New Build after 5 years ! ESXi WorkstationHi I have built a few PC's in the past but

Hi I have built a few PC's in the past but I tend to hang on t other for a while and by the time its time to get a new one together knowledge is rusty.

Now I am currently running the following and wish to upgrade. I work from home and develop code which requires me to run tests on a variety of run of the mill platforms (W7, W2K3, W2k8, RHEL5.5., RHEL6, Solaris10) I'm really looking for a bit more of a solid platform to run these on and read around the various Intel VT technologies on mainly the Intel Xeon and have got together a USB ESXi installation. The idea being I would run ESXi off USB perhaps as the main platform with one VM having a graphics pass though (VMDirectPath) which would be my main machine.

Anyway I digress my current hardware is in its 5 year:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.83GHz 12MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor
Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB 10000RPM SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
Lian-Li PC-B25B Aluminium Midi-Tower - Black (No PSU)
Asus P5Q Pro Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Platinum Series DDR2
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775)
Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVDąRW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM
Noctua NF-S12 800RPM 120mm Silent Case Fan - 3 Pin
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g)

Being on a budget and also wanting to reuse a much of the above components as possible I am thinking of just MB, CPU and RAM replacement. These being:

ASUS P9X79 WS
Xeon E5-1650
Kingston ValueRAM ECC 8x8 GB

or maybe the same except with:

SUPERMICRO X9SRA

I would hang on to the 8800 GTX (at least until I get problems with Graphics VMDirectPath pass through) and then get a suitable AMD card (5450 perhaps).

Some questions:

1. Would the CEB sized Asus MB fit in the Lian-Li PC-B25B Case ? I am a bit suspicious of this myself. Other than this would all run ok given I get a suitable cooler (recommendations ?)
2. Any better recommendations ?
3. I expect to be blow any by either of the above configurations versus what I am running now - will this be the case ?

Anyway thanks for reading - peace.

Please answer the following questions:
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
6) Will you be overclocking?
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? UEFI? etc.

Also, what PSU do you have?

To answer your first question: No that Asus will not fit the Lian Li PC-B25B case. That Lian Li can only fit motherboards up to 12" x 9.6". The Asus CEB mobo is 12" x 10.5".

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

I haven't really set a limit but I would like to keep costs down as much as possible say 1600 USD

6) Will you be overclocking?
No
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Soon seems like Ivy Bridge - E is still along wait till autumn.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? UEFI? SATA 6gb/s.

Thanks for confirming about the case. I believe the SUPERMICRO X9SRA will fit though.

You didn't answer question 9 or my PSU question. Please answer those questions.

Sorry seemed to have dropped the PSU off the initial list, its:

Hiper 630W HPU-4M630 SLi Certified PSU.

A USB3 feature would be nice but not a deal breaker.

All right then. In that case, your setup (if going with the SM mobo) so far looks pretty solid to me. That Xeon should blow away your current config. With that said, I would highly recommend adding a SSD as that'll make a significant performance difference in the system. I recommend the Samsung 840 Pro series in this case.

Yes actually got one already an older 830. Thanks.