Windows Server 2003 compatible?

**techs** · April 27th, 2005, 04:43 AM

My intern has a study copy of Server 2003 for her MCSE class. Her mobo died and she needs the cheapest replacement she can find. She has an Athlon socket A 1200 mhz cpu with a 200mhz fsb and PC133 memory.
The old board had on board video so she has no video card to transfer over.
The only board that meets these requirements that I can find is this one:
Asus A7S-VM
which has the SiS 730S Chipset with on board graphics.
See it here:
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=A7S-VM&cat=MBB
I can't find out if the onboard video will work with Server 2003. It doesn't show in the windows hcl and there are no listed drivers for 2003.
Does anyone know if this board, especially video since there is no agp slot will work with Server 2003?
Thanks.

**rgharper** · April 27th, 2005, 06:25 AM

It should work, but if it doesn't then any decent PCI video card should work with the onboard video disabled. Unfortunately the board is so old that the SiS links to the tech specs return a not found page.

**Matridom** · April 27th, 2005, 07:01 AM

should work. I've had good success with XP drivers under 2k3.

**Zonie** · April 27th, 2005, 07:24 AM

Try this link http://pcclub.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A4801109 and see if this will help.

**techs** · April 27th, 2005, 08:33 AM

Originally Posted by Zonie

Try this link http://pcclub.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A4801109 and see if this will help.

thanks but were trying to keep the pc133 memory.

**InTheWayBoy** · April 27th, 2005, 10:54 PM

The nice thing about 2003 is the SVGA driver that the system will default to is very nice...even allows high resolutions in some cases. In fact in a server setting, some prefer to just use the standard SVGA driver, since it's (relatively) safe to assume it's gonna be the most stable thing. No extra drivers and features to go boom...

**techs** · April 28th, 2005, 06:19 AM

Originally Posted by InTheWayBoy

The nice thing about 2003 is the SVGA driver that the system will default to is very nice...even allows high resolutions in some cases. In fact in a server setting, some prefer to just use the standard SVGA driver, since it's (relatively) safe to assume it's gonna be the most stable thing. No extra drivers and features to go boom...

I didn't know that. Since svga is all thats needed I will keep it in mind if there is a problem when the board arrives (I just ordered it)

**SnowBlindGrafix** · April 28th, 2005, 11:00 AM

If you can find w2k drivers they will work. 2kserver will cry about the driver not being WHQL tested but continue anyway. The one good thing about MS NT based OSes is that a lot of old drivers will work on the newer OSes.

..Example..
I have an old Diamond Fireport pci SCSI controller in my system (Athlon64, K8T MB & xppsp2) that is using an NT4 driver written in 1998. I have never had any problems using w2k drivers with XP or Small Business Server 2003.

Just remember the Server 2003 is a memory and CPU hog so don't expect too much.

**techs** · May 2nd, 2005, 08:44 AM

thanks all. I'll let you know how it goes.

**techs** · May 7th, 2005, 12:24 PM

OK.
We installed the Server 2003 and it did have a native driver for the video. It shows in Device Manager as Sis 630/730 (microsoft). In fact Server had all the drivers for the mobo.