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Anyone know a good place to buy PC hardware or even a pre-built PC
Boyz..
I've been out of the hardware loop for about 4 years. I need to build a new PC that I am going to use run multiple VM's on for doing software and database development. Probably 3 VMS at a minimum) It needs to be quite powerfull because of the O/S and tools i'll be running (Windows Server 2008, SharePoint 2010, SQL Server 2008, .NET framework, Project Server 2010)
3 things out of the gate:
1. AMD vs. Intel. AMD is significally cheaper than Intel procs right now from what i have seen. I would need a min quad-core proc, but a 6-core would be ideal. Is Intel really worth the extra $$$
2. Solid State drives - I've heard the performance is significantly better on these drives but again, is it worth the money???
3. Anyone have any experience with DELL from a service/purchase point of view? What about trying to customize it afterwards (i.e. adding more RAM, or installing a new O/S other than what it comes with - is the proprietary hardware an issue for this kind of thing?
Here is what I am looking for specwise:
Intel® Core™ i7-2600 processor(8MB Cache, 3.4GHz) or Comparible 6 Core AMD in the same or better price point...
16GB RAM
2 500GB to 1TB drives setup for RAID1 (it seems 1TB is best bang for buck right now...)
sound and video only need to be basic stuff as i won't be doing anything hardcore like gaming or graphic design - just software dev (although dual DVI would be nice...)
Any info or recommendations is greatly appreciated!!!
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Cuz this sounds like what you are looking for... the Mobo is expandable up to 24gbs of RAM so just add it as you need it.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.6673...
i am hoping to do this for around the $1000 mark. I read that going with the 2600 was better than going with the 960 because the 960 was made to go with the older chipset which had issues. It does allow overclocking but i won't be tinkering with that... i'm not sure though - is there anything you know of to pick the 960 over the 2600??? I only read like 2 articles on this ...
How many transactions per second will you serve ? What virtualization software will you use ? Why one PC ? You may have a situation here where virtualization will give you close to nothing.
transactions will vary, but as it will primarily be for development I am not anticipating anything heavy other than the occasional simulated load test - it's not a prod box or anything like that...
I was going to try using the out of box stuff with windows server - hyper-v, but i am a complete noob when it comes to setting this up as it will be my first time.
Going with one pc for cost, less hardware to maintain, and footprint in the house - i have limitted space in the basement...
Not sure what you mean by virtualization will give me nothing? What i want out of it is the ability to use one box to act as 3 without physically having 3
Using virtualization for operational machines is a dicey thing. I was saying that it may not help you since if you virtualize many machines unto one host, and each of the VMs end up being busy by the same event, then your Host is 100% used during those activity peaks and will be at 0% used outside those activity peaks. That's nullifies most of the benefits of virtualization. A virtualization specialist will look at the usage profile of each machine you will want to virtualize on a Host and will make sure the profile differs significantly.
In your case, you don't care about that, you just want to save on the shelf space that your solution will take.
If you do not care about transactional speeds that much (you aren't looking to hit 2K transactions per second) then I would maximize the amount of RAM in the machine at the expense of pretty much anything else. You won't care about drive speeds since SQL Server will use memory buffers to store most of your actively-used records; you won't care about CPU threads that much since your front-end and back-end won't process *exactly* at the same time. Most of your operations will be linear: front-end gets packets, .Net does processing, .Net contacts DB, DB searches, DB gives results to .Net, .Net gives page to Web Server, WS sends to browser. Only if you get many concurrent connections that have to access completely random pages with random DB searches will you actually end up loading your CPU threads to any sustained excess.
So, A lot of RAM will permit your Windows VMs to perform quickly and without going to disk swap. Windows Servers are RAM hungry.
Forget SSD, forget kick-ass CPUs, get a sensible Mobo and get more RAM.
It is awesome.
Most regular programs load virtually instantly!
n/t
Q-Bert is right about the SSD. Unless you plan on doing a awful lot of disk I/O, they are not worth the cost. RAM will get you more bang for your buck, especially if you are going to have multiple VMs running.
One question I do have is what kind of development are you going to be doing and what languages/technologies? From QBerts comments it sounds like Windows development. You may want to consider a disk for each VM if you plan on doing some massive projects.
Also, think about dual monitors at least, three preferably.