Virtualization Lab / Gaming Build

ChrissyT88 · 1 Nov 2017 at 22:49

Hi,

I'm looking to upgrade from an i7 920 / x58 set-up which is getting a bit long in the tooth. I'll mostly be using it as a virtualization lab (VWware Workstation / Virtualbox rather than ESXi / Xen etc.), so >4 cores and plenty of memory (32GB) is required, but will also be doing some gaming (mostly strategy and 4x games). I already have a decent GFX card that I'm not looking to upgrade, but I'm a bit out of date with CPUs / motherboards. It looks like the Ryzen 1700/1700x and x370 might be a good value option, although I understand they need high speed RAM for best performance? Is there a comparable option from Intel that I should be considering?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

BongoHunter · 2 Nov 2017 at 13:54

What's your budget and what resolution do you game at?

ChrissyT88 · 2 Nov 2017 at 20:45

I haven't considered it too much, but I think max £800-1000 for CPU, Mobo and RAM.

In terms of gaming, I currently have a 980GTX, which I don't plan to replace, and resolution is 2560x1440. Tbh, I've found the i7 920 fine for most games to date, so any update would probably be fine on this front!

Biz.Kid09 · 2 Nov 2017 at 20:52

Thats a big budget for just those three components, what is your storage setup like? VM's love SSD's (as does anything really)

BongoHunter · 2 Nov 2017 at 22:52

I wanted to consolidate my server/storage/vms into a single machine and ended up with a Threadripper build, plays games well, and great for development / heavy virtualisation work (for me at least).

You could probably get the 8 core (and highest clocked) TR CPU with the Asus Prime board and 32gb ram (possibly?!) on that budget

BinnsY · 3 Nov 2017 at 11:49

I'd probably go for something like this. You get your 16 cores and 32GB of RAM but also a nice fast NVME drive to put your host operating system on, and a big 500GB still fast SSD to put at least some of your virtual machines on. Although I only run a single VM on my machine at work putting it on a dedicated SSD made a huge difference and it essentially feels just as fast as the host it runs on.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x AMD Ryzen 7 Eight Core 1800X 4.00GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £379.99
1 x Asus Prime X370-Pro AMD X370 (Socket AM4) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £146.99
1 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C14 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (TLGD432G2= £269.99
1 x Hynix SL308 500GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (HFS500G32TND-N1A2A)= £139.99
1 x Samsung 960 EVO Polaris 250GB M.2 2280 PCI-e 3.0 x4 NVMe Solid State Drive= £149.99
1 x Noctua NH-U14S Ultra-Quiet Slim CPU Cooler with NF-A15 Fan= £62.99

Total: £1,161.04
(includes shipping: £11.10)

ChrissyT88 · 3 Nov 2017 at 21:33

Thanks for the recommendations all. I went with a Ryzen in the end - Threadripper worked out to be a bit expensive, and I don;t really need all the extra PCI-E lanes. I put some of the differenc einto storage though, as suggested. Thanks!