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home environment for virtualization to do simulation work

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  • Business Computing
Last response: in Business Computing
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March 14, 2013 11:55:55 PM

Hi people. Just joined the form and am really green in this so looking forward to get some advice here.
I would want to purchase a desktop that allows me to do some simulation work at home.
To share, my simulation program will only run in XP so I need to set up a second OS in my system to run it. To so do, i am thinking to install a VM. Not forgetting I will also need a pretty decent graphic card.

Any recommendations for the brand/model/type of the components are greatly appreciated!

More about : home environment virtualization simulation work

March 19, 2013 1:48:22 PM

Install VirtualPC or Oracle Box on a system with plenty of memory CPU power.

I run an AMD 8core with 32GB on my home workstation for virtualization. Some people will go fan-boy on what CPU to use, but whatever works for virtualizing. Depending on your configuration, memory or CPU can be intensive.
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March 19, 2013 5:49:06 PM

If you aren't doing anything too demanding, a mid-range processor will be OK. But, of course, the more you spend on it, the more you get in terms of performance. A quad core will be sufficient, either AMD or Intel. The intel is probaby a little better if you are only going to give your VM 1 CPU.

I say don't get less than 8GB of RAM. You're going to be running XP, so that means the 32-bit version, as 64-bit was crappy and no one uses it anyway. Allocate 4GB of ram to the VM. You might want to get 16GB if you are running more than 1 VM of Win XP.

If you are going to run lots, go for a processor with lots of CPUs and RAM, but it doesn't sound like you're going to be doing that.
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March 20, 2013 7:25:25 AM

The big problem you might run into with basic virtualization programs is going to be getting your GPU performance passed through to your virtual machine. From what I understand VirtualPC will not really be able to handle this. The latest I looked OracleBox was able to do some 3D acceleration using your GPU, but it wasn't very powerful. Still, it might work well enough for what you need, and it's going to be a free option.

If you want full GPU pass through support you're going to need to utilize something more along the lines of a level 1 hypervisor, like ESXi 5.1 free hypervisor, but that is a bare metal install so you won't be able to use your computer for running a host OS like Windows 7 or 8 with a virtual machine running on top. You'd have to access your virtual machines and manage your server from a completely separate computer.

Windows Server Hyper-V is also able to do RemoteFX which is GPU virtualization for virtual machines, however I think it is only fully usable with the Remote Desktop Session Host (and all supporting) roles installed, which requires additional licensing on top of the Windows Server 2008/2012 Standard license cost, so it's not going to be cheap for home usage.
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