HP Integrity RX2620 - Windows Server 2003 for Itanium System

[ItaniumCommando]

So a couple of you lovely software dodads helped me with my "Itanium Woes" post where I was fighting for a product key for Windows Server 2003 Itanium. So I thought I'd provide an update since ya'll helped!

I bought a base unit of the above mentioned server after wondering what the Itanium platform would be like. I bought some old MSDN disks containing the WinSer2003 for this platform and proceeded to piece by piece, build this server for a personal workstation. I ran into some issues but I'll provide screen shots and the build specs.

So far the machine is rocking dual Itanium2 1.6Ghz/9M Processors, 24GB of DDR-400 memory, a special riser with an ATI PRO 8X Fire FGL 9700 agp card, a LSI/Tarari CPU Encoder Accelerator, a fiber-controller card, two 300GB Ultra320 hard drives, and of course...Windows Server 2003 for Itanium Systems (Checked/Debug) operating system. I had to MANUALLY download all the updates (like 3.4GB of manual downloads lol) and have some specific software running on it. The machine is loud but it is lovely to work on!

If you want to hear the story of how I jumped in with no knowledge, holler out! But to get this model to support an AGP card I had to buy an HP x6000 expansion board and replaced the original one (ie the new one had x1 AGP Pro slot and 3 PCI-X slots, where the old one had just 4 PCI-X slots.) Windows sees AND uses the agp card over the on-board graphics! I'll get some screen shots of it up soon. I just wanted to say thank you to those why helped me find the product key in the txt file, I can never thank you enough!

(Edit) Do any of you have Itanium machines up and kicking?

[louisw3]

So a couple
(Edit) Do any of you have Itanium machines up and kicking?

I haven't had one in years, I think 10 years ago. I was running Windows XP on mine.

I had the HP zx2000 (https://www.openpa.net/systems/hp_zx2000.html) which frankly, as an Itanium 2 @900Mhz was dog slow when doing heavy tasks like compiling. Building SIMH was a bit of a chore, although it was kind of cool to run a VAX on an Itanium desktop.

It reminded me a lot of the Dec Alpha... It's Windows on a different process, but it's still Windows. And plagued by a less than stellar compiler.

It's no wonder that Microsoft had Windows also ported to AMD's 64bit offering and once Intel had capitulated and brought out their EMT64 then x86_64 was finally going to rule the world. x86 emulation on the Itanium is just so slow & cycle hungry. And that EPIC compiler. yuck. Nothing like making people suffer with front end pain of building.

I imagine that having dual processors nearly 2x as fast as what mine was would help A LOT.

[ItaniumCommando]

Having two processors definitely helps with the day to day use. I'm still trying to find Windows XP for Itanium with eagle eyes. Server 2003 is still pretty nice though even if it has some features missing. Mainly I wanted to see if I could trick movie maker into installing just for a good laugh but..it can wait. I'm still impressed that it saw the video card and used it though!

I just loved XP so much as a kid and the manuals I read for computer certification mentioned these systems briefly that I nabbed two systems with these processors. I will say they are heavy! I ALMOST nabbed a restore disk for a zx2000 for XP of of ebay but I was out bid. There is a seller on ebay selling your make and model of computer but he's asking a grand at least! I use mine to tinker mostly but I did go ahead and buy software like SQL Server 2005 for Itanium Systems just to have it do some meaningful work.

I wonder with all these new processor bugs/security flaws, if Itanium is affected at all by them!

[DVINTHEHOUSEMAN]

Here's the Windows XP 64-bit (IA-64) edition

https://archive.org/details/WXPIFPPEN

[ItaniumCommando]

Here's the Windows XP 64-bit (IA-64) edition

https://archive.org/details/WXPIFPPEN

You have no idea how much I appreciate this link! Thank you.

[DVINTHEHOUSEMAN]

You're welcome

[darkhelmet2002]

Did you ever manage to get a product key for this? I looked at my attend.txt in the isos I found but the product key section is completely blank. I'm ripping my hair out trying to find a good key anywhere