Best QUAD Core2 with Virtualisation for GA-965P-DS3P 2.0?

[plonka2000]

Hi Guys,

As the title suggests, I'm looking for the best Quad CPU for an upgrade on my Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3P v2.0 motherboard, with Virtualisation support.

The background is this is for my home Linux server running VMware Server 2.0 so its crucial that I find a CPU that has hardware Virtualisation support.

I currently have an E6300 in there which is a hand-me-down from my workstation, and I think I've reached the capacity of the dual core 1.86GHz goodness it offers.

I've looked into getting an Q8400 but I cant tell for love nor money if this will work. The Gigabyte site says its unsupported here, but I really want to know if it will work. I dont intend to replace this again as this will be the last upgrade for this board in the server until the entire server is rebuilt at some point down the line.

The only most recent CPU I can find that is supported is the Q8200, but this does not do Virtualisation for some silly reason.

As far as I can tell, I might have to get a Q6600.

Can anyone help me to find the sweet spot CPU I need?
IS there something I'm overlooking?

Remember its a v2.0 motherboard not the v3.3, which I wanted when I bought it but OCUK sent me the v2.0.

Thanks guys.

 

[plonka2000]

Hi everyone,

Just got back to this thread after spending the weekend working in a datacenter and thanks for all your replies.

The reason I was looking to upgrade the CPU was because I really didnt fancy the idea of overclocking my server, for the sake of stability, file consistency and error-checking due to my RAID array being a Linux software array.

I'm not against overclocking, but I just wish to avoid it on my server if possible really.

A few people have also commented that I should use a Q9550 or Q8400 which I'd like to but I originally raised the point that they show as 'Not Supported' on the Gigabyte list of CPU's for the GA-965P-DS3P v2.0 mobo.

Should I conclude that a Q6600 is my best option, even though I would have liked a Q8400 because of the efficiency and architectural improvements?

Thanks

 

[plonka2000]

I can

Leopard isn't really 64 bit and im running 64 bit W7 using VT just fine on both my MBP and MP

Leopard runs a 64-bit kernel, hence the ability to run 64-bit guests.
There are lots of parts of OSX leopard that are 32-bit though.

OSX is basically just BSD with a fancy fisher-price interface anyway.

Anyhow, so does anyone know if I have any VT-enabled options above a Q6600?
I cant find anything in the supported CPU list.