Grab a chair, it’s a long show this week. Mike Howard of the JPEG2RAW Podcast joins us this week. Michael reviews his past year of testing Windows 8 and Windows 2012 Essentials. Discuss the lack of good server AMD vs. Intel data. What we want the next XBOX (Durango) to be. This weeks BYOB Podcast.

Windows Server 2012 Essentials

Pros:

Services available and worth noting

Domain, DHCP, DNS, RRAS, RDP (RDSH / VDI), WSUS

Interesting that I was able to join other DC’s to it

365 integration

2012 Single point management for multiple servers

Its basically full server 2012 minus a few services

Cons:

No Hyper-V

Consoles are buried

Storage Spaces performance is poor

Windows 8 – HTPC

Pros:

Still has Media enter in it

Has lots of great media apps, Netflix, Gobble, Hulu and Games

Steam Big Picture Mode for gaming

Tiles are great for 10′ experience

Tiles can be organized and categorized

User accounts = Unique sessions

Using a front end for media can work great

360 controller drivers are native

Cons:

Cannot customize WMC

No native playback of BD still

No native or apps for frontend to media collections with a similar design theme

No native or apps for TV/ DVR functions

Windows 8 – Desktop PC

Pros:

Improved experience in desktop

Multi monitor support

Fast overall

Awesome search

Hyper-V host capability

Touch, if you have a touch screen…

3rd party add ons can customize the experience …Just like Windows 7! Rainmeter, RocketDock, Stardock’s tools

Cons:

Start screen is a intrusive and jarring in a large display / multi monitor environment

Full screen Metro apps do not always scale well

Some familiar/useful power tools are buried now

As discussed on the show do you know of any testing between G34 and E5 CPUs?

Mike’s AMD Spec G34 Server Base = $1,840.00

CPU – AMD Opteron 6272 Interlagos 2.1GHz Socket G34 115W 16-Core

MOBO – SUPERMICRO MBD-H8SGL-F-O

RAM – 2x Kingston 64GB (4x16GB) 240-Pin DDR3 KVR16R11D4K4/64G

Mike’s Intel Spec E5 Server Base = $2,520

CPU – Intel Xeon E5-2650 Sandy Bridge-EP 2.0GHz LGA 2011 95W 8-Core

MOBO – SUPERMICRO X9SRI-F

RAM – 2x Kingston 64GB (4x16GB) 240-Pin DDR3 KVR16R11D4K4/64G

Mike’s Intel Spec SB-E Server Base = $1,420.00

CPU – 2x Intel Core i7-3820 Sandy Bridge-E 3.6GHz LGA 2011 130W 4-Core

MOBO – SUPERMICRO MBD-X9DRL-3F-O

RAM – 2x Kingston 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 KVR1333D3N9HK4/32G

We round table about what it has to do for us to buy it. Can it be an HTPC replacement?

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