Virtualization and light gaming build

Diarmuid

So I haven't built up a computer in a while, mostly just upgrading bits of an old computer that's my music server and linux machine. It's on Ubuntu 10.04 and ticking away but it's time to build up a new machine

My requirements are
1. It will have Linux as the OS running Xen.
2. I will be running a few virtual machines on it, probably another bleeding edge linux machine , XP and Win7
3. I want to run VGA passthrough Xen for the Windows machines to play a few games. I'm not a big gamer but I'd like to try some of the newer games. Actually I'd settle for some games that came out in the past 10 years! Quake 2 was the last game I really played
4. Relatively quiet so the less fans the better

With that in mind what I need is
1. Two video cards that are supported by VGA passthrough (AMD HD xxx)
2. IOMMU support on the motherboard and VT-d on the CPU
3. The more memory the better

Here's what I'm looking at
CPU|AMD FX6-6300 Black Edition Vishera Six Core AM3+ 3.5GHz 14MB 95W
motherboard|Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0
PSU|Zalman ZM450-GS 450W
case|Gigabyte GZ-X7
RAM|Crucial 16Gb kit
Video card for gaming|ATI Radeon HD 6670
Video card for linux|AMD Radeon 5450 HD
Hard Drive x2 RAID 1|Seagate 2TB
OS Drive |Sandisk 64GB SSD
CPU Cooler|Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro

Comes to about €750.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

DERPY DERPFACE

I would look at getting a better cpu and only getting 8 gigs of ram. Look at an intel i5 4440 and r9 270.

yawhat!

Why do you need two video cards exactly? I would be going with something like below with a 250GB SSD for storing your operating systems and 16GB of ram. I'd go with the xeon as well for the processor. Leaves a good bit left over for a graphics card but not sure why you need two?

Item|Price
ASRock H87 Pro4, Sockel 1150, ATX|€66.45
WD Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€49.80
Intel Xeon E3-1230v3 Bx, LGA1150|€213.19
2 x 8GB G.Skill Aegis DDR3-1333, CL9-9-9-24|€121.28
Samsung SSD 840 EVO Basic 250GB SATA 6Gb/s|€119.99
Super Flower Amazon 80Plus Bronze Netzteil - 450 Watt|€46.25
Corsair Carbide Series 200R, ATX, ohne Netzteil|€51.04
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€686.99

Diarmuid

Thanks for the feedback.

The two cards are needed for the VGA passthrough.

I was going with the FX CPU because you get a good few cores for little money. More cores is important for virtualization and while the single core performance wont be as good as the Intel devices you linked, it will probably be good enough for me. Maybe I need to revisit that assumption. The Xeon is double the price of an FX6300 though.

uberpixie

Diarmuid wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback.

The two cards are needed for the VGA passthrough.

I was going with the FX CPU because you get a good few cores for little money. More cores is important for virtualization and while the single core performance wont be as good as the Intel devices you linked, it will probably be good enough for me. Maybe I need to revisit that assumption. The Xeon is double the price of an FX6300 though.

The AMDs do very well and punch well above their weight in VM land from what I have heard. The Xeon has HT though, might be worth digging up some benchmarks to see which performs better under heavy workloads.

Re case: I would get a better case, this has the biggest impact on how quiet the pc will be. Cheap cases are not worth the money.

http://www.dabs.ie/products/corsair-obsidian-series-550d-mid-tower-silent-case-black-80RT.html?refs=44070000-50113&src=3
(Corsair 550D, nice quiet case but at €135 which is prob out of budget)

http://www.dabs.ie/products/fractal-design-define-r4-titanium-grey-mid-tower-case-86VX.html?refs=44070000-50113-50006&src=3
(Fractal Design Define R4 @ €98, a very quiet case at a very good price, cheaper option than the 550D)

http://www.dabs.ie/products/corsair-carbide-series-330r-quiet-mid-tower-case-8RGX.html?refs=44070000-50113-50006&src=3
(The Corsair 330 is there for around €86 bit you would be better off going for a Fractal Design Define R4 is much better though for a tenner extra...)

I would also advise shopping around sights, Dabs is not exactly the cheapest site to purchase from....

Also skip the Zalman PSU... Very crap review from HARDOCP

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/12/13/zalman_zm450us_450w_power_supply_review/9#.U1zamfldV8E

An Antec Basiq 450w for a couple of quid more is a much safer bet if you are shopping on dabs....
http://www.dabs.ie/products/antec-450w-basiq-vp450p-atx-psu-7TD7.html?refs=55420000&src=3

yawhat!

Not entirely sure what works best with virtual machines but check out xeon vs 8320.

Not sure about vga lookup either.

Diarmuid

I'll definitely change the case then. The Fractal Design looks good and gets tons of good reviews on newegg. Likewise the PSU

yawhat!

Diarmuid wrote: »

I'll definitely change the case then. The Fractal Design looks good and gets tons of good reviews on newegg. Likewise the PSU

Most cheap cases are grand and are better than some of the more expensive ones.

Diarmuid

Having second thoughts about the FX6300 now. Will price a build with a Xeon v3 instead.

stevenmu

I was facing a similar choice a while ago, I run two reasonably CPU intensive VMs at the same time, and went with an FX-8320. I couldn't find many relevant benchmarks, actually I can't remember if I could find any at all, but the general consensus is that that the FX chips are great for VMs. Two real cores beat one core with hyperthreading hands down.

The one downside is that they do run hotter than the Intel chips, so you'll need to consider an aftermarket cooler if you want to keep the noise down, but you'd probably want that for an Intel chip anyway.

FWIW I went with only 8GB of RAM, thinking I'd pick up another 8GB when the prices come back down, but they don't seem to have dropped much if at all.

justjustin

OP did you ever build this and set it up with Xen? Thinking of going a similar route myself with my 2 x 7850HDs and FX-8350.