Quiet SFF for Virtual Server use

Info & chat about quiet prebuilt, small form factor and barebones systems, people's experiences with vendors thereof, etc.

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Bootay
Posts: 23
Joined: Wed Apr 28, 2004 7:15 pm

Quiet SFF for Virtual Server use

Post by Bootay » Fri Oct 06, 2006 6:57 pm

Looking to build something easily made quiet for use as a home lab in a box - will run Virtual Server and in that, 3 servers or so and 3-4 PC's...

So, I've been thinking about a SFF case, Intel Core 2 Duo or AM2 AMD64 cpu (both support Virtualization Tech), and a MB that supports 4 sticks of RAM to allow relatively inexpensive 4GB of RAM configs. Onboard video is fine, and a single hard drive to start with room for 2 would be nice.

Any thoughts?

A starting place:

Qty. Product Description Unit Price Savings Total Price
1 Antec Minuet 300 Black/Silver Steel/Plastic MicroATX Slim Case Computer Case 300W ATX12V Power Supply - Retail
Model #: MINUET 300
Item #: N82E16811129013

In Stock
$76.99 $76.99
1 ASUS P5B-VM Socket T (LGA 775) Intel G965 Express Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Model #: P5B-VM
Item #: N82E16813131043

In Stock
$132.99 $132.99
1 Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6300 - Retail
Model #: BX80557E6300
Item #: N82E16819115005

In Stock
$180.00 $180.00
2 CORSAIR ValueSelect 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) System Memory Model VS2GBKIT667D2 - Retail
Model #: VS2GBKIT667D2
Item #: N82E16820145098

In Stock
$229.99 -$15.00 Instant $429.98
1 Western Digital Caviar SE WD2500JS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Model #: WD2500JS
Item #: N82E16822144417

In Stock
$67.99 $67.99
1 NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Silver IDE/ATAPI Model ND-3550A - OEM
Model #: ND-3550A SV OEM
Item #: N82E16827152060

In Stock
$32.99 $32.99
Subtotal: $920.94

stmok
Posts: 26
Joined: Fri Jul 09, 2004 2:35 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Post by stmok » Fri Oct 06, 2006 8:35 pm

Quick question...

Are you using MS Virtual Server?

Does that support Intel VT (Virtualization Technology)
or AMD's SVM (Secure Virtual Machine Technology)?

So far, I know:
* VMware Server supports Intel VT. (no AMD SVM yet)
* Parallels Workstation 2.2...Supports both Intel VT and AMD SVM.
* Xen. (Supports both Intel VT and AMD SVM, as both companies contribute to this open-source project)...XenSource is the commercial variant.

Bootay
Posts: 23
Joined: Wed Apr 28, 2004 7:15 pm

Post by Bootay » Sat Oct 07, 2006 4:52 am

Yes, using Virtual Server.
Yes, Virtual Server supports AMD and Intel VM tech.

Wiks
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Dec 18, 2006 5:06 am

Post by Wiks » Mon Dec 18, 2006 6:46 am

Bootay wrote:Yes, using Virtual Server.
Yes, Virtual Server supports AMD and Intel VM tech.
Not true, unless you install a beta service pack.
And btw Vmware published a white paper showing that hardware assisted virtualisation with the current technologies (vanderpool) offer little to no performance improvements over software and can even be performance degrading. Intel has acknowledged this and stated that in this first generation they just wanted to build a "correct" model and didn't focus on performance. So don't get too hung up about it.

aitor
Posts: 33
Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm
Location: North London, UK

Post by aitor » Mon Dec 18, 2006 9:12 am

I'm running the Beta service pack - so full name is Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Enterprise Edition R2 SP1 - quite a mouthful. No problems at all, although my cpu (opteron 275) doesn't have the virtualisation stuff. And I have both VMWare Server and MS VS running simultaneously - no problems providing you don't attempt to install the remote management stuff in VMware. You might be able to do this if your host is 2003 - I think it's down to the one-website limitation of IIS in XP.

If you want to run all those VMs simultaneously then I think 4GB might be a bit small. I have 8GB on my desktop, and run a 2GB Windows Server 2003 VM along with generally 2-3 XP VMs at the same time, and often have resource hungry apps on the host (stuff like Photoshop).

ppl4golf
Posts: 35
Joined: Sun Dec 17, 2006 9:11 pm

Post by ppl4golf » Mon Jan 29, 2007 3:13 pm

You might want to make sure the RAM you pick is on the QVL.

Mike81
Posts: 36
Joined: Sat Feb 03, 2007 3:11 am

Post by Mike81 » Tue Feb 06, 2007 3:46 pm

Id also look at the Antec NSK3300 case.

Any maybe the Asus P5L-MX. Theres no advantage with the P5B unless your going to overclock the CPU.

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