Can Phenom x6 Make A Good VM Server

[blokeandsally]

I am sure this is a question that has been asked before but here it goes. Is it possible to build a reliable VM/ESX server on the Phenome x6, or is the opteron 4100 and 6100 series the be all and end all for AMD Virtualization platforms. I know they differ in several ways, but is the core not the same?

 

[GhislainG]

It certainly is possible, but what motherboard will you use? Local storage (what type) or a SAN? What about the NICs? I'd be more concerned with the motherboard and controllers compatibility than the CPU itself.

 

[abovenbeyond]

The real question is the application of your Virtual Machines in terms of whether 6 cores is enough.

I run VMware ESXi 4.1 on my Phenom 1090T workstation with 16gigs memory overclocked to 4.0ghz. I can easily run 8-10+ client and server VMs for testing purposes.

I don't run any high processor consuming apps like testing SQL server or rendering, I only work on system admin configurations (AD, WSUS, WDS) and my CPU utilization isn't even close to being maxed.

For production purposes, the 6100 series / Magny-Cours is obviously the more appropriate solution due to it's larger number of cores and memory scalability with a dual socket board.

 

[blokeandsally]

Best answer selected by blokeandsally.