What CPU for a VM box?

[IAmATeaf]

Currently have a Q6600 with 8gb of RAM, am wanting to update the rig so will be building a new system from scratch. Was thinking of spending around £200 on the CPU but with the current range am a bit confused as to what I should get.

System will be used as a VMWare server running around 4 virtual machines.

 

[Guest2]

What will be running on the virtual machines?

 

[IAmATeaf]

Windows server 2003 x32/x64 and maybe Server 2008

 

[OrphanBoy]

How highly loaded will these VMs be? Will there be a lot of I/O?

 

[Guest2]

What programs, applications, games?

If you play on just running 4 OSs then a Q6600 will easily be enough. If you plan on running 4 OSs with one folding, 1 running prime, one running Crysis then no it wont be enough.

Why spend loads on a CPU anyway, just buy a few machines and pool the resources

 

[IAmATeaf]

No games, it'll run at min 4 VMs:

1) Windows Server 2003 DC with DNS and DHCP
2) Windows Server 2003 member used as a profile/user/shared network drives/print/ghost services/SCCM local management server
3) Windows Server 2003 member running SQL 2005, Windows SCCM
4) Windows Server 2003 member Exchange 2003

I then have a number of other VMs that I may or may not switch on, depends on the work, these include an Exchange 5.5 server, SQL 2000 server, Enterprise vault server, a pair of SQL 2005 servers in failover mode, Windows 2008 DC etc....

I was thinking of going for an i7-860 as that supports hyperthreading?

I want to try and keep things on a single box, I work from home sometimes and would rather have a single box. I got the Q6600 to do this as I used to have some 8 odd PCs/laptops in the old days to run the VMs. The Q6600 machine has been targeted for some other use so I need to get a replacement machine.

 

[Guest2]

Use the Q6600 machine. If you dont have enough processing power but another and pool the resources. Should have enough though. RAM is the main thing. Our SQL Server runs a massive database and has 5gb out of 8gb allocated to it. Most of the time it uses around 70% of 5gb

 

[IAmATeaf]

The Q6600 machine is going to go, I don't have a choice so I'm going to have to replace it.

 

[IAmATeaf]

Nobody have any ideas? I was thinking along the lines of the i7-860 as it's the cheapest thing that supports hyperthreading but I've no idea if this feature is really required.

What about a decent mobo to go with the above CPU?

 

[Moeks]

For your intended purpose, I would recommend a 6 core AMD machine, the cheapest hexacore should do just fine, so a Phenom II X6 1055T with an AM3 motherboard of your choice ...can't really go wrong with any Gigabyte or Asus board and pair that with plenty of ram and you should be good to go.