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Why no virtualization support on intel procs sub $150 ???

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[H]F Junkie
Joined
Mar 31, 2001
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Does anyone know of one that has VT extensions? I'd like to build a dev virtualization box with 1-2 cores that I can test stuff on before I throw it into production on a much faster box, however I cannot find any sub $150 cpu's that have VT!

Anyone?
 
You don't need VT to run virtualization (VMWare, VirtualPC, Xen, etc). VT gives acceleration in supported VMs though. I run VMWare on my laptop just fine and it lacks VT, and i have run VMWare on single core AMD and Intel CPUs too.

The cheapest VT supported chip is the Pentium D 920 for $84 shipped: http://www.pricewatch.com/cpu/pentium_d_920.htm . If you want a modern CPU, the E6300/E6320 have it enabled and those are available for under $125 shipped on pricewatch.

AMD has virtualization acceleration (AMD-V, aka Pacifica) in all F stepping single core and all dual core chips I believe (and of course all tri/quad core chips). A cheap AM2 X2 + board would be the lowest cost option if you need a board and CPU.
 
pxc said:
You don't need VT to run virtualization (VMWare, VirtualPC, Xen, etc). VT gives acceleration in supported VMs though. I run VMWare on my laptop just fine and it lacks VT, and i have run VMWare on single core AMD and Intel CPUs too.

The cheapest VT supported chip is the Pentium D 920 for $84 shipped: http://www.pricewatch.com/cpu/pentium_d_920.htm . If you want a modern CPU, the E6300/E6320 have it enabled and those are available for under $125 shipped on pricewatch.

AMD has virtualization acceleration (AMD-V, aka Pacifica) in all F stepping single core and all dual core chips I believe (and of course all tri/quad core chips). A cheap AM2 X2 + board would be the lowest cost option if you need a board and CPU.
Click to expand...

Virtualization has LONG pre-dated VT/AMD-V: my first exposure to VMWare (specifically, VMWare Workstation 4.3) was while I was running Windows XP on the Original UNserver (that was a single 1 GHz P-III). Segue to today: I'm running dual-boot (Windows Vista and openSuSE 11.0 RC1 upgraded to 11.0 GM) and I have *six* virtualization products at my beck: VirtualBox 1.6, Parallels Workstation, and VMWare Workstation 6 on the Vista side, and VirtualBox OSE, Xen, and bochs on the openSuSE side.

The CPU? A mere P4 2.6 *Northwood-C*.

(I'm a licensed user of VMWare, I'm trialing Parallels, and the other four are free: the three on the openSuSE side are all included with openSuSE 1.3 and later.)
 
I want to run Linux KVM on a cheap intel chip, however, AFAIK it requires hardware virtualization......Also, VMWARE runs without Virtualization extensions, however I don't think it can run 64 bit vm's on a 32 bit OS without virtualization...someone please correct me if I'm wrong...
 
Robstar said:
Also, VMWARE runs without Virtualization extensions, however I don't think it can run 64 bit vm's on a 32 bit OS without virtualization...
Click to expand...
That is correct. You need VT to be available and enabled to do that. I had considered listing that exception in my reply above (I use VMWare at work to run WS 2003 64-bit under XP 32-bit). Would have saved a reply. ;)

Like I posted above, you can get a Pentium D 920 for $84, or the better option is to just get a cheap single or dual core AM2 CPU with AMD-V support.
 
pxc said:
That is correct. You need VT to be available and enabled to do that. I had considered listing that exception in my reply above (I use VMWare at work to run WS 2003 64-bit under XP 32-bit). Would have saved a reply. ;)

Like I posted above, you can get a Pentium D 920 for $84, or the better option is to just get a cheap single or dual core AM2 CPU with AMD-V support.
Click to expand...

Argh...I really don't like the power usage of the 9xx series. I was hoping to get a core2 with hardware VT for my existing intel motherboard/celeron 430 setup, however if the cheapest intel is > $100, I'll wait for a frys amd special for $79.99 or something....
 
pxc said:
That is correct. You need VT to be available and enabled to do that. I had considered listing that exception in my reply above (I use VMWare at work to run WS 2003 64-bit under XP 32-bit). Would have saved a reply. ;)

Like I posted above, you can get a Pentium D 920 for $84, or the better option is to just get a cheap single or dual core AM2 CPU with AMD-V support.
Click to expand...

I have vmware workstaion on my desktop.
I have been looking through the settings but could not find anything about whether or not vt is enabled or not?
Since my e6400 has vt and I have it enabled in my motherboard bios, I just wanted to make sure vmware is making use of it. Does anybody know how to tell if its turned on or not in vmware?

I did google around but could not find any answers about this.
 
pxc said:
VMWare has a utility: http://download3.vmware.com/software/wkst/VMware-guest64check-6.0.0-45731.exe

Intel CPUs need to have VT enabled to run a 64-bit OS as a client, so that's a good check for VT being enabled.
Click to expand...

Ok, is this a good check even if my host OS is 64 bit? I am running Vista 64 bit. Would I not be able to run a 64 bit virtual machine even if vmware was not using hardware VT?

The reason I ask is because, as a test, I disabled VT in my bios and did not notice any performance differences in vmare as compared to when I have VT enabled.

It would be nice to have some confirmation in vmware itself that it is taking advantage of the hardware VT capabilities of my cpu.
 
pxc said:
The 920 is a 95W TDP processor, not *that* bad. http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/pentium-d-920-930_2.html For VM/software testing you're not going to be pegging both cores most of the time.

Some Cedar Mill chips like Pentium 4 662 also support VT. The prices I found on pricewatch were high, over $120. And the power consumption is not rated much lower than the 920.
Click to expand...

pxc> I run an underclocked (1.6ghz) Q6600 as my desektop and a 45W dual core be-2350 as my fileserver.....I am probably going to see if I can wait for a frys/microcenter deal on a 45w dual core amd+motherboard.
 
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