I'm new to VMs but have been looking forward to setting up a guest VM or 2 on my new i7 server (probably after the VM management tool that Jonp keeps mentioning comes out w/the next beta).  In the meantime I discovered that my older server (w/an Asus C60M1-i board and still running unRAID v5) has a setting I never noticed before in BIOS to enable SVM.  It never even occured to me that this machine would have any VM capabilities but now I'm intruiged.  SVM is the same thing as AMD-v, correct?  What else would I need to check to know if I'd be able to run a guest VM once I upgrade it to v6? 

 

It's a very low powered CPU so I would't want to attempt much with it.  But if it was possible to run openelec as a guest vm (either KVM or Xen) and passthrough a video card (HD 6450) I may be interested in trying that on this machine instead.  Is there a way to determine that ahead of time though or is it just through trial and error that you figure these things out?

I had the same Asus board and wouldn't even bother. It's only a dual core 1.2? Ghz. I tried virtual box and it was unbearably slow on a Linux vm. I still wish I hadn't sold it cause it would make a great back up server.

Agree => Don't bother.  The C60 is a VERY slow CPU that you'd find excruciatingly unacceptable running virtual machines.    It's a great little system for a basic NAS ... I'd definitely keep it as a backup server after you set up your i7; but just wait for your i7 to build your virtual machines.

 

... having said that, just to answer your original question ==>  Yes, SVM (Secure Virtual Machine) enables AMD's hardware virtualization support, and you COULD try to run a VM within v6 (or even v5).    But I wouldn't ... you'll unquestionably be disappointed in the performance.