VPS: Windows Server 2003 or 2008 R2?

[coupsan]

I simply ask out of curiosity; I'll probably use 2003. A few months ago, it was recommended to use 2003 (on the low-end VPSes) because of lower RAM usage, but because 2008 R2 is based off of Windows 7, I'm interested to see if there are any improvements over 2008.

Thanks.

[Edge100x]

I still prefer Win2k3, myself, but 2008 and 2008 R2 don't use as much memory as I originally thought they did -- they just report it differently in the task manager. Actual usage is similar to Win2k3, so you can run pretty much whatever you want.

[coupsan]

Thanks, that's what I originally suspected, actually. 2008/R2 both cache memory, but I'm not sure if that affects actual performance. I guess I'll experiment.

[DontWannaName]

The new windows OS's probably handle multi core support much better. Im using 08 and enjoy it. Also, it runs the latest IIS and other software that I dont think can run on 03. I find the new IIS easier than the old.

[Edge100x]

Aye, that is true about IIS. If you use IIS, I'd definitely recommend going with 2008 R2.

Performance-wise, they have behaved very similarly for me in my testing, but 2008/2008 R2 do allow 1000fps for game servers, which can be good (the downside is that in doing so they use a different type of timer that results in a less predictable FPS).