Laptop for Labs

joehalford01

Hey guys,

I've got the network+ scheduled for next week but I'm already working on what I want to learn next. I'm definitely going to need a new computer to lab windows server 2008, my current laptop has trouble running ubuntu with one xp virtual machine. I thought about building a home machine with multiple hard-drives but I'd like to be able to take my studying out of the house occasionally. I started looking at new laptops and for less then $1000 I can get a 17" screen, 8GB ram, and an i7 processor. I think the only limiting factor is the 5400rpm single hard drive. How well does server 2008 run from a single SSD? The larger laptops have an extra hard drive bay, I'm thinking that I could purchase a seperate 100GB ssd and run my virtual machines from there instead of the included hard-drive. Thoughts?

I could also build a home lab and use my current laptop to remote into it, but I'd also really like to have the larger screen, my current laptop is only 15".

Devilsbane

8GB ram with an i7 should be fine. Same setup I have except my OS is running on an SSD. My virtuals are saved on the 5400 rpm drive. (I'd never own a laptop with only a single bay anymore)

I wouldn't waste the money on an SSD for just your virtual machines. Your main one maybe.

demonfurbie

your cheapest/best route is to make a tower and remote into it and get a cheaper 17 in laptop or use the 15 laptop you already have

and high end 17 in laptops have a *please take* sticker on the back

joehalford01

lol, true dat.

demonfurbie wrote: »

your cheapest/best route is to make a tower and remote into it and get a cheaper 17 in laptop or use the 15 laptop you already have

and high end 17 in laptops have a *please take* sticker on the back

joehalford01

Awesome, glad to hear someone else has this set-up.

Devilsbane wrote: »

8GB ram with an i7 should be fine. Same setup I have except my OS is running on an SSD. My virtuals are saved on the 5400 rpm drive. (I'd never own a laptop with only a single bay anymore)

I wouldn't waste the money on an SSD for just your virtual machines. Your main one maybe.

whatthehell

Damn! I wish I had an i7! You could just upgrade your HDD to something bigger and, more importantly, a bit faster.
I recently picked up a 7200 RPM 750gb Toshiba laptop HDD from Newegg for $60. You could swap out the hard drives on the laptop.

SSDs, though awesome and very fast, are still a bit pricey and do not yield a lot of storage space.

Good luck!

Tackle

demonfurbie wrote: »

your cheapest/best route is to make a tower and remote into it

Agreed. This is exactly what I do.
I have it setup so I can RDP into my DC from anywhere. I have Vsphere installed on the DC. Makes it super easy to manage all my VM's, and I'm not limited by my laptop. Plus my server and some extra drives cost less than half of what you're looking to spend on a laptop.

Devilsbane

I like the idea of the laptop because it is portable. I don't even need internet access and I can do things. Plus I spent extra on the laptop because it was my forensic workstation at school. Figured the extra money would make scans and processes run quicker so that I could spend less idle time on labs.

joehalford01

Alright, I bit the bullet, I ordered parts to build a lab machine and I'll remote into it when I'm at the coffee shop with my aging laptop.

Everything from new-egg:
Item List:
1 x ($129.99) MB ASUS|P8Z68-M PRO Z68 LGA1155 R

$129.99

1 x ($314.99) CPU INTEL|CORE I7 2600K 3.4G 8M R

$314.99

3 x ($39.99) HD 500G|HITC SATA 3.0Gb/s 0F10381 % - OEM

$119.97

1 x ($59.99) CASE RAIDMAX|BLADE ATX-298WBP R

$59.99

1 x ($17.99) DVD BURNER LITE-ON | IHAS124-04 % - OEM

$17.99

1 x ($49.99) MEM 4Gx2|CORSAIR CMX8GX3M2B1600C9 R

$49.99

Total came out to $767 with tax. I don't want to eat into my savings so i'll cash out some PTO from work. I was really torn on trying to make it cheaper, using some old hard-drives from work and an old server chassis and the i5 cpu. I think the money will be well spent in the long run with these parts though. Also, the other thing that came to mind is setting up my home network so I can properly remote into it from the outside will be a worthwhile experience. Thanks for the input guys, my 70-642 book is here (although i still need to take my network+ next week and schedule my security+ for next month or november).

demonfurbie

a good router is worth its weight in gold when it comes to remoting in

Lunchbocks

What are you planning to do with the new box? I built a new box last year and installed VMWare esxi 4. Right now I have 3 2008 VMs running inside for my labs. You can download the 180 day trials of Server 2008 from Microsoft and use those for your labs. I use my laptop to remote into each machine and do the labs from the comfort of my couch

Good luck!

joehalford01

I'm almost done with my network+, I'm enjoying the network stuff but a ccna wouldn't help me at all with my day to day duties so I'm going to start working on the MCITP track. We have a lot of windows stuff. I just got the 70-642 book in so I'm going to start labbing out of that; so I can get a real understanding of whats going behind the scenes, and possibly utilize our servers a bit better. The outside vendor that helps us is good but he certainly isn't here enough to optimize things. I'm really torn between running ESXi (because it would probably be good for me to learn) or running ubuntu with virtual box on top of it. I'd like to squeeze in the occasional game...:D (and my parts are already out for delivery, can't wait!).

demonfurbie

when running vms use the os that has the smallest footprint on the hardware so your vms can use the hardware not the host os

linux is good for this, ive heard hyper-v is as well (i havent tried hyper-v) not sure on the requirements for ESXi so it may do well

on linux i use to use mint as a host a virtual box to run the vms and installed vnc on all of the systems, you can even make scripts to auto start the vms on boot in linux fairly easy

joehalford01

Well, I put everything together but I'm still trying to get linux installed. Ubuntu really dosn't like fakeraids, I finally gave up and I'm installing it with the built in software raid. Oh well....bedtime me thinks...