Requesting a cheap virtualization build

[theevilsharpie]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

This PC will be used for testing, development, and research of IT products and other technologies that aren't practical to run within a virtual machine. Off the top of my head, my primary use for this PC will be for testing various hypervisors (Hyper-V, Xen, etc) as well as various private cloud technologies (Openstack, vSphere, etc.), although other uses may present themselves in the future.

My requirements in order of priority:
1. Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI support is absolutely required
2. Low cost
3. Low noise
4. Low power consumption

This PC doesn't need a powerful CPU, but it would be nice if it supported at least 16GB of RAM.

Edit: The CPU should be at least dual-core, but again, doesn't need to be powerful.​

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

As cheap as possible. Preferably under $400.​

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

USA​

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.

I'm not a fanboy, although I would prefer an Intel-based system as they tend to be better supported by hypervisors like VMware ESXi or Citrix XenServer.​

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

No part reuse.​

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.

I've looked around a little bit, but my needs are outside what you'd normally find on Anandtech, so I don't expect to find much.​

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

Stock speeds.​

8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with.

No gaming.​

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?

Within the next two months.​

Edit:
My thread title may be a bit misleading, so let me clarify what my intended use for this machine is.

I WILL NOT be running production (or even personal) virtual machines on this PC. Any VM's that will be running on this PC will be trivial loads meant to test the capabilities of the cloud directory/hypervisor.

I DON'T need it to be powerful. If I need to run a CPU-intensive VM, I can either run it within VMware Workstation on my main PC (Phenom II x6 1090T w/ 16GB of RAM) or I can lease time on Amazon EC2. To give you some idea of what my performance needs are, an HP ProLiant Microserver (powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core AMD Turion II Neo N40L with a TDP of 15 watts) would be perfect if the CPU supported RVI. Unfortunately, it doesn't (to my knowledge, anyway), so I wouldn't be able to use it with the next-gen version of Hyper-V.

I DO need it to be cheap. I will probably be buying two or three of these, so the cheaper the better. If I can get something less than $400 a box, that would be fantastic.

Some further info on my requirements:
I don't need anything more than a small boot disk for internal storage. The PC will be connecting to an iSCSI SAN. I can readily get small, low capacity disks, so this build really won't need internal storage.
Either a desktop form factor or something where I safely stack multiple units is preferable.

 

[jpeyton]

Biostar TH67+ $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138296

i5-2400 Quad-Core $190
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115074

(2) Corsair XMS3 8GB Kit DDR3 $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145315

Corsair CX430 V2 $24
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139026

Cooler Master Elite 430 $35
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119227

Samsung 22X CD/DVD Burner $17
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151233

Total: $386

That buys you an almost complete Sandy Bridge i5 quad-core rig with 16GB RAM.

You still need a hard drive. I recommend an SSD, but a mechanical one will work as well. Whatever fits your budget.

 

[lsv]

Biostar TH67+ $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138296

i5-2400 Quad-Core $190
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115074

(2) Corsair XMS3 8GB Kit DDR3 $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145315

Corsair CX430 V2 $24
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139026

Cooler Master Elite 430 $35
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119227

Samsung 22X CD/DVD Burner $17
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151233

Total: $386

That buys you an almost complete Sandy Bridge i5 quad-core rig with 16GB RAM.

You still need a hard drive. I recommend an SSD, but a mechanical one will work as well. Whatever fits your budget.

What about an 8 core AMD chip? You get 8 real cores this way.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103961

 

[jpeyton]

What about an 8 core AMD chip? You get 8 real cores this way.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103961

The reviews all say that Intel's "cores" are much faster than AMD's "cores". Granted the reviews didn't do much virtualization testing.

 

[paperwastage]

What about an 8 core AMD chip? You get 8 real cores this way.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103961

but power consumption wise, its not as good as Intel's sandy bridge

 

[DrTan]

GIGABYTE GA-A75-D3H FM1 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard -$ 99.00

AMD A4-3300 Llano 2.5GHz Socket FM1 65W Dual-Core Desktop APU with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD 6410D AD3300OJGXBOX - $ 65.00

CORSAIR XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory Model CMX8GX3M2A1333C9 - $ 40.00

 

[bradcollins]

I would suggest doing exactly as the reply by jpeyton recommends. The only thing I would change would be a Z68 motherboard and getting a 60gb SSD to use caching. This is so booting up the additional OS's is quicker.

Of course you can scale up and down to a faster or slower CPU to suit your budget

 

[DaveSimmons]

You want intel i3/i5 for this, not 'dozer or Llano. VMs need CPU and RAM, the HD2000 graphics are fine for business and VM use. jpeyton gave you a good build to work from.

 

[lsv]

You want intel i3/i5 for this, not 'dozer or Llano. VMs need CPU and RAM, the HD2000 graphics are fine for business and VM use. jpeyton gave you a good build to work from.

I'd say get the 2600, and then get as much ram as OP can afford. It's dirt cheap now, 16gigs for under $100 and so on.

 

[paperwastage]

cough 2x8GB DDR3 desktop ram for $100
G.Skill Ripjaws X series 1333... I'd get one set and buy another set later when they go cheaper (or two sets right now), since SB only has up to 4 DIMM slots. Then use some of it as a RAM drive and put some Virtual Machines on it

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...37&SID=rewrite

 

[lsv]

cough 2x8GB DDR3 desktop ram for $100
G.Skill Ripjaws X series 1333... I'd get one set and buy another set later when they go cheaper (or two sets right now), since SB only has up to 4 DIMM slots. Then use some of it as a RAM drive and put some Virtual Machines on it

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...37&SID=rewrite

Spot on I had a 48gb kit in my newegg cart ready to purchase for my 920. I'd never use it but it was under $300, it's too cheap now lol

 

[theevilsharpie]

I specify that the processor doesn't have to be very powerful, and I get recommendations for the some of most powerful CPUs on the market. I love you guys. Special props to lsv for suggesting a Bulldozer :awe:

My thread title may be a bit misleading, so let me clarify what my intended use for this machine is.

I WILL NOT be running production (or even personal) virtual machines on this PC. Any VM's that will be running on this PC will be trivial loads meant to test the capabilities of the cloud directory/hypervisor.

I DON'T need it to be powerful. If I need to run a CPU-intensive VM, I can either run it within VMware Workstation on my main PC (Phenom II x6 1090T w/ 16GB of RAM) or I can lease time on Amazon EC2. To give you some idea of what my performance needs are, an HP ProLiant Microserver (powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core AMD Turion II Neo N40L with a TDP of 15 watts) would be perfect if the CPU supported RVI. Unfortunately, it doesn't (to my knowledge, anyway), so I wouldn't be able to use it with the next-gen version of Hyper-V.

I DO need it to be cheap. I will probably be buying two or three of these, so the cheaper the better. If I can get something less than $400 a box, that would be fantastic.

Some further info on my requirements:
I don't need anything more than a small boot disk for internal storage. The PC will be connecting to an iSCSI SAN. I can readily get small, low capacity disks, so this build really won't need internal storage.
Either a desktop form factor or something where I safely stack multiple units is preferable.

 

[paperwastage]

cheap low-powered would be an i3 2100. $110 on amazon, ~75W Idle, 110W stressed. Lower watts if you get the 2100T, but more expensive

take jpeyton's build and replace it with an i3. Has vt-x, but no vt-d or AES

http://ark.intel.com/products/53422/Intel-Core-i3-2100-Processor-%283M-Cache-3_10-GHz%29

do you have a microcenter nearby? alternatively, you can get an AMD phenom II x2 or Athlon x4 with mobo for < $100

 

[theevilsharpie]

The i3 is still a little expensive. Would a Celeron G530 be an acceptable replacement? Most of the motherboards that I've looked at don't specifically claim to support it, but that might be because the Celeron is relatively new.

 

[paperwastage]

http://ark.intel.com/products/53414

does have VT-x...

comparison b/w i3 and celeron

any 1155 mobo that supports i3/i5/i7 SB should support it

if you are near a microcenter, they HAD a i3 2100+mobo for $105 last week... dont think they have it anymore


from jpeyton's list, you probably dont need DVD drive... replace the H67 with a cheaper H61(though you might lose some features like USB3 and SATA3) <$60. since you are running almost a "barebones" system, find a cheaper case that includes a >=200W PSU

Sticking with the Biostar TH67+ for 60 after rebate. Says suport for G530
Corsair 2x4GB DDR3 RAM $30
Celeron 530 $52
Cheapo case with PSU $40, but probably not this one cause reviews say PSU sucks
+ HDD/30GB SSD < $60
= $185 + $60 SSD + $20 more if you get the Corsair 430v2 PSU(its a good buy)

 

[bradcollins]

Why would you need up to three of them? For three different people to use at once? If not surely one more powerful system makes more sense?

 

[paperwastage]

Why would you need up to three of them? For three different people to use at once? If not surely one more powerful system makes more sense?

testing virtualization methods/hypervisors

you can't install both on one computer (well, maybe you could run the second hypervisor inside the first, but you dont get access to VT-x within the second hypervisor). hence, getting the cheapest (enough power) CPUs to test

 

[theevilsharpie]

Alright guys. I've taken your suggestions as well as results from my own research and put together the following build:

Intel Celeron G530
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116409

BIOSTAR TH67+
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138296

Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820139075

Rosewill R379-M Black/ Silver 0.8mm SGCC Steel Slim MicroATX Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811147098
(Sorry paperwastage, but that case you linked looked cheaper than even I'm comfortable with...)

Supermicro AOC-SG-i2 Dual-port Gigabit Ethernet Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833268002
(Need it for VMware compatibility and various types of network/SAN testing)

Grand Total after tax and shipping: $335.03

What say you, AT hardware gods?

 

[paperwastage]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Jetway-NF9A-Q67-Intel-LGA1155-Dual-LAN-LVDS-Mini-ITX-MB-/110717807356

1155 itx build w/ dual gigabit intel nics , if you want smaller

but your list looks good. small SSD for boot?

you could probably get 2x4GB DDR3 for cheaper than $43 if you look a little harder(unless you realrly want those USB flash drives)

 

[theevilsharpie]

small SSD for boot?

The cheapest SSD I could find on Newegg is $60. That might not seem like much, but considering the price of my build, it adds a significant expense.

I work with a technology service company that is constantly e-wasting old equipment. I can get working 40GB to 80GB SATA disks from them for practically free, because they'd just have to dispose of them anyway.

you could probably get 2x4GB DDR3 for cheaper than $43 if you look a little harder(unless you realrly want those USB flash drives)

VMware ESXi and Citrix XenServer can install to USB flash drives, so they are actually useful in this case.

 

[mfenn]

What about an 8 core AMD chip? You get 8 real cores this way.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103961

Hell no Bulldozer cores are not real independent cores like Thuban or Sandy Bridge. They are integer units that share a front end and a floating point unit with another integer units.

 

[mfenn]

Alright guys. I've taken your suggestions as well as results from my own research and put together the following build:

Intel Celeron G530
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116409

BIOSTAR TH67+
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138296

Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820139075

Rosewill R379-M Black/ Silver 0.8mm SGCC Steel Slim MicroATX Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811147098
(Sorry paperwastage, but that case you linked looked cheaper than even I'm comfortable with...)

Supermicro AOC-SG-i2 Dual-port Gigabit Ethernet Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833268002
(Need it for VMware compatibility and various types of network/SAN testing)

Grand Total after tax and shipping: $335.03

What say you, AT hardware gods?

ESXi 5.0 actually has the rtl8139 driver (works with 8111E as well), so you can use the built-in Realtek if you want, that's what I do on my home ESXi machine. Looks fine to me otherwise.

 

[theevilsharpie]

ESXi 5.0 actually has the rtl8139 driver (works with 8111E as well), so you can use the built-in Realtek if you want, that's what I do on my home ESXi machine. Looks fine to me otherwise.

That's good to know. If I can use the built-in NIC, I can add a cheaper single-port NIC and greatly reduce the cost. Any recommendations on cheap NICs that are ESXi compatible?

 

[mfenn]

That's good to know. If I can use the built-in NIC, I can add a cheaper single-port NIC and greatly reduce the cost. Any recommendations on cheap NICs that are ESXi compatible?

This particular NIC is what I'm using, works great out of the box with the r8168 driver.