With all other factors equal, how would the operating system affect crunching speeds on a quad core PC?

Will a PC with Win XP Home crunch faster than one with Win 2k Advanced Server? I know that the Windows 2000 series of OSes were developed quite some time ago, so multi-core CPUs will be recognised as seperate multiple CPUs in the Windows 2000 OS series.

Will this affect the crunching speeds negatively (or positively)?

Will this affect the crunching speeds negatively (or positively)?

I can only speak for single and dual core processors - and I found that XP was marginally faster,

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Will this affect the crunching speeds negatively (or positively)?

I can only speak for single and dual core processors - and I found that XP was marginally faster,

It will depend on how many processes run on the system.
If you just want SPEED, shut down all the processes, you don't need and/or use,
but watch out, what process you' ll shut down. ;)

No experience with WINDOWS SERVER versions for crunching, though.
Also 32 or 64BIT, makes a difference. WIN XP64 is slightly faster, then it's 32
BIT versions, as to my experience.

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With all other factors equal, how would the operating system affect crunching speeds on a quad core PC?

Will a PC with Win XP Home crunch faster than one with Win 2k Advanced Server? I know that the Windows 2000 series of OSes were developed quite some time ago, so multi-core CPUs will be recognised as seperate multiple CPUs in the Windows 2000 OS series.

Will this affect the crunching speeds negatively (or positively)?

One thing to keep in mind is IIRC, Windows Server versions give you an installation option to be optimized either towards application or server function performance. So how you're targeting the machine and the actual load it's carries under 'normal' operating conditions could well make a difference in this regard.

Alinator

With all other factors equal, how would the operating system affect crunching speeds on a quad core PC?

Will a PC with Win XP Home crunch faster than one with Win 2k Advanced Server? I know that the Windows 2000 series of OSes were developed quite some time ago, so multi-core CPUs will be recognised as seperate multiple CPUs in the Windows 2000 OS series.

Will this affect the crunching speeds negatively (or positively)?

One thing to keep in mind is IIRC, Windows Server versions give you an installation option to be optimized either towards application or server function performance. So how you're targeting the machine and the actual load it's carries under 'normal' operating conditions could well make a difference in this regard.

Alinator

My Windows 2000 Standard Server has an 'Advanced' tab of the System control panel. There's a button "Performance Options", 'which control how applications use memory, which affects the speed of your computer'. The options are: optimise performance for Applications, or for Background Services.

So: it's not just an installation option. I don't know what the BOINC service is classed as (app or background), so I've left it alone! And it reminds me of another advantage - servers have remote desktop (terminal services) built in for management, so I didn't have to go down into the cellar to look that lot up.

XP Home as a newer kernel, so in theory, it should be better. If you're still running w2k server, make sure "background services" is selected for the application priority. In the properties of "File and Printer Sharing" under network connections, make sure it's set for "Maximize data throughput for network applications".

My Windows 2000 Standard Server has an 'Advanced' tab of the System control panel. There's a button "Performance Options", 'which control how applications use memory, which affects the speed of your computer'. The options are: optimise performance for Applications, or for Background Services.

This is available in every Windows version since Windows 2000 Pro, including XP and Vista and all Windows Server OSes.