Which would make the best server cpu?

[dgingeri]

Which would make the best cpu for a server, serving as Server 2008 R2 domain controller and hyper-v for 3 virtuals with these roles:
1. Windows Distribution services (Server 2008)
2. web server (Linux)
3. MySQL (Linux)

The choices are:
1. dual core with 1MB L2 cache and 6MB L3 cache
2. quad core with 1MB L2 cache and no L3 cache

This is a personal machine with only one user for experimental code development and a learning experience. Currently, I have an Athlon X2 6400+ as the cpu and am looking at upgrades. I have 6GB of DDR2-800 memory. I likely will move to an AM2+ board and reuse the existing memory.

 

[mi1ez]

Quad all the way!

 

[sminlal]

If you want to run three virtual machines then a quad will probably give you smoother performance in the VMs.

 

[chunkymonster]

Two things that kill VM's...not enough logical/physical processing cores and not enough memory...

quad core all the way!

 

[dgingeri]

I figured on 1GB for the WDS server, 1GB for the web server, and 2GB for the SQL server. This would leave 2GB - VM overhead for the main domain controller. Does that sound like a good plan?

 

[chunkymonster]

I figured on 1GB for the WDS server, 1GB for the web server, and 2GB for the SQL server. This would leave 2GB - VM overhead for the main domain controller. Does that sound like a good plan?

Seems good...use those memory allocations to start and monitor usage under various loads in each VM to ultimately determine the ideal RAM sizes.

 

[Shadow703793]

Hmmm... only 6GB? Is there any chance of getting 8GB or more? Imo, for VMs you can never have enough RAM .

 

[saint19]

None, buy a Xeon, or Opteron, with at least 16GB RAM and RAID system.

 

[dgingeri]

I would if I could, but I have a budget of about $200 over the next 3 months. That's not going to get me a Xeon or Opteron or 16GB of memory.

 

[Shadow703793]

None, buy a Xeon, or Opteron, with at least 16GB RAM and RAID system.

Imo, a Xeon/Opty should only be considered if planing to go 2P only. Else a normal i7 works well.