PC build for multi-tasking and VM's
Discussion
Howdy all,
I want to build a desktop PC primarily for running VM's. I've never built a PC before, and I don't have as much interest in computers as I used to, I used to be interested as a necessity back when they crashed every 30secs, but in the past 5-10yrs everything seems to behave itself now. Anyway....
Purpose:
System needs to run a few VM's simultaneously, usually 2 but up to 4 if required. All running 'acquired' versions of whatever OS is the most efficient (probably Windows XP for ease). Each VM will be an identical partition, running very little, just a internet browser, Lastpass and dropbox, barebones other than that.
Budget is £500ish, maybe up to £700 if the recommended components will make a significant difference to the system.
Processor - Was thinking a mid level i5, although will an AMD equivalent be cheaper and offer similar results?
Motherboard - Whatever is needed to run the chip, want it to take 4 RAM slots though, incase I want a future upgrade
RAM - Was thinking 16GB might be enough? 4-8GB per VM, although can bump this to 32GB if its worthwhile
HD - Was going to go for a 250GB Samsung Evo SSD, storage isn't required, but speed is
Others - Will an additional CPU cooler be needed? Case, I want a small form factor, mini ATX? Then just basic PSU I guess.
I'll be running a 29" superwide monitor too, probably LG, it would have to be a 1080p jobbie due to budget, would love a 1440, but they're just too expensive atm.
Is there anything obvious I've missed off the list? And what components do people recommend for a build of these requirements?
I want to build a desktop PC primarily for running VM's. I've never built a PC before, and I don't have as much interest in computers as I used to, I used to be interested as a necessity back when they crashed every 30secs, but in the past 5-10yrs everything seems to behave itself now. Anyway....
Purpose:
System needs to run a few VM's simultaneously, usually 2 but up to 4 if required. All running 'acquired' versions of whatever OS is the most efficient (probably Windows XP for ease). Each VM will be an identical partition, running very little, just a internet browser, Lastpass and dropbox, barebones other than that.
Budget is £500ish, maybe up to £700 if the recommended components will make a significant difference to the system.
Processor - Was thinking a mid level i5, although will an AMD equivalent be cheaper and offer similar results?
Motherboard - Whatever is needed to run the chip, want it to take 4 RAM slots though, incase I want a future upgrade
RAM - Was thinking 16GB might be enough? 4-8GB per VM, although can bump this to 32GB if its worthwhile
HD - Was going to go for a 250GB Samsung Evo SSD, storage isn't required, but speed is
Others - Will an additional CPU cooler be needed? Case, I want a small form factor, mini ATX? Then just basic PSU I guess.
I'll be running a 29" superwide monitor too, probably LG, it would have to be a 1080p jobbie due to budget, would love a 1440, but they're just too expensive atm.
Is there anything obvious I've missed off the list? And what components do people recommend for a build of these requirements?
That's pretty much it as far as I can see. I know little about virtualisation besides dabling in the past and being around it at work, and don't fully understand your purpose, I was going to say i7 and look to maximise number of threads, but it doesn't sound a particularly intensive workload; I'm sure others could say either way more so than me.
Something like this should be a start if you go i5. http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/Qbdrcc I assume you meant micro ATX not mini ITX? You won't get 4 RAM slots on any of those as far as I know. The Intel box cooler will merely do the job, but I'd always suggest getting something specific.
Something like this should be a start if you go i5. http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/Qbdrcc I assume you meant micro ATX not mini ITX? You won't get 4 RAM slots on any of those as far as I know. The Intel box cooler will merely do the job, but I'd always suggest getting something specific.
Edited by mizx on Wednesday 26th October 11:36
You really don't need much oomph to run basic VMs so unless unless you really, really want to build a PC I'd save the aggro and buy something. Like this perhaps; http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291811671125 (picked pretty much at random).
You need to consider the hardware requirements for your host operating system, the virtual machine software, as well as the requirements of the guest OS. Don't forget the requirements of the guest Applications. You should be considering cores as well as memory. As a rule of thumb I would be looking 1 core + 4GB per guest instance plus the same for host.
My only experience of VMs so far is when I tried to test out Windows 8 on my old Windows 7 laptop, and it ran like crap, so I just want to make sure it can run up to 4 VMs simultaneously, without grinding to a halt, I don't want to spend say £300, to then discovered if I'd bumped this up to £500 it would do a much better job.
I'll probably run Windows 10 64bit on the host, and 32bit on the guest systems.
I'll probably run Windows 10 64bit on the host, and 32bit on the guest systems.
Edited by skinnyman on Wednesday 26th October 11:13
If all your VM's will be pretty much idle then your spec is more than adequate.
I have a dedicated box running ESXi and this runs 8 VMs (7 Linux 1x Windows Server).
It's only an i3 with 16GB RAM but it copes just fine (although I have a proper RAID setup).
The only thing I would recommend is maybe bump the RAM up to 32GB because it's cheap enough.
If you're running XP, your VM OS is likely to be 32bit anyway, and hence restricted to 3GB RAM or so, but 4 VMs x 3GB = 12GB - only leaving ~4GB for the host OS.
ETA: Although for your specific requirement, XP will will happily run in 1GB anyway (given that when it was released, most PCs ran 64MB / 128MB RAM lol!).
I also know someone who has 3x sealed XP install disks for sale :P
I have a dedicated box running ESXi and this runs 8 VMs (7 Linux 1x Windows Server).
It's only an i3 with 16GB RAM but it copes just fine (although I have a proper RAID setup).
The only thing I would recommend is maybe bump the RAM up to 32GB because it's cheap enough.
If you're running XP, your VM OS is likely to be 32bit anyway, and hence restricted to 3GB RAM or so, but 4 VMs x 3GB = 12GB - only leaving ~4GB for the host OS.
ETA: Although for your specific requirement, XP will will happily run in 1GB anyway (given that when it was released, most PCs ran 64MB / 128MB RAM lol!).
I also know someone who has 3x sealed XP install disks for sale :P
Edited by TonyRPH on Wednesday 26th October 11:50
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