Hi everybody...

I'm looking at building a VMWare ESX server using SATA drives. From the VMWare site, I found out that either an LSI megaraid or Intel SRCS14L controller will do the job.

Now, I need to build a PC to go with that. I want to go with an AMD (my first) and I'm clueless about models (too many, too confusing). Can you guys help me figure this out? I want best bang for the buck, so no 800$CPUs What's the best value in CPUs on the AMD side? and what board would go with it?

Overall, I'm looking at running 4 servers on this box, so 2gb ram is what i'll need, 2x 250gb-300gb SATA hard disk, 2 intel 10/100/1000 nics.

Marc

Since you did not specify a price - I'll give it a go. All prices from newegg.

LITE-ON Black ATAPI/E-IDE DVD Burner Model SHW-160P6S - Retail
Model #: SHW-160P6S BK RT
Item #: N82E16827106013
$41.99

Case:
Antec Performance I P180 Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
$124.99

Hard Drives
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3300831AS 300GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150
$135.00 x 2 $270.00

Motherboard:
DFI LP UT nF4 SLI-D Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD
$159.99

Network Interface Card (NIC):
Intel PWLA8391GT 10/100/1000Mbps PCI Network Adapter - OEM
$37.50 x 2 $75.00

Video Card:
eVGA 128-P2-N352-TX Geforce 6600LE 128MB DDR PCI Express x16 Video
$79.00

Power Supply:
Antec NEOPOWER 480 ATX12V v2.0 480W Power Supply - Retail
$94.25

Memory:
CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model Twinx2048-3200c2 - $40.00 Mail-in Rebate
$235.00

Processors:
AMD Opteron 165 Denmark 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model OSA165CDBOX - Retail
$349.00

RAID Card:
LSI Logic MegaRAID SATA 150-4 64-bit PCI SATA Controller Card - Retail
$249.00

Total: $1,678.22

The only price specification is basically bang for the buck. There's a point where going to a higher CPU and gaining 200mhz for 200$ isnt worth it

Do you base this configuration on personal experience running ESX? I noticed that most boards that would support the PCI-X adapter (LSI/Intel) are either Xeon or Opteron boards...

Why would I need an SLI motherboard for this purpose?

Thanks,

Marc

A server level motherboard along with a socket 940 opteron would be a better choice - but we are getting into the bang for buck territory.

The raid card will work just fine in a PCI slot - you are just losing some potential bandwidth. You are unlikely to stress the bandwidth using 2 7200 RPM SATA drives.

The only reason why I chose this motherboard is because I know that it is compatible with the socket 939 opteron. If you think that you may want to run more than 4 gig of RAM in the future, then it would be worth while to get a socket 940 motherboard and opteron.

An equivalent dual core socket 940 opteron will run you about $866 and the motherboard will run you around $300-$500. And you would need to use registered memory.

Socket 940 Dual Core Opteron: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103552

Socket 940 MB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Cust [...] 6813151148

ECC Memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145509

I should have said this is not for a production environment I was looking at avoiding Opteron/Xeon server boards...

Something like an X2 with an Asus or MSI board? (no idea which ones though)

Marc

Then I would stick with my original configuration (or something close to it).

I have used Asus, MSI, Gigabyte and DFI motherboards - they are all very good. That DFI MB that I specified is one that I have used most recently and I highly recommend it. You can easily substitute an X2 proc that fits your budget (all X2's are socket 939).

Since you are planning on running 4 vm's on your server I would suggest that you configure your server to run with 4 Gig of RAM.

*** edit ***
Just looked and found that mwave has better prices on the opteron. You can get the 165 for $325 and the 170 for $395. Looks like the prices on the dual core opterons have been climbing, lack of supply?

There's quite a few PCIe SCSI RAID cards now that can do as good as their PCI-X counterpart if not better. They still carry that same old high price tag as you'd expect.

I think he is concerned about compatability with VMWare ESX server.

If it's Linux, you can compile the driver for it(but that's just me).
There's one PCIe SCSI card I know that's from LSI's MegaRAID series which uses PCIe 8x.

why would a pricier 940 opteron be a better set? The dual core 939 opteron that was recomended is spot on. If this were a high load VM server then maybe 2 x dual core optys but since its a smaller situation, a single dual core will be nice...and TONS cheaper.

You can get an SLI mobo for <$100 so dont blow the bank. in fact you can overclock the CPU a bit without issues to get more power if you need it. Should do 2.4-2.5ghz on stock voltages with OEM cooler, maybe upgrade the cooler if you want it to be quiet running though.

RAM, the more the merrier if ya gonna truely use this though. 2GB is the minimun. Id put 4 in it if you think you can use it and afford it

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