Intel Virtualization Technology

mdjmcnally · 17 Jun 2007 at 22:55

Could someone recommend a motherboard that supports the Intel Core 2 Quad-Core Q6600 and Intel Virtualization Technology, that also has Linux 64bit Driver support.

Looking to put together two home servers for running CentOS5 and VMWare Server, or if no Linux support then Win2K3 and Virtual Server 2005SP1.

I am not bothered about Overclock ability.

lay-z-boy · 18 Jun 2007 at 02:08

I know that this board is rock solid and has excellent support:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-016-IN&tool=3

I would recommended others but I haven't tested them in a 64 bit *nix environment.

Datamonkey · 18 Jun 2007 at 08:30

mdj,

can i suggest you get into members market if you can.

Or drop me an email mate.

Cheers

mdjmcnally · 18 Jun 2007 at 22:49

lay-z-boy said:
I know that this board is rock solid and has excellent support:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-016-IN&tool=3

I would recommended others but I haven't tested them in a 64 bit *nix environment.

I know that it supports the quad core and seems to be reliable, however I have not been able to find anything to say that it will support the Intel VT, can you confirm that it definitely supports Intel Virtualization Technology in the BIOS

Datamonkey · 18 Jun 2007 at 22:52

http://hardware.gotfrag.com/portal/story/35229/?spage=3

yep sure does mate,

drop me a mail.

mdjmcnally · 18 Jun 2007 at 23:20

That merely lists that the Intel VT is a feature of the processor, it does not mean that the BIOS on the motherboard supports Intel VT and Intel VT to work correctly. All of the Core2 series whether Duo or Quad support the feature on the CPU, it depends if the motherboard manufacturer has added the support into the BIOS. None of the manufacturers actually state if they have enabled or not and cannot see anything mentioned in the manual for this motherboard or BIOS updates.

I have been burned like this before with a Supermicro NF2200 board, where Nvidia says that the chipset supports RAID5, and the equivalent Tyan board does, however Supermicro have decided not to implement the feature on there boards.

I have dropped you an email to your hotmail account.

± Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) requires a computer system with an enabled Intel® processor, BIOS, virtual machine monitor (VMM) and for some uses, certain platform software enabled for it. Functionality, performance or other benefits will vary depending on hardware and software configurations. Intel Virtualization Technology-enabled BIOS and VMM applications are currently in development.

lay-z-boy · 18 Jun 2007 at 23:49

Not all the core2 support it actually, the value orientated cpu's have it removed from the e4x00 range and below.

As I said the Intel mainboard works in *nix and supports it in the bios.

mdjmcnally · 19 Jun 2007 at 01:37

Thanks for that I will give one a go next month after I get paid

Chris_b · 20 Jun 2007 at 01:16

I am using a Gigabyte DS3P which is supposed to support quad core processors and definitely supports the intel virtualisation technology (I have it enabled in BIOS).

I run 32bit Centos5 and VMWare server on this box with an e6600 and 4GB of RAM and it flies. I think whatever 965/975 chipset board you go with linux 64 bit compatibility is still at the early stages, so expect a few issues.

I went with CentOS as it is a very stable distro that has a lot of development / testing behind it (its RHEL 5 after all with different branding). Even so my board had issues with the latest CentOS 5 Xen virtualisation kernel that made it unusable, also didn't seem too happy with the 64bit version of CentOS 5....

Unless you are planning on sticking more than 4GB of RAM in there I don't think you will see any massive improvements in performance over using the vanilla 32bit CentOS non-Xen kernel, and its much better supported for apps etc.