Any lower end powerful cheap server that supports virtualization

mrblackmamba343

I'm looking for a cheap server which is cable of vitalization...

any ideas?

crrussell3

The Dell Poweredge T110 seems to be a popular model around TE. Just buy more ram from someplace besides Dell and pick up a couple cheap HDD.

wweboy

Skip the server get a cheap i5 tiger direct is always having sales on full bare bone kits that have everything you need. Just buy a few extra sticks of memory

humdingy02

I just built something like this.
The new Sandy Bridge i5's are quad-core's that support virtualization. Combine that with a board that supports it, plus 16GB of RAM (cheap these days, I bought two pairs of 4's at different times). Finish it off with a Technet subscription or MSDNAA and you're all set.

QHalo

What type of virtualization are you talking about specifically?

Tackle

I use a T110. Paid less than $400 for it. Came with a quad core, 4gb ram and a 250gb hard drive.

Added some more stuff on my own to 'beef' it up. Runs all the VM's I need.

If you go with ESXi for your virtualization, make sure to install on a USB (ports on the inside, on the mobo). the S100 controller does not support ESXi/Linux. I had random reboot issues and narrowed it down to this.

nhan.ng

Intel Q67 board works really well in my test

erpadmin

I use the HP ML110 G6.

It has an i3 processor, but for lab purposes, it's more than enough.

https://wwws.nextwarehouse.com/item/?938409 (at $361.....you can't beat that!)

Of course, you will have to get 4 x 250 GB drives and AT LEAST 2 x 4GB chips. You can max this out at your leisure though like I did. My machine by next week will be maxed out...I have no complaints about it and virtualization is friggin awesome. Can't wait to turn this into a SQL Server rig. 2008 R2 runs SOLID on this box!

https://wwws.nextwarehouse.com/item/?852866

xxxooxxx

Most people don't need much CPU clocks in a lab environment. I would just get a used board and CPU that support visualization (Intel VT or AMD-V)

If you need to run a few, like 3 or more guest machines, then add more RAM. 4GB is not really sufficient today. Try 12GB.
There are applications that would not even allow you to install if the box doesn't meet minimum RAM requirement (e.g SCCM)

For disks. you want as much spindles as possible.

If you need 1TB of capacity. Buy 4 x 250GB disks instead of 1 x 1TB disk.

erpadmin

xxxooxxx wrote: »

For disks. you want as much spindles as possible.

If you need 1TB of capacity. Buy 4 x 250GB disks instead of 1 x 1TB disk.

I forgot to add the reason for 4 x 250GB and was going to edit my post, but you did it for me. Thanks.

powerfool

You could pick up some used Dell PowerEdge 1950 systems... I run two of them. Dual 2.33 GHz dual core and 8GB RAM each. I would like to get some more RAM, but I just turned them on for the first time in over a year... Installing a W2K8R2 DC and an EXCH2K10 server to play around on.

dave330i

I've read Dell Poweredge 840 (Xeon ones) will run VM. You can find those on ebay for ~$200.

AlexNguyen

I've bought 2 refurbished HP Intel Quadcore desktops from Bestbuy a few years ago. I've upgraded the RAM and installed a Broadcom NIC.

I'm running ESXi 4.1 on one machine. On the other, I've tried XenServer
and now running Hyper-V with Windows 2008 R2.