Need help Building server/desktop

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scl789

n00b
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May 23, 2008
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I have been out of the loop for a while now when it comes to PC's last one I built was a 1.1gig AMD t-bird that puts us about 6 years ago or so lol.

I am looking to build something that is going to be running 3-4 VMWare images. It is going to be used for work. These are pretty cpu and memory intensive. Im thinking I am going to need at least 4 Gigs of ram May want to go to 8 depending on price. I will also want to run windows 2003.

I also will be using this as a regular computer just to mess around. I have a laptop where I will be doing most of my stuff, but I may use the server to surf the net and download different things. Eventually my plan is to make it into a media HTPC. That is in the future though.

My questions are:

What do I need to go with thats not going to cost $1,000+? (I am mostly looking for Motherboard CPU and Ram recomendations)

Is AMD as good as intel?

Should I only be looking at Intel?

Motherboard?

CPU?

RAM? (Speeds I have no idea what the difference is and what matches with what cpu motherboards)

IIs it cheaper to just buy a desktop from lets say dell or one of those places?

Thanks for the help!
 
What motherboard? The size of the PC makes no difference to me at all. Ill end up running cables from the box to the TV in the future. The PC will be in another room.
 
I would go 8 gigs of ram and a 64 bit OS if you want to run 4 vmware instances (assuming all 4 at once). Otherwise 4GB and 2003 will be fine.
 
Have not picked out the hard drives yet. What do you mean by array? I want to be doing Raid 0 with a built in Raid controller on the Motherboard. I guess I could buy a PCI Raid controller if that is better.....
 
scl789 said:
Oh one more thing I want to do hardware Raid 0
Click to expand...

Hardware RAID is not implemented on most motherboards. Most mainstream motherboards have a hardware assisted software raid controller.

scl789 said:
Have not picked out the hard drives yet. What do you mean by array? I want to be doing Raid 0 with a built in Raid controller on the Motherboard. I guess I could buy a PCI Raid controller if that is better.....
Click to expand...

RAID: Redundant Array of Independent Disks

You'll need at least two drives for RAID0. The onboard RAID controller is ok for desktop users, but if you want serious RAID performance, you'll need a PCI_Express hardware RAID card.

Check out these benchmarks:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1284410

If you don't do RAID, then a dell deal would be easy and cheap. Right now you can get a Dell Inspiron 530 Desktop w/ Core2Quad Q6600, 1GB Memory, 250GB Hard Drive, DVD Burner, and 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor for $699 with FREE Shipping. (from gotapex.com)

If you decide to build the system yourself, you have to decide if you want hardware RAID or if onboard RAID is good enough. If you want hardware RAID, you should go for a board with at least 2x PCI-E 16x slots, one for the vidcard, and the other for your RAID card.

If your not so ambitious about RAID, the MSI P35 Neo2-FR is a good compromise (16x PCI-E for graphics, PCI-E 4x for a raid card). The Q6600 is the best value quadcore right now at $200-$220. All you need for a Q6600 is DDR2-800, whether you plan to OC or not.
 
thank you enginurd that is just what i was looking for. gives me plenty to think about
 
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