New installation of SQL Server 2005 (9.0.4035) with Windows 2003 (SP2) on a HP DL360 G5 with the latest ProLiant support pack. I get the following "critical message" from the SQL 2005 Best Practice Analyzer:
Outdated system drive that can cause paging detected
There are known issues that exist in Windows and various Device Drivers which can trigger conditions that result in working set of all processes currently running on the machine to be trimmed. This will cause excessive paging and result in drastic reduction in performance of all applications on the machine (specifically SQL Server). We found that TCPIP.SYS present with version [5.2.3790.4573] and BXVBDA.SYS is also present. So we recommend you to disable TCP Chimney.
I have found a way to disable the TCP Chimney under Windows Server 2008 but not Windows Server 2003. There does not appear to be an option in the device settings for the network adapter, nor does there appear to be an updated driver.
Can I safely assume that this isn't going to be a problem, TCP Chimney will not be running because the network adapters do not support it (they don't present an option, so I assume they don't support it).
Here's the MSKB doc on how to disable TCP Chimney on Windows 2003. As it says in the KB doc if there are no new drivers available use the walk through to disable it until new drivers are available.