I'm building a new server for a client. They are requesting that the machine be a PC running Windows. The machine will be used as an in-house development machine serving a few applications with the possibility of a few external connections.

I'm would like to build a AMD 64-bit machine to give them good performance now with the option of better performance when 64-bit versions of the OS and FM get released.

My question is: which OS would be best suited for this install? Would Win2003 be overkill? Will XP be enough? What would be the advantages of using one over the other?

Disclaimer. I have not used a version of Windows since 1999, WinNT, so I've been out of the loop for a while.

Thank you for your recommendations.

-ken

XP and 64 bit is not a good match. Go for a real server OS on real server hardware so you get the maximum out of the built-in redudancy and advance warning.

If this is for development and not for a production machine, get them the MS Action Pack subscription. For just under 400$ they get all the current Server OSes from MS.

What makes XP and 64-bit a bad match? Is it XP and 64, or is it XP, 64, and FM?

I plan on installing the 32-bit version of whatever OS until the 64-bit versions come out of beta.

Also, what do you mean by "real server hardware"? Can you give some specifics at what you would recommend for a high-end dev server?

-ken

Can anyone else comment on which OS would be better for a development server?

-ken

The 64 bit version of XP is still officially a beta. And runs only on AMD processors. There are very few device drivers available (32 bit drivers don't work). You can expect more 64 bit support for the server OSes.