Help with creating a powerful Virtual Machine

Greenhadouken

Honorable
Dec 11, 2016
9
0
10,510
Ok. My wife is in her Graduate program for molecular genetics and bioinformatics. She wants to do most of her work from home so she does not have to spend all of her time in the lab. Between us we have a pretty good understanding of computers, but I'm not sure on how to proceed with what she wants done. She needs Bio Linux as a VM on my desktop. The OS is not the problem, but the programs resources that she will be running might be. She is going to be running huge amounts of information that will be running for 2 or 3 days at a time. I'm trying to avoid building a new desktop due to space constraints and just upgrading mine. My current computer specs are:

MB: MSI gaming 7 x99
CPU: Intel i7 5820k
Memory: G.Skill Trident z DDR4 3000 32gb
GPU: Nvidia GTX 980 ti
Samsung 950 pro 512 (for os)
Intel 750 series ssd 400 (intended for Bio Linux)
7200 rpm 2tb hdd (storage)
Custom water loop with a EK water block for CPU
EVGA supernova 80+ gold 850 psu

She needs 8 plus cores of processing power and unknown amounts of memory. Some of the programs were talking min of 30gb. I would like to be able to use my computer with out noticing a slow down while the VM is running in the background. Also I'm trying to spend as little money as possible. Any help would be appreciated.
 
Solution
It's basically impossible to do what you're asking.
Because running the VM with it using all those resources will cripple your remaining resources, and getting any higher end parts than what you have currently will not only cost more than your current computer costs, but also perform worse in normal computer applications.

I don't know if your wife's genetic sequencing program uses the GPU though, I know they use it in the huge datacenters/think tanks though, but this seems like a smaller project:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($294.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI - B350M PRO-VDH Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($74.49 @...
What hardware are used in the computers in her lab that are capable of processing what she wants? That would be a good benchmark to try to hit. 8 cores of processing and at least 30GB of RAM is a <mod edit> ton of data processing, especially if it needs to be running for a full 2-3 days at a time. I doubt you can use your computer much without experiencing lag on either end -- either you lag or her program(s) will lag.

<Watch your language in these forums>
 
It's basically impossible to do what you're asking.
Because running the VM with it using all those resources will cripple your remaining resources, and getting any higher end parts than what you have currently will not only cost more than your current computer costs, but also perform worse in normal computer applications.

I don't know if your wife's genetic sequencing program uses the GPU though, I know they use it in the huge datacenters/think tanks though, but this seems like a smaller project:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($294.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI - B350M PRO-VDH Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($74.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Team - T-Force Vulcan 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($209.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: ADATA - Premier Pro SP600 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($52.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GT 710 1GB Video Card ($33.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Rosewill - FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($24.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - G 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.39 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $760.33
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-06 11:33 EDT-0400
 
Solution

You're asking the wrong people. Ask her to talk to her school's IT department. Perhaps they can set her up with remote login/VPN access.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator


That needs a dedicated system.
With 32GB RAM in the host, you're already choking with a guest using up 30GB.
 

Greenhadouken

Honorable
Dec 11, 2016
9
0
10,510
First I want to say thank you for the extreme speed that all of you answered my question. Its good to see a community that wants to help people. For asking the IT department to remote in the short answer is its not going to work. The computers at her lab take to long to do things and she would be spending more time at school then she already does. We have 5 kids and she wants to be at home as much as she can. Building a dedicated work station for her at home would be the ideal situation, but we don't have the room. I don't want to do this, but would going from the 5820k to a 6900k and adding another 32gb of ram be good enough, or should I just max the ram out on my MB. (128gb). She said that memory is more important than processing power.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Just as a test, I dedicated 30GB to a WindowsServer2012 VirtualBox VM.

Host Win 10 Pro, i7-4790k, 32GB DDR3.

It crashed the VM instance, and almost crashed (to the point of totally unusable) the host Win 10 Pro.
x8Xj5Aw.png
 


You don't have the room at all for another desktop? Really?
It doesn't need it's own desk or monitor or even mouse and keyboard.
All it needs is to be connected to the network, and then you can remote into it from your main computer to run programs and check it's progress, so once it's set up the only cords running out of it would be an AC power cord and an ethernet cable.

A 6900k alone costs more than the entire build I offered, and the Ryzen 7 1700 is only 10% worse at multi-threaded workloads.
 


Built a computer in a smaller case, stick it on the network without a keyboard and monitor, remote into it from the existing system. No more footprint than a few shoeboxes is used then. Or get a quad core laptop with plenty of RAM. A nice used Lenovo W520 or 530 is pretty quick and will cost cheaper than a new desktop.
 

Greenhadouken

Honorable
Dec 11, 2016
9
0
10,510
Yeah, I don't. I live in a 1200sqft house with 5 kids and a whole host of animals. If I could build a dedicated server I would. Right now my wife and I live in the basement and the kids have all the rooms upstairs. I would love to just build a Ryzen computer for her, but there is just no ware to put it. I don't want to go that route with the 6900k, my options are pretty slim I suppose. That's why I decided to ask the question on here.
 

Greenhadouken

Honorable
Dec 11, 2016
9
0
10,510
I think I'm going to tell her were going to have to build her a new computer dedicated to this. I have to agree with all of you. Its just going to be to much to upgrade my desktop. We will figure out were to put it. Thank you all who answered my question.
 


I still don't believe you, and I can even go smaller.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($294.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Biostar - X370GTN Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard ($114.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial - 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($224.98 @ Directron)
Storage: Mushkin - Atlas Vital 120GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($60.50 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GT 710 1GB Video Card ($32.99 @ B&H)
Case: Cooler Master - Elite 110 Mini ITX Tower Case ($45.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($46.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home Full - USB 32/64-bit ($104.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $925.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-06 13:03 EDT-0400

It's smaller than a 1' square cube, it's impossible for you to not have a place for it somewhere near your already monster rig computer.
 


This sounds like my house LOL 2 younger kids, my older daughter, her husband, their twin 1.5 yr olds, 4 cats and a dog.

We just have a PC in every room ;)
 

Sam Poland

Honorable
Dec 5, 2013
200
0
10,760


Yeah I'm gonna say virtualization is absolutely going to be your best bet here.

And by that I mean using Hyper-V. It fits your budget since it's FREE! And no, it won't crash;)*

You only need to buy: More RAM and another NIC. Use the 2nd NIC to manage the host. The VM's can share the other one.

Install Hyper-V on your current pc and create your VM's - allocate RAM, CPU resources as necessary. The #of cores you allocate to each guest OS is just a weight. So give her VM 12 cores and your VM 2 cores. If that doesn't work change it up until you find what does work for you. You didn't mention anything about gaming or 3D CAD so virtualize away. Use Veeam to back it all up for free too! You may need to purchase a separate license for whatever desktop OS you want to use i.e. a Windows OEM COA won't cover you.

You will be surprised what that desktop can do as a Hyper-V host!


*Re: "Dynamic Memory"