New Gaming/VmWare Build - 1000

iamcornholio

1. What is your budget? [€1000]

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming and multiple VmWare machines running, SQL Server, Windows Server, Linux and tons of other things at the same time.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? No

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? No

5. Do you need a monitor? No, recently purchased 2 22 LG inch IPS monitors from Argos

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? No, will purchase myself

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yes

8. How can you pay? Anyway

9. When are you purchasing? ASAP

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Will get it pre-built

I'm thinking, 16GB Ram, 512GB SSD, AMD 8320, GTX 760. Is that possible in the budget. I use a similar system in work without the SSD and 760 and runs multiple virtual machine flawlessly.

Thanks guys

BloodBath

How's this? I don't think an 8320 is gonna improve your performance in games or vm's at all. Games are still only using 2-4 cpu cores and are only starting to use 6 cores.

You will run into memory problems long before cpu issues with vm's as well. 6 cores is more than enough for a lot of vm's. A 6300 should be ideal for both.

Couldn't squeeze a 500gb ssd into the budget but there's a 120gb for your os and programs and a 250gb one for your vm's + a fast 1tb drive for your games.

-edit- You could squeeze the 500gb ssd in if you made a few changes. Dropping the case, mainboard and cpu cooler down to cheaper versions. You won't get as high an overclock on the cpu though.

Item|Price
AMD FX-6300 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€100.31
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD|€30.47
2 x 8GB G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€105.34
WD Caviar Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€56.18
Samsung SSD 840 EVO Basic 250GB SATA 6Gb/s|€152.81
EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SuperClocked AX, 2GB DDR5, PCI-Express|€229.48
Samsung SH-224DB schwarz|€17.37
Samsung SSD 840 EVO Basic 120GB SATA 6Gb/s|€84.99
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 500W - bulk -|€53.86
Cooltek Antiphon Black, ohne Netzteil|€63.00
Gigabyte GA-970-UD3, AMD 970, AM3+, ATX|€76.64
Rechner - Zusammenbau|€5.00
LogiLink SATA Anschlusskabel mit Sicherungslasche, 0.75m|€1.98
LogiLink SATA Anschlusskabel mit Sicherungslasche, 0.5m|€1.53
LogiLink USB 2.0 all-in-one Card Reader, für 3,5" Einbauchschacht|€3.32
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1001.27

iamcornholio

Thanks Bloodbath looks good. I was about to order there but realised I can but another 200 towards it. Anything you would change? I think that a 256GB SSD would do really because I really only plan on using the Virtual machines to gain IT certifications and practice on them myself so mighn't take up too much room. They won't be on the whole time or anything but will have around 6 running at the same time when I am using them

BloodBath

No bother.

You could upgrade the cpu to a 4670k if you wanted. Upgraded the cpu, board, case and cpu cooler. Do you have any idea of how much space your vm's will take? 32gb of ram could be an option as well.

You could go for a 3570k with an Asrock z77 pro 3 or 4 with the original case and cpu cooler and 32gb of ram.


Item|Price
2 x 8GB G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€105.34
WD Caviar Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€56.18
Samsung SSD 840 EVO Basic 250GB SATA 6Gb/s|€152.81
EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SuperClocked AX, 2GB DDR5, PCI-Express|€229.48
Samsung SH-224DB schwarz|€17.37
Samsung SSD 840 EVO Basic 120GB SATA 6Gb/s|€84.99
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 500W - bulk -|€53.86
Rechner - Zusammenbau|€5.00
LogiLink SATA Anschlusskabel mit Sicherungslasche, 0.75m|€1.98
LogiLink SATA Anschlusskabel mit Sicherungslasche, 0.5m|€1.53
LogiLink USB 2.0 all-in-one Card Reader, für 3,5" Einbauchschacht|€3.32
Intel Core i5-4670K Box, LGA1150|€208.96
Thermalright True Spirit 140 BW|€38.23
MSI Z87-G43, ATX, Sockel 1150|€100.68
Nanoxia Deep Silence Two Dark Black, ohne Netzteil|€83.05
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1161.77

iamcornholio

Thanks again, around 140GB I'd say, I'd leave 20GB for each one.

BloodBath

I meant ram space.

iamcornholio

2GB of ram assigned for each one and 4GB for one of them.

smacl

BloodBath wrote: »

How's this? I don't think an 8320 is gonna improve your performance in games or vm's at all.

Each active VM is ideally going to need one thread slot, and AFAIK, multithreaded applications on virtual machines can look for more than one thread on the host OS depending on hypervisor setup. No idea about games, but a lot of modern software grab will all the cores it can as thread pooling becomes a widely adopted technique for improving performance. IMHO 8 core AMD or i7 would give a good return on investment in this context. Easiest way to check this is to run a perfmon session on your PC under load to have a look at where the bottlenecks are. It is worth remembering though that many developers have only started to get their heads around multi-threading, but as a technique you're going to see it used far more on most newer apps.

BloodBath

An i7 is going to offer virtually no performance increase in either games or vm's imo. You can assign multiple vm's to 1 core.

The majority of them shouldn't be cpu intensive at all. The ram and hdd's are usually the bottleneck, not the cpu.

smacl

BloodBath wrote: »

An i7 is going to offer virtually no performance increase in either games or vm's imo. You can assign multiple vm's to 1 core.

The majority of them shouldn't be cpu intensive at all. The ram and hdd's are usually the bottleneck, not the cpu.

Depends entirely on what they're doing, which will change from user to user, hence suggesting perfmon to see how heavily the CPU is currently being used. FWIW, I moved quite a bit of what I was doing from VMs to separate PCs running remote desktop because of CPU bottle neck. Quite possible that all the VMs are idle most of the time, but similarly so that there are significant periods of time where they're all busy.