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CPU for 24x7 1-2 Virtual Machine Clients (low power)

OrionTC

OrionTC

OrionTC

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Joined
15 Dec 2008
Posts
248
Basically I want to replace my dying laptop with a Mini ITX build that is capable of running a VM here and there to multibox in certain games/MMO's (cryengine). the clients will run at low settings and as low of a res as possible. I have a seperate gaming PC for things to look pretty.

I can't decide if dual core would be suitible enough or if it would be wise to get a quad core i5 so i can split the cores between the host and the VM 2 and 2.

Im trying to find a balance between power and performance. I plan to leave it on 24x7 so didn't want something too power hungry.

Other than the VM running it will be used as a day to day machine, browsing, movies, youtube etc

Originally I looked at a Intel Core i5-4690K but wondered if it would be a bit overkill for what it is used for.

I plan to build it roughly with:

8/16 gb of ram
Nvidia 750ti
350/400 watt PSU
and one of those snazzy looking ITX mini cases
 
I looked at that too, but when i look at those it makes me think for another £60 i could get a Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz.

it's an addictive habit. I never like to settle for middle of the road stuff which is all i really need for this system.

When I compare Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz with the Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz there is only 4 tdp difference but a fair bit of difference in performance. How closely linked is tdp to actual real world power consumption under load? i.e. if a CPU is rated 88w tdp is there a way to calculate how much power it will use at the wall ?
 
With the 4690k would be looking to overclock, if not then the K would be a waste in my opinion.

But, cost comes into play as well.

The TDP is fairly accurate but you will need to add on the motherboard and hard drives power usage as well.
 
A Core i3 would be perfect for a low-power server running 2 VMs. The only problem is that you'll probably want to expand in the future and may not be able to adequately. Maybe go for a low-end Core i5 instead? I got an i5-4440 for about £100 months ago for my server and it's brilliant.
 
actually yes you are right about the K edition. it would be a waste if not overclocking.

not too fussed about making it future proof etc, i have a gaming PC for all my hardcore needs.

what do you run on your server if you dont mind me asking?

I think I have it down between a high end i3 or a low end i5 at the moment.
 
My i5 is only really running a TV server. I use a dedicated machine since I had all sorts of problems trying to run that on my main server (possibly due to time-critical data and EM interference).

My Celeron G1610 server runs all sorts of stuff perfectly fine though, including an Ubuntu Server VM, software RAID, downloads, file system watchers, folder syncers, etc.
 
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