Unscientific...but Wow....
I'm in the process of moving some documents from a 2k3 based server to a 2k8 based one.
This is an unscientific test of copying files from the 2k3 server to my Vista workstation:
Copy folder from 2k3 to Vista: 5 gigs, about 8 minutes.
Copy folder (same size/data) from 2k8 to Vista: 5 gigs, less than a minute.
Wow. Both copying files from member servers. Granted the hardware is not the same but I did a similar test (will get screen shots as well) from an XP box and it was like 9 minutes from the 2k8 box to the XP and 12 minutes from the 2k3 box to the XP.
And mind you this is with the netsh stuff off on the vista and all that....
netsh interface tcp set global autotuning=disabled
netsh interface tcp set global chimney=disabled
netsh interface tcp set global rss=disabled
Read the complete post at http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/archive/2008/04/29/unscientific-but-wow.aspx