recommend new pc/server for mcitp lab setup?

zweton

Can anyone recommend me a new pc/server, i want to study mcitp
(as well as needing to get one anyway) so looking for something well capable of running several VMs and whatever else for lab environments. Something with plenty of RAM i guess,what else should i look out for. Any recommendations.

Cheers:)

Hijpo

zweton wrote: »

Can anyone recommend me a new pc/server, i want to study mcitp
(as well as needing to get one anyway) so looking for something well capable of running several VMs and whatever else for lab environments. Something with plenty of RAM i guess,what else should i look out for. Any recommendations.

Cheers:)

Building your own can be fun and youll get experience of what spec a server should have and all he pros and cons of the various components and manufacturers and its built precisely to your wants and needs.

zweton

ya i get what ur saying but i dont think i want to research that part of it,thanks anyway:) just looking for something quick fast

Coyler

Your looking for a machine with a quad core processor (more is nice), bare minimum of 8GB with 16GB recommended and a SSD drive (100GB minimum) for your VMs. Run your host OS on a separate HD.

I would recommend you take a machine you have and upgrade it to meet those needs. The processor doesn't have to be state of the art but skimping on the RAM and hard drive will make doing the labs a pain with you spending all your time staring at progress bars and unwilling to even experiment with your lab setup.

I'll be honest here, trying to buy something like this off the shelf will cost you a fortune. I can't tell from your post if you're unwilling or unable to build your own machine but I will say that if its the later (unable) I might argue that MCITP could be a little beyond you and that CompITA A+ and N+ might be a better start.

As far as using either Hyper-V or VMWare for your VM deployment, I would use Hyper-V. Not because its superior but because knowledge of Hyper-V is becoming a requisite for the Server based certifications and its worth becoming familiar with it.

As far as software goes, you'll find evaluation copies of 2008, 2012, 7 and 8 on the Technet Evaluation Center. Hyper-V is rolled into 2008 and 2012 so you don't have to spend a penny there.

A quick tip with VMs. Learn how to make templates of machines so you can quickly make clones from without having to setup a new VM every time an extra machine is called for. Here is a good guide. Simple and handy skill to learn.

CruelCoin

Coyler wrote: »

I'll be honest here, trying to buy something like this off the shelf will cost you a fortune.

A quick gander at a few pc building companies yields pcs with the setup you specify for around €850 delivered.

Not sure what you call a fortune but that sounds reasonable to me.

OP: try a few of the following:

Scan pcs
dino pcs
pcspecialist
overclockers.co.uk

If you don't want to build your own, then the above will give you far,far,far more customisation options than dell, hp etc.

zweton

perfect, just what i was looking for:)

Thanks

Coyler

CruelCoin wrote: »

A quick gander at a few pc building companies yields pcs with the setup you specify for around €850 delivered.

Not sure what you call a fortune but that sounds reasonable to me.

OP: try a few of the following:

Scan pcs
dino pcs
pcspecialist
overclockers.co.uk

If you don't want to build your own, then the above will give you far,far,far more customisation options than dell, hp etc.

Ah, good to know. Thanks, CruelCoin. I'll update my knowledge banks accordingly.

JJJJNR

the guys over in the pc building and upgrading forum are great at recommending a good specd server for this.. I'd post there first.

poxon

Like Coyler said before - you`ll need a lot of memory and multiple core. I would personally go with something like this:

Antec Sonata IV Quiet Case - Black (620W PSU) Antec Sonata IV Quiet Case - Black (620W PSU) £79.99
Fairly priced case with good and stable power supply. Quiet for niht sessions

AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor £131.99
I would go with AMD as its half price of Intel I7, and its performing really well in server enviroment. 8 Cores will cause your VM`s to run much smoother.

Asus M5A97 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £81.98
Cheap board, as you dont need fireworks, but ASUS is well known for stability - and thats what you need.

Corsair XMS3 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £55.99
16GB is a good option for running few VM`s, especially with those prices. It has 2 8GB sticks, so you will have space for upgrade to 32GB if needed

Intel 330 Series 60GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £65.99
Samsung 250GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD250BW) Samsung 250GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD250BW) £139.99
Two SSD`s - first for main OS, and Samsung 256GB for VM`s - This Samsung has pretty impressive IOPS and it will handle multiple VM`s simultanously. I thought about SSD + HDD but HDD will slow everything down - because of high access time it wont handle few VM`s to well. Bigger SSD will cost too much - and that config will handle main OS with 4-5 VM`s easily .

Asus HD 6450 SILENT EDITION 1024MB GDDR3 Low Profile PCI-Express Graphics Card £29.99
Anything to display picture - fanless design = no noise

Samsung SH-118AB/BEBE SATA 18x DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM Samsung SH-118AB/BEBE SATA 18x DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM £14.99
It may be useful sometimes, but not a must


Total : £615.91 = 716e


Prices based on overclockers.co.uk - but you can check scan.ie or others mentioned before.

Also check skinflint.co.uk - sometimes you may find certain parts much cheaper.

Head The Wall

I have two HP Microservers £120 each and £30 each for 8GB RAM. For £300 I have a low power cluster and at 10Gb each they are more than good enough for an exam setup.

zweton

That sounds good