Can you review this virtualization build before I pull the trigger? Thanks!

E

everythingisvirtualized

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Hi and thansk for reading this, here is a bit of background:

Im a software developer. I use virtualization extensively: host is Linux and guests are a mix of different Linux flavours and some Windows XP/7/8/10. I use VirtualBox to run everything. I would like to start up VMs faster, have more VMs running in parallel and have fast clone (coping) VMs operations.

Im using a 48" screen with 4K resolution, so the GPU must be able to drive 4k at 60fps for normal desktop use. My current laptop GeForce 930M can only drive the 4K display at 30fps :-( Gaming is secondary. I play mostly old games.

My budget is EUR 1500ish


So, questions:

A. LGA2011/X99: Im choosing this platform for the quad memory channels feature which I think will make a difference when virtualizing. Am I right to assume that the 5820K slightly overcloked + the 4 memory channels will perform better overall than a 6700K ? Am I right to assume that single thread performance is worse on the 5820K ? What if I overclock a bit ?

B. MOBO: It took me a while but Im pretty sure this MOBO supports vt-d (important for speedy virtualization I/O). It is a "cheap" mobo within the 2011-v3 range but I cannot find any feature in more expensive boards that I may use (other than very aggresive ascetics!) Am I missing something?

C. GPU: It has a HDMI 2.0 that can run 3840x2160 @ 60fps which is my main concern. Im not going to play in 4K, I will be happy to downgrade to 1080 for gaming now and then. I just need the card to move 4k @60fps for normal desktop workloads with HDMI 2.0 since my screen (a tv) lacks DisplayPort. Will this do the job ?

D. Im getting 64GB of ram so I can have lots of VMs and not have to be stingy with guests ram. Im also planning to run the host OS entirely in a Linux ramdive with tmpfs. This should improve things greatly. The M2 Samsung 950 will host the most frecuently used VMs, Im reusing a 4TB hdd for bulk storage of other stuff.

E. The RAM setup will be 4 x 16GB sticks. I will leave 4 slots empty so in the future I may get another 64GB of ram for a total of 128GB. (the MOBO supports 126GB, ark.intel.com says thte 5820k only supports 64GB but look at this: Hardcore Hardware: We stuffed this PC with 128GB of cutting-edge DDR4 RAM )

F. COOLING: I have never run a liquid cooling system before, but a huge heat sink seem bulky and ugly over the CPU. I would love to liquid cool the CPU mostly for ascetics reasons as I have never overclocked a CPU before. I may try to push the 5820K a bit this time. Will the Arctic 240 fit into the nzxt H440 ? I have googled a lot trying to find someone with this setup but I cannot fint it. Anyone has a video/photo of this?

THANK YOU for reading so far!!!

Any help / comments / input is greatly appreciated :)
 
Personally I'd get a faster RAM and work the buses to make use of the bandwidth. 2133mhz DDR4 doesn't offer much over higher end DDR3 because of the latencies. I picked for my 5820K build some 3000mhz DDR and have the bus pushed that high.

The video card may be of concern for some games. But for everyday use(non-gaming) it will be overkill(email, WWW, spreadsheets, Youtube, etc don't require much of anything for video card power).
 
everythingisvirtualized said:
Hi and thansk for reading this, here is a bit of background:

Im a software developer. I use virtualization extensively: host is Linux and guests are a mix of different Linux flavours and some Windows XP/7/8/10. I use VirtualBox to run everything. I would like to start up VMs faster, have more VMs running in parallel and have fast clone (coping) VMs operations.

Im using a 48" screen with 4K resolution, so the GPU must be able to drive 4k at 60fps for normal desktop use. My current laptop GeForce 930M can only drive the 4K display at 30fps :-( Gaming is secondary. I play mostly old games.

My budget is EUR 1500ish


So, questions:

A. LGA2011/X99: Im choosing this platform for the quad memory channels feature which I think will make a difference when virtualizing. Am I right to assume that the 5820K slightly overcloked + the 4 memory channels will perform better overall than a 6700K ? Am I right to assume that single thread performance is worse on the 5820K ? What if I overclock a bit ?

B. MOBO: It took me a while but Im pretty sure this MOBO supports vt-d (important for speedy virtualization I/O). It is a "cheap" mobo within the 2011-v3 range but I cannot find any feature in more expensive boards that I may use (other than very aggresive ascetics!) Am I missing something?

C. GPU: It has a HDMI 2.0 that can run 3840x2160 @ 60fps which is my main concern. Im not going to play in 4K, I will be happy to downgrade to 1080 for gaming now and then. I just need the card to move 4k @60fps for normal desktop workloads with HDMI 2.0 since my screen (a tv) lacks DisplayPort. Will this do the job ?

D. Im getting 64GB of ram so I can have lots of VMs and not have to be stingy with guests ram. Im also planning to run the host OS entirely in a Linux ramdive with tmpfs. This should improve things greatly. The M2 Samsung 950 will host the most frecuently used VMs, Im reusing a 4TB hdd for bulk storage of other stuff.

E. The RAM setup will be 4 x 16GB sticks. I will leave 4 slots empty so in the future I may get another 64GB of ram for a total of 128GB. (the MOBO supports 126GB, ark.intel.com says thte 5820k only supports 64GB but look at this: Hardcore Hardware: We stuffed this PC with 128GB of cutting-edge DDR4 RAM )

F. COOLING: I have never run a liquid cooling system before, but a huge heat sink seem bulky and ugly over the CPU. I would love to liquid cool the CPU mostly for ascetics reasons as I have never overclocked a CPU before. I may try to push the 5820K a bit this time. Will the Arctic 240 fit into the nzxt H440 ? I have googled a lot trying to find someone with this setup but I cannot fint it. Anyone has a video/photo of this?

THANK YOU for reading so far!!!

Any help / comments / input is greatly appreciated :)
Click to expand...


Thats very little storage for what you are going to be doing. If I were you I'd pick up a 1tb regular SSD for your most frequently used vms.
 
Why no Xeon/ECC ?

I'd highly suggest a used HP G6 or G7 if actual vm speed isn't important.
 
I don't think I'd be inclined to run this much RAM without some form of ECC in effect...
 
Hi everyone and thank you for answering.

I see most of you are asking why I dont go for xeon/ecc/server boards.

The truth is I never even considered those. I have been researching my options on the consumer front but somehow it didnt even cross my mind to look into those setups.

Is ECC ram really that important? I cannot tell, I have never used it. I can run my Linux pc for months without crashing, so I dont see how non ecc memory creates errors that make the system unstable.

I have been before in the Supermicro website (this is going to sound very stupid) but I cannot see any prices. Going into different resellers websites for my country doesn help, still no pricing. What do you guys do? Email/phone asking for pricing???

Thanks for all the replies, I really appreciate them.
 
everythingisvirtualized said:
Hi everyone and thank you for answering.

I see most of you are asking why I dont go for xeon/ecc/server boards.

The truth is I never even considered those. I have been researching my options on the consumer front but somehow it didnt even cross my mind to look into those setups.

Is ECC ram really that important? I cannot tell, I have never used it. I can run my Linux pc for months without crashing, so I dont see how non ecc memory creates errors that make the system unstable.

I have been before in the Supermicro website (this is going to sound very stupid) but I cannot see any prices. Going into different resellers websites for my country doesn help, still no pricing. What do you guys do? Email/phone asking for pricing???

Thanks for all the replies, I really appreciate them.
Click to expand...

You'd probably be fine, for the most part. However, bit flips do occur. If I were running anything north of 32GB of RAM I don't think I'd accept the potential for the hypervisor hitting something it can't correct for and hosing a lot of VMs. I think the last study I saw on it using Google's server farms as the "body of evidence" indicated an average of one single-bit error every 14 to 40 hours per GB of RAM and that error rates do rise with the lifespan of the RAM module.

But, that's really it; It's just "potential". It's still enough of an issue to warrant consideration, imho.
 
You can also pick up HP G6s/G7s with 2 cpus & 144G of ram for $500 or less....why not?
 
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