MCITP Server Admin hardware/

Agree about the ram. I am thinking 16gig as a base spec.

Going along the lines of an AMD Athlon quad core what motherboard would be best? Do we need one that will support virtualisation passthrough and if so do OCUK sell one with this as I have had a look this morning and cant seem to see one?
 
m4cc45 said:
12 to 16GB memory should get you there or there abouts especially for multiple clients, etc.
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I'll have to look harder for a 16GB capable motherboard then. Am I more likely to find an AMD motherboard supporting 16GB RAM than an Intel one?

m4cc45 said:
It really depends on which exam you're prepping for (for example the Windows 7 one you would probably only need a Domain Controller running DHCP and DNS and a client).
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I'm planning to do the MCITP Server Administrator on Windows Server 2008 (70-640, 70-642 and 70-646) to begin with. I'd probably look to do an Exchange one after that and if I ever get there maybe the Sharepoint MCITP. :p

antc said:
Agree about the ram. I am thinking 16gig as a base spec.

Going along the lines of an AMD Athlon quad core what motherboard would be best? Do we need one that will support virtualisation passthrough and if so do OCUK sell one with this as I have had a look this morning and cant seem to see one?
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Yeah looks like the AMD boards are more likely to support 16GB RAM than Intel ones. Strange to me that is. I've no idea what AMD chip to go for at all. :p
 
I've found an Athlon II X4 640 AM3 3GHz chip for about £77 from a competitor.

I've found five AMD AM3 boards that allow 16GB of RAM and two that allow 32GB of RAM but the site they're on doesn't mention virtual tech support. I'll have to check out the manufacturer's site for full info on that. Edit - The Asus M5A97 Pro does support "AMD virtualization" according to section 3.5.1 (CPU Configuration) on page 3-14 of the manual.

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3Plus/M5A97_PRO/

As for HDD any cheap SATA 1 or 2TB drive would be more than enough yes?
 
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MarcLister said:
I've found an Athlon II X4 640 AM3 3GHz chip for about £77 from a competitor.

I've found five AMD AM3 boards that allow 16GB of RAM and two that allow 32GB of RAM but the site they're on doesn't mention virtual tech support. I'll have to check out the manufacturer's site for full info on that. Edit - The Asus M5A97 Pro does support "AMD virtualization" according to section 3.5.1 (CPU Configuration) on page 3-14 of the manual.

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3Plus/M5A97_PRO/

As for HDD any cheap SATA 1 or 2TB drive would be more than enough yes?
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Nice work!

I have found the board from a competitor for £79 also. Just need to decide on some ram now and I might get this ordered tonight so I can crack on with some labbing!
 
How much RAM are you going to get? 16GB? I can't find any RAM sets over 16GB that come in 4 sticks of RAM; they all use 6 sticks of RAM.

What graphics card are you going to get? I don't think the Asus M5A97 Pro has onboard graphics. Course all we'd need is a very basic and cheap graphics card.

Would you mind writing up your spec list when you've decided on the components/bought them? I'm going to follow suit in January/February next year so I'd like to see what you do first. ;)
 
Yeah think I will go with 16GB. Probably something like corsair xms kit which is 4x4gig sticks at somewhere round the £70 pound mark. So all in all with cost around 250 quid for a quad core, 16 gig ram machine that fully supports virtualisation and should be more than enough for labbing I would think.

Then in the future as ram prices come down or sticks get to a larger capacity I/we can just upgrade the machine upto 32GB if required.

Gfx not sure on yet, but something passive would be nice as would like machine to be fairly silent.
 
Yeah. The processor should be retail so packaged with its own cooler. How many HDDs are you going to get and what size? Been told elsewhere to think about RAID and use an external HDD as backup.

I think a cheap as chips graphics card would do, we don't need gaming performance, just something to run Windows Server 2008 and supply us with a VGA socket to hook a monitor up to.
 
Hdd wise i have 4 or 5 500gig drives and some 1tb drives lying around from a windows home server machine I am breaking down. I have two other machines that I can use as physical machines for something or other in my lab if needed, they just aren't up to spec of supporting virtualisation hence me looking to build this machine.

I have a spare 1tb external drive I can use as backup so thats sorted also for me.

cheap passive gfx card agree, less fans the better.

Also going to look into getting a technet sub as well, just need to decide which one is best for me. I did get software with my box set of ms books for 640, 642 and 646 but they are trials, would be nice not to have to worry about resetting the time periods but also have access to other software to learn along the way.
 
On the gfx card front I have just found an Asus HD 5450 SILENT 1GB DDR2 DVI VGA HDMI PCI-E for about 25 quid so that should do the job of being quiet and also cheap!

Think I might be all set!

Agree everything is looking alright?
 
antc said:
Also going to look into getting a technet sub as well, just need to decide which one is best for me. I did get software with my box set of ms books for 640, 642 and 646 but they are trials, would be nice not to have to worry about resetting the time periods but also have access to other software to learn along the way.
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I've already done some research on that. :) I also have the Microsoft book set for those three exams but, as you say, the software is time limited and I don't want to be messing around backing up files and settings every 180 days or whatever the limit is.

There are three Technet packages to subscribe to: Standard, Professional and Professional with Media. I've compared the Excel spreadsheet that Microsoft offer showing what software is available to each package and I believe that the Standard offers me what I need/want, Server 2008 and Exchange.

Prices and comparisons of packages here. The renewal price is a bit less than the initial sign up cost.

http://technet.microsoft.com/subscriptions/bb892759.aspx

Technet software list - http://download.microsoft.com/downl...E-AA0E-A087CB332A23/TechNet_Product_List.xlsx

Windows Server 2008 (some versions) are available on the Technet Standard. Exchange and Sharepoint (some versions) are also available.

antc said:
On the gfx card front I have just found an Asus HD 5450 SILENT 1GB DDR2 DVI VGA HDMI PCI-E for about 25 quid so that should do the job of being quiet and also cheap!

Think I might be all set!

Agree everything is looking alright?
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Looks OK to me. :) What case are you going to use? Sounds like you've got some already?
 
Ahhh awesome, I did download the technet spreadsheet on my work laptop but I am too lazy to boot it up and have a look so will do that tomorrow :)

I already have a coolermaster stacker case that I will use which is nice and spacious inside. I just need to be a cheap case for the bits I am taking out of it. Need to decide on something half decent but cheap ish.
 
Haha. :D I think for what we need, Technet Standard will suit us fine.

I've started a thread on another forum and I'm being recommended an HP MicroServer over there. :) For the low cost I'm quite tempted. I'm just not 100% convinced about the HP MicroServer considering it has a limit of 8GB. I also want the 'fun' of building a server PC and not just buying something off the shelf and populating it with the components it needs. The only major advantage the HP MicroServer has over anything I would build is that the case is really quite small so I could hide it away somewhere and not notice it taking up room. I wouldn't be able to do that so much with a cheap case I'd buy.

I'm really thinking that I should get a board capable of 32GB RAM but populate it with 16GB until prices get lower and I can either add more RAM in or replace the 16GB kit with a 32GB kit.

Before I forget the Asus M5A97 Pro needs this type of RAM, "4 x DIMM, Max. 32GB, DDR3 2133(O.C.)/1866/1800/1600/1333/1066 MHz ECC, Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory".
 
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I have no doubt you are right about technet, I didnt see too many differences between the two for what I wanted early last week when I downloaded it.

I looked at the hp microserver and along with it maxing out at 8GB ram the cpu isnt that great, I have seen it recomended a lot myself on other forums and even this forum. Its not bad for what you pay but the machine that has been specked between us in here is far more powerful and versatile I think and will be able to be used for a lot longer period of time.

I also looked at the hp ml110 g6 but thats about 40 quid less than what i am spending and is only dual core and comes with either 1 or 2 gig ram so its actually cheaper to build what I am about to.

Agree with your ram comments, same as mine further up! :)
 
antc said:
I have no doubt you are right about technet, I didnt see too many differences between the two for what I wanted early last week when I downloaded it.

I looked at the hp microserver and along with it maxing out at 8GB ram the cpu isnt that great, I have seen it recomended a lot myself on other forums and even this forum. Its not bad for what you pay but the machine that has been specked between us in here is far more powerful and versatile I think and will be able to be used for a lot longer period of time.

I also looked at the hp ml110 g6 but thats about 40 quid less than what i am spending and is only dual core and comes with either 1 or 2 gig ram so its actually cheaper to build what I am about to.
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I agree. I think we'll have more power and flexibility this way. :)

antc said:
Agree with your ram comments, same as mine further up! :)
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The "corsair xms kit which is 4x4gig sticks"? Just wanted to check when I realised that Asus define something. :)
 
Just a reminder guys - firstly don't worry about graphics cards and if you're wanting to mess around with ESXi or Hyper-V then just double check you have compatible hardware.

If you're planning on purely using the server as a training ground and have another PC then I'd highly recommend one of the above as you can snapshot it and revert back (so if you're deploying something potentially hazardous snapshot it before hand and then revert back in a few seconds instead of rebuilding) or make templates so you can deploy a Windows 2008 / 7 / etc. image in a few minutes rather than the two hours it takes to build.



M.
 
m4cc45 said:
Just a reminder guys - firstly don't worry about graphics cards and if you're wanting to mess around with ESXi or Hyper-V then just double check you have compatible hardware.
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I don't think we are, we're just looking for the cheapest graphics card that will work with the motherboards we're looking at. I know we don't need even medium performance graphics cards. :)

m4cc45 said:
If you're planning on purely using the server as a training ground and have another PC then I'd highly recommend one of the above as you can snapshot it and revert back (so if you're deploying something potentially hazardous snapshot it before hand and then revert back in a few seconds instead of rebuilding) or make templates so you can deploy a Windows 2008 / 7 / etc. image in a few minutes rather than the two hours it takes to build.



M.
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You recommend either ESXi or Hyper-V?
 
MarcLister said:
The "corsair xms kit which is 4x4gig sticks"? Just wanted to check when I realised that Asus define something. :)
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You lost me there? Sorry im a bit tired :o

Also with regard to ESXI and Hyper-v im thinking the esxi route. Run it off a usb stick which i need to check now to see if that mobo has an internal usb port.
 
antc said:
You lost me there? Sorry im a bit tired :o
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You said you agreed with my comments about the RAM and said they were the same as you said earlier on in the thread. The Corsair XMS 4x4GB were the first comments I could find from you. Or perhaps I'm getting tired as well.

antc said:
Also with regard to ESXI and Hyper-v im thinking the esxi route. Run it off a usb stick which i need to check now to see if that mobo has an internal usb port.
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Don't think the Asus mobo has an internal USB port.
 
MarcLister said:
You said you agreed with my comments about the RAM and said they were the same as you said earlier on in the thread. The Corsair XMS 4x4GB were the first comments I could find from you. Or perhaps I'm getting tired as well.

Don't think the Asus mobo has an internal USB port.
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Doesnt have an internal USB port, but guessing it should be fine to just plug it in the back port somewhere?

Also just to confirm with the chap who mentioned about compatible hardware and MarcLister, im pretty sure we have both checked the the cpu and mobo both have the virtual extensions required to run vmware esxi or hyper-v?
 
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