Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Installing Windows 7 Operating System on a Server

by kennyrct Feb 1, 2011 11:00AM PST

I have acquired an IBM x336 eServer-883711U Server. Understanding the unit does not have a sound card, or a standard PCI-e slot, 2 Xeon single core CPU's, would it be difficult to install Windows 7 on this unit and use it as a PC? If not Windows 7, what would be the best opeating system to use with this server?

Discussion is locked

3 Posts
- Collapse + Expand Details
- Collapse -
As always
by Jimmy Greystone Feb 1, 2011 11:53AM PST

As always, the issue would be whether or not you could find drivers for it.

Not being familiar with IBM's PC server lines, if the system came with some version of Windows on it, then your odds are very good. If it was one of IBM's AIX servers, probably less so. The "best" OS would be whatever shipped with the system, but that doesn't mean you couldn't manage to get something else to run on it.

What you may want to do first thing, is go to the IBM website for this particular system, and see if they offer any driver downloads for Windows. If not, then you can try to inventory the hardware in the thing and see if you can find the necessary drivers, but you probably won't have much luck. Worst case, there's likely a pretty good chance you could run Linux on that thing.

- Collapse -
Windows 7 is a client OS
by orlbuckeye Feb 4, 2011 3:58AM PST

MS server OS's are designed to run on servers. Example MS Server 2003.

- Collapse -
I'd skip Windows.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Feb 4, 2011 4:21AM PST

This will not give you a "desktop Windows" machine you would like. I'd skip Windows and install some Linux and move on.
Bob

Back to Windows 7 forum

CNET Forums

Operating Systems
Software
Electronics & Gadgets
Hardware
Tablets & Mobile Devices
General Help
Brand Forums
Roadshow Autos
Off Topic

Other Forums

Forum Info