Virtualisation Machine

[Guardsmon]

Afternoon all,

Just a quick one. Want to build a virtual PC box to host atleast the following:
2x Server 2008 R2
1x Win7 pro
1x Win XP pro

(There will be times when they all run at the same time)

Doing my MCITP and researching virtulisation for work at the same time so the servers will mostly be for domain controller configuration.

Anyway - Hardware >
Looking at:
i5 750

Was planning to go mini-itx to hide away, but will 4GB be enough or should I go 8GB?

Also will hard drives make much difference in performance in virtulisation - is it really worth a SSD over std SATA2?

 

[Guardsmon]

Thanks, thats what I thought, unfortunately my budget doesn't reach to the £265 needed to get 8GB on 2 modules which would allow for me to build it in a mini-itx setup.

I was aiming for around £450, but think I might do a bit of fiddling and use my main rig as the virtualisation box with 4GB extra thrown in.

 

[Guardsmon]

Ideas as to what to do:

1. i5 m-atx setup with 8GB memory and just accept I'm going to have a big box around

2. Buy i5 setup for my main gaming rig + 4GB DDR2 which will add to the current setup and be used as virtual box

3. go AMD and save myself the money and accept I'm going to have a big box around (but cheaper) Will an AM2 chip work on a AM3 board (they are compatible right?)?

 

[Guardsmon]

Not sure how why you think option 1 is a bad idea compared to option 3? (I'm going to have to go m-atx which in both cases). Surely option 2 compromises my plans more than 1?

How much difference is 4 hard drives really going to make over 1 or possibly 2?

 

[Guardsmon]

Yeh sorry about that there is not really much of an issue with plan 1 but youd be more cost effective with 3.

Right the hard drive is the slowest part of every single computer. it is what influences boot and load times of programs/os's so when you are running 4 machines off 1 hard drive you can only have a 1/4 of the speed on each and for a server thats not adequate and will be extremely slow.

Thanks for that, I know how hard drives work. I'm just wondering if it is really going to make "that" much difference for 2 machines running Server 2008 and another 2 machines with windows.
Its not like any of them are going to be writing a lot of data at the same time. I'm not sure the performance increase is worth the cost and space needed for 4 hard drives.

 

[Guardsmon]

an AM2 chip will NOT work on an AM3 board. Socket AM2/AM2+ chips have ddr2 controllers, and socket AM3 is ddr3 (however, AM3 chips have both ddr3 and ddr2 controllers, so they can be used in either socket).

Thanks - wasn't aware it was that way around. How much difference will I notice between a Athlon X4 and a Phenom II with 4 cores?