SQL Express performance on Windows 7 vs Server 2003 - Which is better?

[bmacbmac]

Hello. I have a server running 64 bit Server 2003. It has 8gb of memory and a Xeon 3.20 GHZ processor.

I have a brand new Windows 7 machine with 12gb Memory and a Core i7-2600 3.4 GHZ processor.

I want to run SQL Express 2008 for about 30 users to access an application.

The Windows 7 machine has a better processor and more memory and I'm thinking to just install SQL Express on that workstation. However, I'm wondering if I will be missing out on anything, performance wise, by not installing it on the server 2003 machine.

I'm not sure if the 2003 OS would have performance advantages over Windows 7 pro.

Any ideas or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[biglebowski]

There are more important factors than cpu, you also need to consider disk iops, sql setup and resiliency etc. The server will probably be the better option as it will probably support RAID and have faster disks. For 30 users though you probably won't ever come close to taxing either machine unless you're running some serious scripts or reports.

Try the server first with RAID and AWE etc setup and if it's not good enough you can always just detach or backup the DB and move it over to the workstation.

Biglebowskis Razor - with all things being equal if you still can't find the answer have a shave and go down the pub.

 

[SQLScholar]

Apart from what biglebowski which is definitely correct i would also consider the server features.

So for instance appart from the likelyhood of RAID and quicker disks servers often have more redundancy (for instance power supplies).

It all depends on what the server detailed spec. I have seen "servers" which are basically workstations in a different box.

If it has server features (as defined by biglebowski and myself) - then its the server everytime!

Basically you need to find out more details then you have put on here.

Dan

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