Hardware Advice

greg9891greg9891 Member Posts: 1,189 ■■■■■■■□□□
in Virtualization
Hey guys need some advice, looking to build a certification lab Pc to run,VCP ESXI, MCSA, LINUX, ect. needs to be a versatile machine any thoughtsicon_cool.gif? &;don't have lot of funds so keep that in mind.
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Upcoming Certs: VCA-DCV 7.0, VCP-DCV 7.0, Oracle Database 1Z0-071, PMP, Server +, CCNP

Proverbs 6:6-11Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, Which, having no captain, Overseer or ruler, Provides her supplies in the summer, And gathers her food in the harvest. How long will you slumber, O sluggard?
When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to sleep, So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler And your need like an armed man.
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  • stryder144stryder144 Member Posts: 1,684 ■■■■■■■■□□
    I think if you looked into buying a used server you might be able to pick one up that fits your needs and is cheap. A decent Dell PowerEdge R900 might set you back $400 USD. The one I have has 32GB of RAM, two HDDs, four Quad-core Xeon processors, etc. Down the line, I could easily upgrade to 128GB of RAM for about $200-250 USD. The model I have is in the HCL for VMware.
    The easiest thing to be in the world is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don't let them put you in that position. ~ Leo Buscaglia

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  • greg9891greg9891 Member Posts: 1,189 ■■■■■■■□□□
    I agree with what your saying but servers tend to be a bit loud any suggestions on keeping it quiet. also any links on the servers. I like that price range Thanks. will likely get one of those you mentioned.icon_thumright.gif
    :
    Upcoming Certs: VCA-DCV 7.0, VCP-DCV 7.0, Oracle Database 1Z0-071, PMP, Server +, CCNP

    Proverbs 6:6-11Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, Which, having no captain, Overseer or ruler, Provides her supplies in the summer, And gathers her food in the harvest. How long will you slumber, O sluggard?
    When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to sleep, So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler And your need like an armed man.
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  • EssendonEssendon Member Posts: 4,546 ■■■■■■■■■■
    I have a HP DL 380 G6 with 48GB RAM in it. Just make sure you get one with a processor that does EPT (which is needed if you go the nested route).

    Once this machine gets past POST, it is about just as loud as a PC. If you want to go quieter and lighter, assemble a PC or get laptop with SSDs in it.

    In a home lab, you'll have disk slowness or insufficient RAM before anything else. So whatever you buy, just keep this in mind.
    NSX, NSX, more NSX..

    Blog >> http://virtual10.com
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  • srabieesrabiee Member Posts: 1,231 ■■■■■■■■□□
    Do you have a desktop PC that you could add more RAM to? Most newer PC's should work for a nested environment. i3, for example should do the job. As Essendon mentioned, RAM is going to be the biggest issue, followed by disk IO. If your motherboard has four RAM slots, you should be able to upgrade to 32GB. Also, SSD's aren't too expensive right now.

    If you are set on building a new PC, take a look at this thread. I recently built one myself for nested Hyper-V and ESXi and these are the components I chose. It wasn't a super cheap build my any means, but it works wonderfully and should last me for many years to come. AMD FX processors are an excellent value, especially for a home virtualization lab.

    http://www.techexams.net/forums/mcsa-mcse-windows-2012-general/111278-hardware-hyper-v.html
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  • EssendonEssendon Member Posts: 4,546 ■■■■■■■■■■
    Yeah RAM or disk depending on what you are doing. Active lab = disk IO issues first, not-so-active lab = RAM runs out first.
    NSX, NSX, more NSX..

    Blog >> http://virtual10.com
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  • EdTheLadEdTheLad Member Posts: 2,111 ■■■■□□□□□□
    I just bought a Dell Precision 7500, supports dual quad cpu's and up to 196G ram. Very quiet.
    Networking, sometimes i love it, mostly i hate it.Its all about the $$$$
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  • GreaterNinjaGreaterNinja Member Posts: 271
    I have 2 x TS140 Thinkserver Xeon E3-1225 V3 3.2ghz systems.
    Power usage running Vsphere 5.5 and 4 drives is 30-40 watts/hour when idle.

    SUPER quiet (about 2 times quieter than my watercooled workstation). I have to put my ear on the case to hear that it is on.
    Its a 4 core Xeon which is meant to be a server or workstation. It supports EPT and every other CPU-HW Virtualization technology out there.
    The Computer features quick deploy hard drive trays and RAID support + display & VGA.

    Today they were selling the I3 version for $200-$230. The Xeon version goes on massive discount maybe 2-3 times a year.
    Lenovo ThinkServer TS140: i3-4130, 4GB DDR3, 280W PSU, DVD-ROM - Slickdeals.net
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  • greg9891greg9891 Member Posts: 1,189 ■■■■■■■□□□
    Great Idea guys, thinking about getting a server but is there a way to reduce the fan speed in the bios or somthing. that would be a big help. lol don't think my wife would take too kindly to all that extra noise.
    :
    Upcoming Certs: VCA-DCV 7.0, VCP-DCV 7.0, Oracle Database 1Z0-071, PMP, Server +, CCNP

    Proverbs 6:6-11Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, Which, having no captain, Overseer or ruler, Provides her supplies in the summer, And gathers her food in the harvest. How long will you slumber, O sluggard?
    When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to sleep, So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler And your need like an armed man.
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  • kj0kj0 Member Posts: 767
    I just bought a new computer last week that is now solely lab with nested ESXi. AD FX6300 6 Core, 32Gb. (I've got another machine here that I use as a san.
    2017 Goals: VCP6-DCV | VCIX
    Blog: https://readysetvirtual.wordpress.com
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  • DeathmageDeathmage Banned Posts: 2,496
    I have two Dell R610's with Dual Xeon's in a ESXi 5.5 cluster with 96 GB's of ram total in the cluster. does all I need for VMware labbing, when it's turned on. Been hard-core into Cisco the past few months so it's been off, but she's there when I need her again.
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  • kj0kj0 Member Posts: 767
    Picked up a gigabit managed switch from work Yesterday also. My next upgrade will be a Synology Slim with 4 SSDs. That should work quite nicely, but I need to sell some things first.
    2017 Goals: VCP6-DCV | VCIX
    Blog: https://readysetvirtual.wordpress.com
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  • scott28ttscott28tt Member Posts: 686 ■■■■■□□□□□
    Get yourself a high-spec laptop/desktop with SSD and 32GB RAM, and build your lab environments in VMs.

    Or, go down the physical path if you have the space, money to pay the electricity bill, and some ear defenders icon_wink.gif
    VCP2 / VCP3 / VCP4 / VCP5 / VCAP4-DCA / VCI / vExpert 2010-2012
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