To virtualise or not...

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paulwatson5

n00b
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Feb 8, 2014
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Right, i have a bit of a problem and dont know where to turn. Actually, there are a few problems.
It may take some explaining but PLEASE read on as i need expert advice.

My main pc is a crappy packard bell tri core, 5gb ram ddr2, 160gb sata running Windows 7.
It doesnt get used too much but when it does it sounds like its going to take off and eventually grinds to a halt when doing simple stuff like watching youtube vids and my son playing on some online cbeebies games.

So, i was thinking about sticking it on ebay and either:

1. Using the money to buy a Dell Precision 690 Workstation with Dual Xeon processors (are these noisy???) They look like very sturdy mahcines that aint filled with cheap parts.

OR

2. Upgrade my HP Prolient N40L Microserver from 2GB ram to 8GB ram (2 x 4gb sticks) and run a Windows 7 Virtual Desktop from there.

My Microserver at the minute has Windows Server 2008 R2 installed and its basically a file server and im messing about with DNS and DHCP etc but its more of a learning machine while i do my Network + Studies.

So, thats my biggest problem, what do i do???
 
What about cleaning out the case, fans, and replacing the thermal paste?
 
I could but its full of cheap parts and think that running a virtual desktop on the "already on 24/7" server would save money on fuel too.
 
First try cleaning it. Buy some canned air and clean the sucker out. The Precision 690 is old...

You would probably be better off buying some desktop at your local store than buying a 690 IMO.

If you do not have gigabit network I would not recommend running a virtual desktop.
 
The VM would be on the microserver and the monitor would be plugged into the microserver so what would having a gigabit network do with it?
 
paulwatson5 said:
The VM would be on the microserver and the monitor would be plugged into the microserver so what would having a gigabit network do with it?
Click to expand...

Not sure I've ever heard of that being done. Unless you mean installing windows 7 on the server, then going and installing something like virtualbox on the windows 7 on the server?
 
Sorry, i dont think im explaing it very well.

I have a HP N40L which runs Server 2008 R2, i was going to install VMWare and install a Windows 7 VM on it and just plug my monitor into the N40L and use that VM as my new desktop pc but have the server stuff running in the backround. Or install ESXi and have a few VM's running including a W7 VM to use as my desktop.
 
paulwatson5 said:
Sorry, i dont think im explaing it very well.

I have a HP N40L which runs Server 2008 R2, i was going to install VMWare and install a Windows 7 VM on it and just plug my monitor into the N40L and use that VM as my new desktop pc but have the server stuff running in the backround. Or install ESXi and have a few VM's running including a W7 VM to use as my desktop.
Click to expand...

For the virtual desktop experience to be the best, you would want to be presenting it via VMware Horizon or Citrix XenDesktop. Doing it the way you are doing it will force you to use the VMware console only (you could use RDP if you kept the PB running a light RDP viewer), which while better than it used to be, is not something I would want to depend on for day to day use. I am assuming that your server does not have a GPU in it as well, further limiting your multimedia experience when using the virtual desktop.

I honestly think the cheapest solution is to clean up the PB (much as I despise that brand after working at OfficeMax all those years ago) and move towards getting that Precision station (or another good quality machine) if that is what you ultimately need.
 
Upgrading the N40L is probably not a great idea for a desktop experience, given the low clocked dual core processor (ignoring the video performance, which may be ok for your needs).

I agree with everyone else here. Dust out the PB, maybe replace fans as a first step. If you need something nicer, save up for that. A decently built modern desktop makes more sense to me than that 690, if I'm reading the specs on that correctly (Core series Xeons).
 
You cannot just plug your monitor into the N40L and get video from a VM. You would need to passthrough a video card to the VM, and I believe that chipset doesn't support IOMMU (I think it's an AMD microserver).
 
Clean the dust out of the PB.. You may need to reapply heat transfer compound as well. The stock grey crap has a habit of separating and causing hotspots. I used to see this on Dell machines ALL THE TIME.

What is so hard about doing a 10-15 minute service on a machine to make it run like it should?

It will be way better than running a VM. Even on a local network, you are not going to get anywhere near the performance of a regular machine unless you have a super top of the line server. Games will be horrid, and you will have a tone of keyboard/mouse lag when doing stuff.. especially games.

There is a reason that everybody isn't running thin clients.
 
Ultima99 said:
What about cleaning out the case, fans, and replacing the thermal paste?
Click to expand...

Agreed. But first I'd check the CPU temps - at idle and after stressing the CPU - whatever makes it freeze. Also would anyone buy that junk on Ebay? How much could you possibly sell it for, even if "as is."
Is the CPU heatsink filled with dust?
 
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As RyC said: you cannot plug a monitor into your ESX server and see a VM console on it. All you will get is the ESX hypervisor console. The closest option that lets you plug a (KVM) directly into your ESX host is to install a GPU into the ESXi host and configure it to "pass through" to your VM.
Second, as Ryc said, you need to check that your CPU and motherboard support VT-D to even enable "pass through" in the hypervisor. This includes the UBS ports for keyboard and mouse pass through as well as GPU pass though so you can get VM video on your monitor.

Long story short about the PB desktop.... You can buy an i3 Intel NUC for $200 that would out perform most things. Bump up to $400 and you can get a very nice i5 NUC with mSata and lots of RAM.

Ive spent massive hours playing with Virtual GPU and Virtual Gaming on VMWare and Citrix. The performance is not there yet. Grab a NUC and then you can use that as a thin client when the vGPU market is consumer priced and great performance.

Nicholas Farmer
@vmnic0
 
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