Question : Problem: Desktop Virtualization Hrdware

Hi,

I have a difficult one here...

I want to consolidate four old Celeron desktops into one desktop and load several operating systems.

Here is what I do on my PC:

1. I am not a gamer, other than playing MS Flight Sim 2000 once in a while.  
2. I do MS Desktop Apps (Word, Excel, Power Point)
3. I do software development: Web, Delphi 2007,  C++.
4  I also install apache2 http server, mysql, php, two disk drives configured raid 0 (two old segate scsi 1, st34573w with adaptec AHA - 2940W/2940UW PCI SCSI card).
5. I use Ubunut 7.10 for personal use.
6. I also install other distros of linux to try them out (Fedora Core 8, Suse 10.3, etc.).

This is what I visualize running on a virtual  pc:

1. XP - for every day personal use and software development
2. XP - play area: download and try software; build XP live cd and add malware removal tools to remove malware form badly infected PCs  (not mine).  After I'm done with a with a project, I would restore the partition via ghost or linux fog (like ghost but for linux).
3. Ubuntu Desktop - personal & development use
4. Other LInux distros - (fedora core 8, SuSE 10.3, slackware, etc) - just to review them -- load them, review them, remove them).  Perhaps, I should not virtualize this activity?  Keep an old Celeron machine for this activity?



QUESTIONS:

Your hardware recommendations:

1. What CPU?  Would intel Q6600 quad work since it is basically two intel Core 2-6600 combined on one processor?  Would hardware virtualization use all 4 cpu or just 2?

2. What mother board? What features on the motherboard are required?  What is the best chipset?

3. Graphics Card - has drivers that will work in a virtualized box. I want the desktop to look nice and have open GL features if possible.

4. How much memory?  Please specify a minimum that will yield good performance: 2, 3, 4 G.

5. What other hardware considerations should I be aware of in order to make this work?

6. Given your hardware response and the requirements I have outlined, what virtualization software would you recommend that will give me near native OS performance?


I realize this is a very complex question on the hardware and software side.

I am assigning 500 points hoping I will get a comprehensive answers to my questions. Please respond to all question as best you can.  


Thank you much.

Have a happy and safe holidays!!!

Answer : Problem: Desktop Virtualization Hrdware

We do desktop virtualization here at our office, and I will do my best to give you some recommendations for the application you are speaking of.

1. Quad core will satisfy the needs of what you are looking for.  You may get by with using a dual core without much worries of virtualizing a windows XP environment.  I virtualize a windows XP environment on the computer right now fairly well and its running an AMD Athlon X2 processor.  If you are planning on running all of these environments simultaneously you will want to look at the Quad.

According to VMWare: http://www.vmware.com/download/eula/multicore.html
What benefits should VMware customers expect to see from multi-core processors?

Published benchmarks for multi-core systems show impressive performance gains over single-core systems. Each processor core provides a dedicated CPU for one or more virtual machines, increasing the scalability of VMware virtual infrastructure and offering even more fine-grained resource isolation. Server consolidation in virtual machines will particularly benefit from the naturally partitioned processing capacity provided by additional cores. Intel has recently advertised that quad-core systems improve performance by approximately 50% over similar dual-core processors.

Other information listed in the site should answer your multi-core questions.

2. As for features, you are going to look for the fastest FSB you can get with your quad, it all depends on how much money you are looking into spending.  If money isn't a huge issue you can find one with a 1333 FSB, but you'll definitely pay for it.  Your quad that you had listed will have 1066, the Q6600, I'm sure it will have more than enough FSB, but I'm just talking about optimal configurations.

As a motherboard I'd go with something like this:

Intel BOXDG33TLM LGA 775 Intel G33 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121315

This way you'll have lots of upgradability on memory in the future and its reasonably priced.  I don't see the chipset being a huge concern.

3. You'll have one PCI express slot so lets go with something halfway decent that will support what you are looking for.  Drivers will probably not be too much of a concern, at least we haven't had trouble with our drivers in our virtual machines.    I'd go with something like an 8500GT, not anything too fancy, plus this one has a silent heatsink so no loud noises:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127297

This will support most of your graphics needs and since its the GeForce 8 series drivers will be less of an issue.

4. Depends on your Primary OS:
Windows XP 32 Bit (2 Gigabytes of Memory DDR2 800MHz)
Windows XP 64 Bit (2 Gigabytes of Memory DDR2 800MHz)
Windows Vista 32 Bit (3+ Gigabytes of DDR2 800MHz)
Windows Vista 64 Bit (3+ Gigabytes of DDR2 800MHz)

Again if you are planning on running these virtual PCs simultaneously be generous with your RAM.  It is cheap, after all.

5. Many of the virtualization applications do a good job of virtualizing hardware, you should not have too many concerns here.  Also understand, many times you do not need to re-install many of the drivers in the virtual machine because it virtualizes your hardware so you do not have too.

6. VMWare is probably the best you can get, but you can get a free copy of Windows Virtual PC 2007 at the website below:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx

Since I am cheap, this is the way I go, but I know for a fact the performance of VMWare is better based upon the trials I have ran with it.

Hope this helps,

Craig