Lab Computer Specs

I'm thinking of getting into the wonderful(?) world of MS certification and want to get a new laptop that I can run VM Workstation on as my lab.

Best Buy has a Dell Inspiron with a Core i5 processor, 6 GB RAM, and 640 GB hard drive for $899. Is that enough horsepower? I am brand new to VM so I'm not sure what is required to run enough servers/clients to get through the MCITP labs smoothly. Money definitely IS an object.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

earweed

Should be enough horsepower. Don't forget to lab with Server 2008 R2as the tests now cover R2.

za3bour

I think you'll be fine, I'm doing mine with less specs (i3 and 4GB) and it's been working well.

medic

Thanks. That's the answer I was hoping for.

I ordered the 2008 R2 Unleashed book yesterday. I figure I'll start by looking through that to decide which exam I want to work on first.

Essendon

I'd recommend the 640 exam if your new to the MS world. This exam focuses on AD. I also see you have the CCNA, which might make the 642 exam the one you want to do first.

medic

I'm new to MS certs, but not MS in general. I have a degree in networking which included Win 2000/2003 infrastucture and AD classes and we run a 2000/2003 network at work. We are planning an upgrade to 2008 beginning of next year so I figure if I am going to learn 2008 I might as well go all out and get the certs in the process.

I just had my first real exposure to Win 7 today. I haven't let go of XP yet. I have a lot of catching up to do. Should be fun.

marcels

If your using VMs don't forget to build your host OS as a 64bit version.

If you've purely going to lab on this new kit, and plan to complete MCITP:EA think about using Win2k8 R2 and Hyper-V, it will help you a bit later on with the 70-643 exam.

Also MS Virtual PC and MS Virtual Server don't support 64bit VMs, you could use VMWare but anything you learn on this won't help you with MS exams.

medic

This is going to have to be my everyday computer as well so I'll be putting 64 bit Win 7 Pro on it. I don't have the $$$ for a dedicated lab PC.

HardDisk

Hi Medic,

I just bought the same Dell Inspiron laptop and had the same question(s).

Any additional details on how to build the perfect Virtual lab would be appreciated. Perhaps I should use an external 2nd harddrive via the eSATA/USB port? Bare metal or use a host OS? How do I model/simulate mass deployments?

When studying for the CCNA exam the choice was either Packet Tracer or the GNS3 emulator. Is there an equivalent in the Microsoft world?

Thanks
HardDisk

Essendon

HardDisk wrote: »

Any additional details on how to build the perfect Virtual lab would be appreciated. Perhaps I should use an external 2nd harddrive via the eSATA/USB port? Bare metal or use a host OS? How do I model/simulate mass deployments?

Abo ut 350-500GB HDD is usually more than enough. Just have enough RAM so you can run multiple VM's. How much does the mobo support? Max it out anyway. Use a host OS, 64 bit is advisable so you can run 2008 R2. Then chuck on VMware Workstation/Server and create VM's and away you go! Mass deployments can be easily simulated using VMware/VirtualPC, as you go through the book, you'll figure itr out.

HardDisk wrote: »

When studying for the CCNA exam the choice was either Packet Tracer or the GNS3 emulator. Is there an equivalent in the Microsoft world?

Thanks
HardDisk

There isnt such a simulator in the MS world. There are .iso files of various OS's available at download.microsoft.com , some of them may require registration (which is free).

HTH!

HardDisk

Essendon wrote: »

as you go through the book, you'll figure itr out.
HTH!

Hi Essendon,

Thanks for the comment. It never hurts to fish for an easy answer but it always ends up the same way. You need to hunker down, start at the beginning and plow throught it.

HardDisk

Repo Man

I wasn't able to run more than 2 VM's with 4 gigs of ram.

Essendon

Repo Man wrote: »

I wasn't able to run more than 2 VM's with 4 gigs of ram.

You can limit the RAM used by a VM. I think by default VMware uses 1024MB per VM so you very quickly chew all your RAM before you even know it.