Desktop for running VMs (Windows Servers + Microsoft System Center Tools) under $600

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Manu21

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Jan 7, 2017
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Hello All,

Can anybody suggest a Desktop configuration sufficient enough to run about 10 Windows Server VMs loaded with different Microsoft System Center Products under a budget of $600 ?
 
Solution
USAFRet


Well, not really.
It depends on what performance level you are looking for in these VM's.
Running multiple VM's, an i7 will crush that i5.

And for RAM? 32GB is marginal.
Each Win server will require 4GB each. The Windows clients will require 2GB each. That's just to get actually running.
5 x WinServers will require 20GB minimum. 5 x Win clients will require 10GB minimum. 30GB.
Leaving nothing for the host system...
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Mar 16, 2013
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10 VM's, each running Windows Server?
Not gonna happen within $600.

You'd need minimum 4GB for each. So 40GB devoted to the VM's
64GB RAM for the whole system.
And then a recent i7 CPU.

That's over your budget just with that.

And that's not even starting to talk about the Server licensing costs.
 
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M

Manu21

Commendable
Jan 7, 2017
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1,510



Hello USAFRet,

Thanks for the quick suggestion.
Just a little more background:
I will be using this machine for my lab to do some hands on stuff and learn new things.
I would not be running all the VMs loaded with server. May be 5-6 would run with Servers OS and rest would be Windows Clients. And they all may not run simultaneously.

For now I have chosen the following, plz let me know if this will work against my requirements or not :
CPU : i5 6500
Motherboard : Gigabyte H170 D3H MicroATX or ASRock Micro ATX H170M PRO4
Memory : Kingston HyperX Fury 16GB for now (Will upgrade later on )

I am more concerned about the processor if that can work in my scenario.
Please suggest......

Thanks in Advance :)


 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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16GB is not enough.

This is my current system, with 4 VM's running at the same time
hSvSlqr.jpg


32GB RAM, i7-4790k.
Win 10 Pro (4GB), Win server 2016(4GB), LinuxMint(2GB), Ubuntu(2GB).
12GB minimum, just to run these 4 VM's

If there were only 16GB in the system, it would be struggling, hard.

For that many VM's, you really need 64GB, and a i7 CPU. The hyperthreading works wonders in this situation.
 
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M

Manu21

Commendable
Jan 7, 2017
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Thanks for the suggestions USAFRet,

I will certainly be going for another 16Gb RAM stick right now.
So will 32 GB of RAM be sufficient with i5 processor ?

Thanks in Advance :)

 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Mar 16, 2013
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Well, not really.
It depends on what performance level you are looking for in these VM's.
Running multiple VM's, an i7 will crush that i5.

And for RAM? 32GB is marginal.
Each Win server will require 4GB each. The Windows clients will require 2GB each. That's just to get actually running.
5 x WinServers will require 20GB minimum. 5 x Win clients will require 10GB minimum. 30GB.
Leaving nothing for the host system to run with.

Either up your budget, or look for a used server thing.

Of course, you haven't even begun to consider the licensing cost for these multiple OS's. Each VM requires its own license.
Which completely dwarfs your $600 budget. A single instance of WinServer 2016 Essentials is ~$500.
Unless you buy an MSDN subscription.
 
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Solution
M

Manu21

Commendable
Jan 7, 2017
4
0
1,510
Hello USAFRet,

Could you please suggest, the number of VMs that can be created when using following processors, considering we will give one Vcpu to each VM :

i7 6700
Intel Xeon E5-2650

Thanks

 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Mar 16, 2013
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Given sufficient RAM, you could probably get 10 up and running.

On my i7-4790k 32GB RAM, I've had 4VM's + the host OS.
I could probably squeeze another 1 or 2 VM's into the available RAM.
 
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