Just started studying the 70-640

Hi

I apologize if this is in the wrong area and please redirect me to the correct place. I have just started studying the 70-640 and I’m looking to make a new workstation so I can run 3 to 5 VM’s on VMWare workstation on a Win7 platform. I think i will defiantly need a i5 or i7 quad core I defiantly need 8GB RAM min 12GB recommended but the mobo is the bit I’m stuck with. Do I need dual channel memory or triple? I was thinking of putting two 1T HDD for VDs raid1 and 1x 500GB as mem server storage for the study guide. And my host OS will be on 120GB SSD. I would put the 2x 1T on SATA3 and the others on SATA2.
Could someone please advise me on a good setup list spec and configs.

Thank you

iBri0s

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Comments

certhelp

iBri0s wrote: »

Could someone please advise me on a good setup list spec and configs.

A machine with quad core (1st gen i7 quad core) or above would work. You can squeeze 4 VMs for 70-640 on a 8GB machine. Regular hard drives are expensive now because of flooding in Thailand. Besides, you could probably buy a decent SSD for the same money you spend on RAID setup.

If you don't have a decent laptop, you could buy one instead of building a desktop/workstation.You can be more productive with a laptop. A 2nd Gen i7 quad core laptop would cost $700+ without all the options. You can add an SSD and RAM later and save some money.

Saundie

I personally went for a 256GB SSD over a three drive RAID array, mostly for the performance advantage but also to save space in my system and reduce heat output. RAM is really cheap at the moment, so I'd suggest going for 16GB (or 12GB if you go for an LGA1366 system), though as certhelp suggests 8GB would be okay. Any Core i5/i7 quad core would be plenty for this sort of lab, especially if you get one that supports hyper-threading (all the i7s do). I guess it really depends on your budget!