Lab machine

the_Grinch

So I am looking at building a lab machine for my soon to be MCITP:SA studies and wondered if this would be a good machine:

1 Rosewill BLACKHAWK Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, come with Five Fans, window side panel, top HDD dock
Item #: N82E16811147107
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$99.99
1 SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #: N82E16822152185
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy -$5.00 Instant

$64.99
$59.99
1 COUGAR POWERX 700 COUGAR-PX700 700W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power ...
Item #: N82E16817553002
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy -$25.00 Instant

$129.99
$104.99
1 Standard A133 Black USB Wired Optical 800 dpi Mouse
Item #: N82E16826281002
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy -$9.99 Saving

$9.99
$0.00
1 Kingston HyperX 24GB (6 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model KHX1600C9D3K6/24GX
Item #: N82E16820104170
Return Policy: Memory Standard Return Policy
$178.99
1 ASUS Sabertooth X58 LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813131665
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$204.99
1 Intel Core i7-960 Bloomfield 3.2GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80601960
Item #: N82E16819115224
Return Policy: CPU Replacement Only Return Policy
$279.99
1 Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Item #: N82E16820148357
Return Policy: Limited Replacement Only Return Policy -$30.00 Instant

$144.99
$114.99
Subtotal: $1,043.93
Tax: $73.48

Don't know how I will be paying for it, but that it just a minor detail lol!

the_Grinch

Still want to see what people have to say about the above setup, but in reading further I might try to pick up a decent old server. Sadly, I don't think I will have the money to build that beast up there. Someday, maybe!

Essendon

That's just about what I wanted too! But I chickened out (or you can say I didnt have the kind of money needed) and bought a discarded desktop off my company, loaded it up with RAM (maxed at 8GB), did a BIOS update on it and am able to run all my labs on it, with no issues to speak off. All up it cost me $300 (that's with the RAM and an extra HDD).

All you really for these labs is a processor that is 64bit, RAM (8GB and above is good) and HDD space. The processor on my machine is an E6500, the thing runs my lab without missing a beat. E6500 is the minimum, anything above it is good.

the_Grinch

Awesome thanks for the information! It's almost raise time, so maybe if it's good I can do some saving and get the box. But for right now, I can probably swing $300 to $400 to get a box to get me started. Then I will have two boxes to lab with!

MentholMoose

No video card? If this is not going to be a gaming rig, you can get much cheaper components. You can get a cheaper case (Antec 300 is on sale for $50), cheaper PSU, and cheaper motherboard (there's a decent looking Gigabyte motherboards that supports 24GB RAM on sale for $150). Also you can find a better deal on the SSD... I've seen the Sandforce SSDs from last year (e.g. Vertex 2) for really cheap lately.

Hypntick

I'm a big fan of the poweredge 1950 and 2950 rackmounts. Can find some decent setups for 400-600 or so, and you know it'll be ESXi compatible without having to worry to much about anything. Currently have a 1950 with 2 DC Xeons and 8 GB of RAM, works just fine for what I need for now. However work has a pair of 2950s with 2 QC Xeons and 16 GB of RAM each, may pick those up if they want to get rid of them.

Tackle

I'd say make sure to throw a couple more hard drives in. Once you get more than a couple VM's running off of one disk, they start to get a little sluggish. Might be better off with a couple 500GB's.

I usually limit myself to 3 VM's per disk. More than that I get lock ups and things move slooooowwwww.

simtech

I built a cheaper machine and less beefy for MCITP:EA and works fine for me.
What I did, I waited for Microcenter in my area to have sale and got the parts piece by piece. Using AMD Phenom 840, 8gb, the cheapest asus motherboard that came free with the CPU purchase. I fired up 3 vms in the hyper-v and no issue. I probably spent less than 400.

Recently, i just got a used Dell 2950. It's totally a different experience messing with the real server. It's noisy though )