00
DrRandyBoy
11 Posts
0
June 28th, 2005 07:00
Windows XP Pro x32 will install and run fairly smoothly on the SC1420.
I installed an external USB sound card on it (Creative Labs Sound Blaster MP3+), which works fine. However, I could not get an external USB modem to work on it, so relied on accessing the Internet via my LAN-attached modem. Front USB ports seem to be the slower 12Mbps type, while the rear ports seem the faster 480MBps type, so be sure you know which you're using. I also installed an external USB t.v. tuner, and its required bandwidth demanded a USB 2 port in back. I believe you need install the Intel chipset utility drivers from Dell in order to properly set the USB ports up for high speed.
I am running the ATi Rage XL video card (which came with the system) in the last PCI-X slot it shipped in after searching a bit online to ensure it was compatible (it's a PCI card). XP recognized it as a 66MHz card initially, which gave problems with going into standby mode until I updated the video driver manually (from ATi website) to the regular (33MHz) driver. I have it connected to an older CRT Pivot monitor, drivers of which were included with XP, but which required a manual install.
I'm having very few problems at all running a plethora of business, educational, and leisure applications, including Works Suite 7 (2003), Office XP Pro, Think Free Office, a variety of CD-based tutorials (Learn2, Professor Teaches, MS, and Big Island, the last of which required and installed QuickTime 5), and a few system utilities (Fix-It 5, Power Washer). I'm running Panda Antivirus Platinum and firewall, but plan using ZoneAlarm Pro 5 and McAfee VS Enterprise 8 for the server and x64 systems (or at least trying to do so).
Boot time is about 30 seconds fully loaded (with IOmega QuickSync 3 mirroring My Documents, Program Files, and Windows folders real-time to another partition on the same drive).
I have the 80G SATA drive partioned into several primary and secondary (extended partition) logical drives for 32-bit and 64-bit apps and system drives, server 2003 and XP Pro, and a combined data drive... all were formatted as NTFS; the data drive is compressed. I'm trying to install common apps for 32-bit or 64-bit systems to a single (Program Files) directory to be shared by both XP and Server, but have only gotten through XP Pro x32 so far... most apps seem willing to install the bulk of their stuff to another partition that way.
speedstep
9 Legend
•
47K Posts
0
June 28th, 2005 08:00
Maximum RAM
12 GB (three pairs of 2-GB modules)
However only the 64 bit version of XP would see the ram past 4 gigs.
I dont see any problems with XP on the box. I did that as a test because I ordered the servers Bare.