New VMware box - Intel or AMD, consumer or server

[Dephcon]

Hey guys,

 

So I've been running unraid for a couple years now on a i3 540 and it's been great.  Recently I've been messing around with linux (ubuntu server) using VMware Workstation on my desktop (3570K).  I want to set up databases and monitoring apps, etc  but windows update restarts, overclocking instability and just messing around makes my desktop a poor location to host these.

 

I want to build a new server to host ESXi 5.1, and possibly migrate my unraid server into a VM as well. 

 

On paper the new AMD FX-8350s look pretty sweet for a single socket solution...but in practice I know AMD has a lower IPC than Intel.  Also gigabyte 990FXA-DS7 has some nice features including 2x16pci2.0, 2x8pcie2.0 and 6 SATA3 ports that support vmdirectpath.

 

Any thoughts or suggestions on the intel side?

 

Thanks!

 

[marcusone]

Intel server board (most on here seems to favour supermicro with ipmi). You can use a i3/5 with some but limits ram. So usually worth a xeon purchase.

 

Sent from my SGH-I727R using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[Dephcon]

My only beef with those supermicro cards is they only have 2 PCIe 8x slots.  This sucks if you want multiple SAS2 HBAs and maybe a PCIe ssd or something crazy.

[Ford Prefect]

...go for a 2011 socket board then, like the X9SRL-F..this should provide some headroom, PCIe socket-wise.

Another option is to go for a dual-socket AMD Opteron G32...slightly cheaper, I'd say, like the H8DCL-iF.

 

Some users were successful with an AMD virtualized build, here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=22553.0

But as already said, the majority sticks to intel because the HCL base is a lot longer.

[MSattler]

I supposed it really depends on how much load you want to put on it.  I'm preparing for the VCP exam, and ended up purchasing a Dell XPS-8500, with the i7-3770, and 8GB of memory for about $650.  Granted I did buy this to pull the 8GB of memory and video card to build up another HTPC.  I then purchased 32GB of memory from Crucial.

 

I ended up installing ESXi 5.1, and am running two nested ESXi 5.1 installs.  One of the VM's is the vCenter VM, two AD Win2k8R2 VM's, an exchange VM, a SQL server VM.  I have a Synology DS-410 I use for storage, and can test full VMWare functionality including HA, vMotion, Storage Motion, etc.  There is even a hack out to let you load OSX VM's on non apple hardware.

 

It's not the fastest config ever, but it works.  I have no need to load test.  And, whenever I want, I can boot off a different drive and load up Windows if I want.

 

-Marcus