Upgrade Suggestion for my 4 Year Old System

Nafe92014

Hello All,

I am looking to upgrade my current system so that I can have better performance when running my 3-5 VMs as part of my home lab. Here are my current specs (built in 2013):

-ASUS F2A85 V-Pro motherboard (FM2 socket)
-AMD 5800k Trinity APU @3.8GHZ
-ASUS R9-280x 3GB GPU (since 2014)
-Kingston DDR3 16GB RAM
-1x Corsair LS 64GB SSD(OS Drive)
-1x Samsung 250GB SSD (since Fall 2015)
-1x WD Black 1TB (data)

I prefer my next build/upgrade to be with Intel instead of AMD and wish to go to 32GB RAM. Not really on a budget, but I prefer the total not exceeding $700.00. I am just looking at upgrading the Mobo, CPU, and RAM. I am prefer ASUS, as I have had good service from them.

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kosta-k

i7-6700K/7700k+Z170+2x8(or even 4x8 DDR4 RAM)+250/512gb SSD for only VMs.
And you can sell your CPU+MB+RAM+Corsair LS 64GB SSD and add this money if not fit in 700USD.

something like this.

thomas_

I've seen people get some pretty good deals on used servers that give you more CPUs and RAM than a beefy desktop would. Ir you're looking to expand beyond the 3-5 VMs that you currently have, then a used server may be worth considering.

yoba222

I'm holding out to see how well the new AMD Ryzen CPUs perform real world. Then give it a few months for Linux support to stabilize.

TechGromit

Just paint some flames on the side of the computer case and your good. Flames make anything faster and there cool too.

9bits

The suggestion for older server processors is good if the system will only be used for VM's and lab stuff. There was a flood of E5-2670 xeons dumped on ebay for cheap some months back. Server ram can also be had on the cheap. The motherboards are usually the main expense when trying to put together these slightly older systems.

If you're going to do any gaming with this system, then go with the i7-7700k. Single core performance is much more important in that regard.

Ismaeljrp

Considering you can get an 8c/16t processor going for an AMD r1700, that may be the best option for home labs doing virtualization.

My lab is on a 4c/4t i5 2500k, runs quite alright virtualizing esxi and vms within that. The AMD I mentioned has roughly 35-45% more IPC than my 2500k, and with double the cores, and quadruple the threads. Overall probably about a 2.5x performance increase from my estimates.

An SSD is what will help the most though.

Other than that, get 32gb DDR4 and you're good.

ImYourOnlyDJ

I must admit I'm sort of an AMD fanboy, but I just bought a r1700 and am really liking it. Night and day difference from my previous fx6100. The AM4 platform is very immature however so there are a lot of bugs and and memory compatibility (my 3000mhz RAM by default ran at 2133 which I got up to 2666 with a beta bios).

Its looking like VMware doesn't support Ryzen at the moment

mbarrett

More RAM will help if you're running VMs. I'm more of an Intel person so I can't really comment on the CPU you have - but the most obvious thing is to add more RAM. The CPU will be a more expensive upgrade, and it might not yield dramatic improvements unless your current model is older.

skswitch

I def think the new AMD Ryzen would right up your alley! Since suggestions are already mentioned I'll go ahead and throw out some sites you may already know for some deals.

- Slickdeals
- PCPicker
- Reddit PC Deals

Also camelcamelcamel.com will give you historic data about prices on Amazon if you want to cross check prices.

Cisco Inferno

All you really need is more ram.

I run the following on a AMD Phenom x4 @ 3.5ghz with 24GB ram and 250GB SSD, 2x2TB Raid 0. Currently going through the MCSA track.
Domain Controller
Hyper-V Host1
Hyper-V Host2
Server 2012 iSCSI Target Server
SQL 2012 Server
System Center Virtual Machine Manager Server
GNS3 IOU Server

I max out at around 20gbs of ram and maybe 30% cpu under max load with full web browsing/video watching etc.

I would suggest getting more ram and testing it out. Its nice to have the latest gear but when exams cost $300+ a test, it can wear on you.
Lab VM resources should be the bare minimum. I'm talking 1-2gbs each.