Advice for a home virtual lab

Well, finally got some money for a new build and for certs. I decided to take MCSA 2008, then upgrade to 2012 and later get MCSE.
So, here is a build:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks
CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($379.00)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($40.00)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-PRO ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($223.00)
Memory: Kingston Beast 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($155.00)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($166.00)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($73.00)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Titanium Grey) ATX Mid Tower Case ($145.00)
Power Supply: SeaSonic M12II 650W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($146.00)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (Purchased For $0.00)
Monitor: Asus VS248H-P 24.0" Monitor ($221.00)
Monitor: Asus VS248H-P 24.0" Monitor ($221.00)
Total: $1769.00
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-08-18 10:32 EDT-0400)
I think this will be good lab, except 2 things...
1. 4770k doesn't support VT-d. Should I go with 4770 because of VT-d? I'd prefer 4770k because I plan on OC my build.
2. Will the integrated HD4600 be enough for running VMs?
So, here is a build:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks
CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($379.00)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($40.00)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-PRO ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($223.00)
Memory: Kingston Beast 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($155.00)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($166.00)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($73.00)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Titanium Grey) ATX Mid Tower Case ($145.00)
Power Supply: SeaSonic M12II 650W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($146.00)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (Purchased For $0.00)
Monitor: Asus VS248H-P 24.0" Monitor ($221.00)
Monitor: Asus VS248H-P 24.0" Monitor ($221.00)
Total: $1769.00
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-08-18 10:32 EDT-0400)
I think this will be good lab, except 2 things...
1. 4770k doesn't support VT-d. Should I go with 4770 because of VT-d? I'd prefer 4770k because I plan on OC my build.
2. Will the integrated HD4600 be enough for running VMs?
Comments
Anyone?
I also would get a bigger SSD. Trust me, you'll want your VMs on the SSD
Well, SSD are quite expensive right now, but I guess I could bump it to 256GB. Thanks for the reply!
I see you're doing a 2x8GB memory kit which leaves you open to upgrade to 32GB in the future which is handy for running some larger labs (or nested lab) but you're going to run out of room on the SSD quickly at 128GB. There are benefits to running the Pro series Samsung but if you go to a lower line you can get a 240GB easily for the same price. I run a Sandisk Extreme and it's been awesome. At least go with a couple smaller WD Blacks for storage for VMs (more spindles will help) if you don't want to get a bigger SSD.
Integrated video will be fine for running VMs.
Overall though it's a good build with some good parts that will last you a while.
For now build will be used for a learning, but later I plan on OC and video rendering/gaming, etc. That's why I chose "better" parts.
I have 2 more HDDs, WD Black (2x1TB), I guess I'll save some more money and go with 256GB SSD.
There was no mention about software you'll need. I assume then that your hypervisor will be VirtualBox or Hyper-V. Having used both in the past, I've moved on to using VMware's products (both Workstation 9 and ESXi). If I had to do it all over again, I'm pretty sure I would have paid the extra dollars for a Workstation 9 license. ESXi might be too much of a challenge to start with; and it amazed me how well WS9 performed. I was even able to nest hypervisors in it to lab failover.
I was also thinking that there was no mention of future expenses. What books, training classes, educational material are you going to purchase, now that you have a lab machine up and running?
You are based in Europe so why are you getting items from the US? You'll have major import duties on top of that price.
The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent. - Arnold Schwarzenegger
Because pcpartpicker isn't Europe friendly, so I just picked components and entered my price, that's why build is like +$500 in comparison to the US/CAN
Thanks, Yes, I do have windows 8 Pro and I was gonna install Hyper-v, but I'm not sure if it's gonna work with 4770k...
I have cbt nuggets, Windows server 2008 self-paced kit, also some cram books...
The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent. - Arnold Schwarzenegger
The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent. - Arnold Schwarzenegger
Can you give me more info about vt-d, I've read all I could about it, but as far as I understand vt-d is must have if I want to more NIC or GPU to play games in VMs... I would like to try Hyper-V, but I'm not sure if I can use Hyper-V without VT-d support?
Also, do I really need another NIC to use in VM, I know that will be easier for a setup, but VMware has a virtual network which I can setup.
Well, I guess VMware, but I wanted to try out Hyper-V too (if it's possible to do that without VT-d)?
The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent. - Arnold Schwarzenegger
The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent. - Arnold Schwarzenegger
The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent. - Arnold Schwarzenegger
[img][/img]http://www.overclockers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/890fxarch.png
It doesn't matter
If you're going with something like VMware workstation or Hyper-V I wouldn't worry about it (my 2700k doesn't have it) and you can use any NIC in your system still with the VMs, you just present them as virtual NICs and configure their settings from the host. I have a dual port intel NIC in my desktop to attach to more networks and it works as you would think without needing VT-d.
If you're runniong vSphere you would still do the same unless you had a reason to pass the hardware directly through, say a storage server where you want the OS to have direct access for ZFS or Windows Storage spaces.
And which roles are usually tested in such lab?
Would appreciate the detailed answer as I'm going to start to become Microsoft certified.