VMware Noobie Help - Which CPU?

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ZzBloopzZ

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I am building a new personal box strictly for VMware. For 2013, my goal is to work on numerous Microsoft & other networking/security related certifications. I also want to be familiar with Linux and VMware itself. I love the idea of having a dedicated VMware box, as I have too many distractions on my main system.

Which Intel CPU should I purchase? I am guessing I will not be running more than 5-6 VM's at one time? I would not like to spend over $450 for the processor.

I was originally leaning towards the 3930K ($430 @ MC), since it has 6 cores. However, someone told me that VMware is not too CPU intensive so I should save money and just get a used 2700K or 3770K ($230 @ MC). I plan to use the system with a Crucial M4 256GB and 32GB of DDR3.

Appreciate ANY advice as I must order the parts before the year is out. Am I going over board with the parts selection?
 
Depending on what you're planning on playing with, you might consider whether or not you'll need vt-d - the 2700k and 3770k will not have vt-d and you won't be able to play with passthrough at all. On the non-xeon side, 3930k does, as do all socket 2011 (including the 4-core 3820, but excluding the initial releases of 3930k's).

Which brings me to the next question - when you say a "dedicated vmware box," do you mean an esxi host, or just popping up several vm's within windows? This really dictates how carefully you need to choose your hardware, and maybe I'm not reading your post carefully enough, but I just wanted to clarify. If you're just looking at vmware workstation, my first point doesn't really matter much.

CPU usage really depends on what you intend to run; the overhead of vmware itself is low, but it really simply comes down to how cpu intensive the vm's themselves that you're running are.
 
Great questions! Making me think more. I already received a copy of VMware Workstation v9 from work so was planning of using it with W7 Pro x64 as the host. There is a slight possibility that I may be able to get ESXi through work.

I know there are too many unknown factors. I have never worked on any big certifications before. I doubt I will be pushing the VM's to their limits as I will not use them for gaming, content creation, large database etc. I forgot to mention, I will be sharing the box with my father who is a big linux guy and he will be also working on some certs.

Perhaps I should just go with the 3820? It's $200 @ Micro Center. $230 cheaper than the 3930K. I am looking at this overall purchase as an investment to my education and future salary increases, but at the same time I am not made of money just yet. :c)
 
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Free? Sweet!!!

If I run ESXi, is the additional $230 worth it over the 3930K?
 
If you're not going to be doing anything intensive, the 3820 is probably the better buy between it and the 3930k. You also could always swap out later and sell off the 3820 if you found yourself needing more. As was mentioned above, the bigger sticking point with 2011 vs 1155 is the motherboards carry a decent premium, so make sure you're aware of that going in.
 
Wrench00 said:
I wouldn't worry about the cpu as much as I would about the motherboard.
Click to expand...

Why? Thinking of going with the cheapest Asus X79 board that has an Intel NIC. I don't need any fancy features, and 2x SATA 6 ports is enough for me.

Also, just may go 3820 route. These mobo's are pretty pricey and looks like DDR3 prices have doubled from the November sales. Maybe I should just go 3770 (non K) version, which has VT-d. It is LGA1156, thus cheaper motherboards. Decisions, decisions. :(
 
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Its the motherboard that has to have vt-d in the bios. Not all boards have this.
 
Looks like I will just spend the little extra, and go with the 3930K. It's an investment in the end. Just hope I receive the newer stepping when I order!

Thinking of going with the ASUS P9X79, googled around and found a wiki stating it supports VT-D in the BIOS.

Thanks for all the feedback so far, I appreciate all of you.
 
ZzBloopzZ said:
Why? Thinking of going with the cheapest Asus X79 board that has an Intel NIC. I don't need any fancy features, and 2x SATA 6 ports is enough for me.

Also, just may go 3820 route. These mobo's are pretty pricey and looks like DDR3 prices have doubled from the November sales. Maybe I should just go 3770 (non K) version, which has VT-d. It is LGA1156, thus cheaper motherboards. Decisions, decisions. :(
Click to expand...

The i7-3770 is an 1155 chip.
The main benfit of the 2011 setup is 64GB memory.
The downside of the 2011 setup is power use.

I run approx 20 VMs (2008R2 mostly) on my i7-2600.
After having my lab up for about a year now, I realized a couple of things:
1. Quad-core was enough, hyperthreading not needed.
2. Leaving my lab on 24/7, I wished I had bought the "S" series.
3. 32GB per 4 cores seems to be a great ratio for my needs - again .. lab, not prod.
4. VT-d is nice to have ... I never used it.

An i5-2400S would have been $100 cheaper and fit the bill perfectly.

All that said, my boxes are "end of life" but perform fine for the same tasks you
seem to be going for .... so "future proof" super system isn't necessary - just nice to have.
 
As was stated, the major benefits of 2011 over 1155 are:
1. 8 ram slots vs 4
2. Possibility of hex-core (assuming you're not going xeon, so no 8)
3. PCI-e lanes

For tinkering around without any heavy loads, but just for learning purposes, Netwerkz above has some good points. If you ever intended to throw an HBA in and pass it through, play with vga passthrough, or anything along the directpath route (and there are some very interesting things you can do), the 2011 platform can be nice - a) because it usually plays nicer with vt-d, and b) because you may actually use the extra pci-e lanes.

If you will never touch vt-d/passthrough, and are just going to be seeing how a few vm's run here and there, or tinkering in a couple linux vm's without major cpu time, then you might as well go with 1155 (and a power-sipping chip) - or you could always go the xeon route and tinker with the more enterprise-focused chipsets, as the 1155 xeon's can be great little chips along with a supermicro board.

I would disagree to some extent with the comment about hyperthreading above - vmware actually makes a pretty good usage of HT from all reports I've seen. Now, if your vm load is so low that you wouldn't even take advantage of a 4 thread non-HT 2500, then of course adding HT is superflous. But don't get the impression that HT gives no performance benefit.
 
Thanks for the wonderful feedback folks!

Ended up picking up the 3930k earlier today from MC. Now I kind of regret it after reading the last two posts. But I guess at the end of the day, an extra $230 is nothing in the bigger picture as this is an investment towards my long term education. Return will be exponential with higher future salary.

Thanks all!
 
ZzBloopzZ said:
Thanks for the wonderful feedback folks!

Ended up picking up the 3930k earlier today from MC. Now I kind of regret it after reading the last two posts. But I guess at the end of the day, an extra $230 is nothing in the bigger picture as this is an investment towards my long term education. Return will be exponential with higher future salary.

Thanks all!
Click to expand...

No need for regret.
I wrote my post to more or less state that my lab was overkill for what I wanted to do.
I could have saved money had I made some other changes.
($$$ is what I thought was a major concern for you)

I do not regret my lab setup.
I am no where near outgrowing it.

"Futrue proof" was not needed - just desired ... and now you (and I) have systems that go beyond our basic needs.


Tiporaro said:
<snipped>
I would disagree to some extent with the comment about hyperthreading above - vmware actually makes a pretty good usage of HT from all reports I've seen. Now, if your vm load is so low that you wouldn't even take advantage of a 4 thread non-HT 2500, then of course adding HT is superflous. But don't get the impression that HT gives no performance benefit.
Click to expand...

I have read the same in regards to hyperthreading ... that hypervisors can take advantage
of hyperthreading, so it can be beneficial - no argument at all.

My reference to not needing hyperthreading was strictly for _my_ lab.

It was a $100 premium I did not need, but my thinking before I bought the
i7-2600 over the i5-2400s was i'd be better off getting it and not needing it than
not getting it and feeling like I needed to upgrade my CPU.
(I got my second i7-2600 for $200 - no brainer at the time)

After a year of actual use of my lab ... my CPU use stays under 10%.
I am simply doing certification study with my lab - not pushing the CPUs at all.
Memory, as is stated many times over in VC threads, is my main limitation.
 
Netwerkz101 said:
was i'd be better off getting it and not needing it than
not getting it and feeling like I needed to upgrade my CPU.
Click to expand...

This was the exact same reasoning on why I went 3930K. I also scored a awesome end of year deal on a Gigabyte X79-UD3 board for $196 (after rebates) shipped. I do not have time to waste on trying to sell off/swap parts if I underestimated. I work too damn much. :c(

Thank you everyone for the overall feedback. I forgot how helpful this place can be. Happy new years all!
 
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