EggXpert

Recently, the boss in my office purchased some new components to build two new servers for our office to replace our aging ones. He has since left, and I have been handed the task of setting the new systems up and moving everything over from the old servers to the new servers. However, I have run into a major issues: the motherboard he picked does not (apparently) support Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2, or any other Windows Server platform. I am now trying to either find a way to make the existing motherboards work, or find a new motherboard model to replace them with. I have tried searching through NewEgg, but very few motherboard listings contain a list of compatible operating systems. So, I am here to ask for help

The original intent was to run three 74GB Raptor hard drives in a RAID 5 hardware configuration, with the OS and all other critical data on the RAID. I am now hoping to find a motherboard to replace the originally purchased MSI boards that will fully support SBS03 R2, and allow us to run the hardware RAID. Does anyone have a suggestion?

 

Thanks in advance.

One place where you might not have looked is in the Server Motherboard segment. For instance, the ASUS P5E WS Pro has the appropriate drivers. If in doubt, check the manufacturer's website for driver support.

By the way, what processor are you using?

Somehow I managed not to notice the Server Motherboard link.

We purchased Intel Q6600 quad-core processors for the servers.

Then that Asus board should be ideal.

Thanks a ton for the help. I just wish there were LGA775 server boards supporting 16GB of RAM. The old boss ordered 8GB of RAM to go in each server, but with dedicated video and an 8GB motherboard cap, we wont get the full 8GB anyway.

Be careful to make sure you're covering the video aspect, because some of the motherboards don't come with onboard video. In any case, as long as your operating system supports 8GB or more of memory, your onboard video wont be taking up much of RAM.

We already have a pair of nVidia 8600GT 256mb PCI-E video cards for the systems. nVidia doesnt explicitly support Server 03 for its video cards, so that will be a crapshoot in terms of performance. Before I can even worry about that, I have to get the box up and running. Small Business Server actually BSOD's during the initial install load, whereas XP works fine. Im starting to think that my former boss did 0 research into these parts before he purchased them.