Need Build advice for running a VM (linux within windows)

4737Joker

4737Joker

4737Joker

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Hi,

My company needs a computer to run a Linux based software on a VM within windows.

I have no idea on where to begin speccing for this but i know he doesnt want to spend a lot of money on it as it will be something we use now and then so it doesn't have to be the fastest possible but it needs to be able to run smoothly when it is used.

I have installed the software on my machine (see sig) but i put it on an old mech drive just to see if i could get it running at first. Seems a bit sluggish but that could be the hdd.

The PC will be running Win7 and i will be using VMware to run the software (arahnedrape). It's a Linux based program and it is for texture mapping.

So as a starting point i put this together, but i could do with it coming down in price. Maybe there is an AMD alternative?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £259.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £119.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX16C9K2/16X) £99.95
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 600w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020060-UK) £62.99
Total : £641.30 (includes shipping : £9.50).



Edit:

I have a 760 sat about i can use unless you think its pointless.

I don't need a case/OS/cpu cooler/peripherals/extra storage/monitor
 
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Ordinarily when using VM's three things matter:

Cores on the processor/processor cache (so an i7 is best in this example, out of 'normal' retail chips)
Lots of RAM (depends on what VM's you'll be using. 16gb will be fine for win7 host + 1 Linux VM)
Storage. (The faster the better)

So the system you have spec'd up is fine. How big is the Linux VM? You may find 120GB a squeeze if sharing with win7.

You have selected Haswell, to save money you might be better of specing up with socket 1155 (IvyBridge)
 
Ivybridge is a good option..

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £259.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £145.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX16C9K2/16X) £99.95
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £60.00
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
Total : £637.92 (includes shipping : £10.00).



Board doesn't really support SLI but that doesn't seem to be a concern anyway..

Managed to get you a 250GB SSD. :)
 
Good spec Doomedspeed.
I wonder if he would overclock? If not you could probably save money by getting a non K variant CPU
 
You should learn more about the application you need to run. How much memory will it be consuming? If it's < 4GB you can probably get away with 8 GB of system memory. Also is it well parallelised? If it is, you might find the AMD 83x0 are faster. In any case, they're much cheaper. And you should find out how much HDD space you need.

If you do go for Intel I doubt they will want to overclock so go with the non-K, it has more features (virtualisation and TSX).
 
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Thanks for the specs.

It would just be the 1 VM and im unsure of the size, but there will not be much work done on it so i think a 120gb would be ok. If it wasn't id just take the evo and put a 250gb ssd in anyway :)

I think i will go the ivy route to save some money as suggested.

Do you think theres a need for gfx card in this spec? im not sure if a 760 will be overkill and if say a £20-£30 card would suffice or even onboard gfx.

I specced a k chip incase i decide it needs a bit more grunt so i can just overclock as opposed to buying another chip.

Is the antec psu any better than the corsair? i specced corsair as i have allways used them and found them to be reliable. But if the antec is better then ill go with that.
 
im no vm pro but you know you can store the vm as a single file and just use a empty directory yeh?
you said in your test you used a separate drive

anyway just thought id ask, its one my fav things about them that they so easy to backup and move

and i think when running vm it uses its own gfx drivers so im not sure the card will have much impact, u can try it i guess
 
Going to be honest, if its just one VM you could go for a cheaper 8320 and stil do what you need.. At half the price you can't really complain either. :D

8GB will be fine too..

Does the 8320 have on-boards?
 
could someone spec me an amd machine with no gfx card, im hopless whne it comes to amd specs.

120gb SSD
8gb ram

the above are my only requirements, cpu usage is 10% on my 3570k @ 4.5ghz so i don't think it needs to be a high spec for what im doing.
 
So it uses 1.3 GB of memory and 10% CPU when running from a HDD? I wonder what the bottleneck is.

It sounds like it's not super-intensive work, and not time- or mission-critical, so I'd probably go for a cheap but solid machine. Maybe an 8320, a cheap motherboard (e.g.) and appropriate memory (e.g.). Add a SSD (e.g.) and a PSU (e.g.). These examples come to £304 + delivery + VAT which is probably within the budget ;)

I haven't used any of this kit specifically, but it's the kind of thing I'd go with for a work machine. For work I wouldn't overclock it, and would use the stock HSF. Anything else isn't worth the aggro IMO.
 
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10% usage. :D

I was going to spec you a 6300 build but theres only a select few motherboards with onboard graphics and they aren't the best and certainly won't support overclocking. Piledrviers heat is also an issue..

You could go with trinity but im not sure how much CPU power that would require, i think it'd be okay but i know its more designed for HTPC performance rather than as a little workhorse (workdonkey if you will).

Can't you get a secondhand 2500k and Z68 motherboard? :D

EDIT: Joeyjojo (awesome name by the way) that motherboard doesn't have on-board graphics..
 
Yeah it's a lot less demanding than i imagined, i laughed when i saw the cpu usage.

I don't mind buying second hand but i won't buy from that popular auction site and i don't have access to the MM yet (taken me 9 years to get 600 posts). So a cheap trinity build might do the job, unless i talk my boss in to buying my 3570k so i can drop a 3770k in to my rig for bf4 :)
 
You shouldn't get any Intel K model for virtual machines, Intel has crippled the support somewhat.

The APUs have no L3 cache, which could be a problem. An 8320 with a low cost GPU would be fine. If you're not overclocking it, a cheap £60 Gigabyte AM3+ board would do.
 
You say you want to run this in a VM, have you considered dual booting. I presume the computer will be used for other duties too and as such that would be inconvenient.

Haswell build - non-overclocking for maximum stability.

2 120 GB SSD's - one for Windows 7 - one for the Linux VM.

Not sure whether it will, looking at the previous posts, but if the rig gets under heavy load the stock Intel heatsinks are very noisy, so a Hyper 212 or similar will keep it a bit quieter.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4771 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £239.99
2 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99 (£173.98)
1 x Seasonic S12II 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
1 x Asus B85M-G Intel B85 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £59.99
1 x Avexir MPower Yellow Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CM) £49.99
Total : £595.93 (includes shipping : £10.00).



Edit: Just saw the edit to your original post about not needing case or cooler.
 
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