MB & CPU suggestion for virtual server

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tankman1989

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Aug 21, 2009
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I need suggestions for a good MB that supports the latest virtualization technology. I'd like support for 64GB of RAM. Dual CPU would be nice but not necessary. I'd like to keep the total at $1200 or less for the mobo and cpu(s).

What would be suggestions for this?

This is going to be running Win 7 with VMware Workstation 10.
 
What you're doing with the vm's and how many you want to run would probably be helpful in getting some suggestions.

If you're just using it as a lite lab environment, I'd probably just pick any decent x79 board and an i7. Just double check driver support before hand.

If you truly need to go dual socket & 64 plus GB of memory, you probably should be looking at ESXi instead of workstation.
 
I run an ESXI instance hosting vCenter in Workstation 10 on my main work machine. Works great. Also nice to be able to run a few VM's straight out of WS10 instead of having them all in ESXI. Making it a dedicated ESXI host makes the machine worthless for anything else in a test environment.

General rule for me is lots of cores, lots of ram. Faster the cpu the better, but that is a secondary thing as opposed to more cores and more ram.

Get a single cpu board and toss an 8 core Xeon in there. Add RAM go. I have seen low clocked 8 core Xeons on Sabertooth boards going for around $1000 second hand.

As far as i7 goes, All the current 2011's do 64GB. If you want more than 6 cores, you will have to go Xeon.
 
If you are not opposed to buying used, Ebay is your friend.

SuperMicro dual socket LGA 2011 board with 16 RAM slots. $350
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Supermicro-815-6-Motherboard-X9DRW-iF-dual-socket-LGA2011-/301134601151?pt=US_Server_Boards&hash=item461d055bbf

CPU(s)
6-core Xeon E5-4610 at $230 each:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Xeon-SANDY-BRIDGE-EP-E5-4610-2-4GHz-Processor-QB89-15MB-6-CORE-LGA-2011-/321309688149?pt=CPUs&hash=item4acf8cc155

Or you could always do a single faster 6-core or a single 8-core and add another later if you end up needing it.

edit: If you really need lots of cores, you can get a 10 core for $800 on Ebay.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-XEON-E5-26XX-V2-10-Core-2-8GHz-25MB-L3-LGA2011-CPU-/281281566756?pt=CPUs&hash=item417db01824
 
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schizrade said:
ESXi inside of workstation 10. Problem solved.
Click to expand...

I never understood why people would do this. Pass through the KVM from a vm and save yourself the licencing costs. Just because you have ESXi on it, doesn't mean you can't use it for anything else. Fact is, you can use it for most anything else as well.
 
I've been recently considering upgrading from my 2 Tyan S5512 server towers, to a single dual proc rack mount chassis for my half-cab. Currently looking at:

Tyan S7045GM4NR
Intel E5-2420 or 2430 procs
48-64 GB UDIMM memory to start with
Any additional hard drives or solid state drives you want for storage.

Benefits of that S7045 model is that it has a pretty high UDIMM cap compared to most workstation boards, and the dedicated IPMI network port alongside the quad Intel NIC's for OS use. I've worked with Supermicro boards exclusively at my work and I really hate how they design and implement their IPMI interfaces. The Tyan systems I've used at home can upgrade the BIOS and iKVM firmware from a web page login while the server is offline. Something I know Supermicro doesn't have on their products.
 
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