T11 with 4GB RAM, windows 2004 and W2019
Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2020 7:21 pm
I've had a T11 with 4GB RAM for a few weeks or so now and am very happy with it. It shipped with W10 1903 which I upgraded with no issues to 1909. I then went for the May 2020 Windows 2004 build, which also worked fine.
To be safe, I used Macrium to image the entire PC before each upgrade, but had no problems.
Running various performance tests for a few days suggested that the T11 would work with Windows Server 2019, which is really what I bought it for to act as R/O Domain Controller in a small test Domain which existing DCs.
Of course, you can't upgrade W10 to Windows Server and I actually didn't want to, so I trashed it totally and tried a clean install of Server 2019 core edition (so no GUI) as this (i) uses less RAM (ii) is more secure as it offers a smaller attack surface.
And hit my first problem. I could not get Server 2019 core edition to install. After a few retries, I trashed the PC again and tried to install the GUI version of 2019, which worked fine!
So I again stress tested this for a few days and then added to the Domain as an additional DC. Which works fine.
Responsiveness is good, CPU never rises above 40%, RAM runs at about 45%-50%
It's worth noting that Server 2019 does *not* have all the device drivers for Wi-Fi and so on, (which Window 10 2004 does) but as these were exported for a Windows 10 2004 system they could be added if required - but I'm happy not to have a DC with Wi-Fi!!
So in summary, a brilliant little device, amazing value for money, with great performance.
Highly recommended.
To be safe, I used Macrium to image the entire PC before each upgrade, but had no problems.
Running various performance tests for a few days suggested that the T11 would work with Windows Server 2019, which is really what I bought it for to act as R/O Domain Controller in a small test Domain which existing DCs.
Of course, you can't upgrade W10 to Windows Server and I actually didn't want to, so I trashed it totally and tried a clean install of Server 2019 core edition (so no GUI) as this (i) uses less RAM (ii) is more secure as it offers a smaller attack surface.
And hit my first problem. I could not get Server 2019 core edition to install. After a few retries, I trashed the PC again and tried to install the GUI version of 2019, which worked fine!
So I again stress tested this for a few days and then added to the Domain as an additional DC. Which works fine.
Responsiveness is good, CPU never rises above 40%, RAM runs at about 45%-50%
It's worth noting that Server 2019 does *not* have all the device drivers for Wi-Fi and so on, (which Window 10 2004 does) but as these were exported for a Windows 10 2004 system they could be added if required - but I'm happy not to have a DC with Wi-Fi!!
So in summary, a brilliant little device, amazing value for money, with great performance.
Highly recommended.