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Is it possible to run a Dell R710 or R5400 on Windows 7 instead of Windows Server 2008? My Dell rep was unsure about the RAID controller. I have some processing services that I really need to move my custom processing from an i7 Desktop into a Dual Xeon rackmount but my developer doesn't want to have to test against Windows 7 and Server 2008.

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3 Answers 3

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The R5400 is just a workstation in a rack mount case. Windows 7 is fully supported by Dell and they offer drivers for both x86 and x64 versions.

The R710 isn't explicitly supported by Dell with Windows 7, but its very likely that the 2008 R2 drivers will work just fine under x64 Win7. The 2008 x86 drivers will also probably work with the x86 version.

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Here's the link for the R710 drivers:

Possibly some of the Server 2008 drivers may work for Windows 7... I would start with the R2 stuff first.

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Drivers could be an issue for the R710. The Dell folks will likley be little help. Can you not run a Windows 7 VM of some type to do the Win 7 testing. We often run a VM on Server 2008 to test. There will be some extra overhead but might do the tests you require.

Failing that all you can do is try the install and see what happens.

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