New PC to home lab 70-680 and 70-685

smguthrie

I'm going to start studying for 70-680 and 70-685 and was wondering if the following all-in-one would be sufficient or if I should make any changes:

i5-4440 3.1 GHz
8 GB DDR3 SDRAM (16 GB max)
1 TB SATA 7200 rpm HDD
DVD R/W
Windows 8.1

I could go down to an i3-4130 3.4 GHz and 6 GB RAM with everything else being exactly the same and save $116. If I did this, I would almost certainly upgrade the RAM to 12 GB on my own.

Basically, I'm wondering if there's enough difference between the i3 and the i5 processors to warrant going with the i5 and 8 GB RAM or if I'd be better off with the i3 and 12 GB RAM.

Anything else I'm missing?

Thanks.

Cert Poor

I looked up the CPUs on the Wikipedia page for Haswell. The i5-4440 has 4 cores, and the i3-4130 has 2 cores. Comparing these things alone, it's worth going with the quad-core CPU for many reasons, especially when it comes to virtualization. It'll give you a lot more wiggle room to run several virtual machines at the same time.

Also, all of the CPUs support Intel VT-x for virtualization and have for several generations, but the i3 doesn't support Intel VT-d, which offers some benefits for allowing your VMs to recognize devices. I'd go with the i5-4440.

When labbing Windows 7, you can set up barebones 32-bit Win7 boxes with 1 GB of RAM, so your 8 GB should be OK to play with. Also depends how gungho you want to go with your prep and if you want to set up Windows Server 2012 (or [noparse]200[/noparse] VMs you'll need to allocate a lot more RAM.

Stick with the i5, and if you later have money, upgrade to 16 GB. Just my opinion, since I like overkill. DDR4 will come out this year, and DDR3 prices should further drop. You can probably find a desktop 8 GB stick fairly cheap anyways.

Brandonm2

Hey man!!
On the software side that is great you have Win 8.1. Why? Because it comes with a feature you can add through programs and features called Hyper-v manager. This is where you can install a virtual server which would really help you with studying for some of the things in windows 7 that require a server for setting up. I run a windows 7 client virtually in oracle virtual box but I think you could do this in hyper-v too. You will definitely want to get familiar with virtual machines if you arn't because you will be using them alot!

You will also want to download the free evaluation editions of server 2008 R2 and windows 7. You can find that on the Microsoft's Technet website. Very helpful and saves alot of money!
Hope this helps!!

MrJimbo19

I would go to 16gb of ram so you have plenty of head room for VM's. Hyper-V in Windows8 is great and will work fine for the labs. If I remember I had at most 3 VM's running at once for the 70-680 and in the 70-685 I have been running about the same and I am into about the halfway point on the MS certification book. I agree on the i5 being the better option, just keep in mind in both cases the processes will be capable of the same amount of threads at the same time, 4. The i5 has 4 cores and the i3 has a dual core with Hyperthreading, from a performance standpoint the higher core count will always give you better results.

smguthrie

Thanks for the replies!

I'll go with the i5 processor and 8GB RAM (then upgrade to 16GB).

Is the All-In-One a good choice for labbing or would I be better off with the more traditional desktop? I don't have any experience with an All-In-One setup and just don't want any surprises after I make the purchase. I'm ready to do this sometime this month.

stryder144

The only issues I've seen with AIO devices is that some have a tendency to build up heat pretty quickly. If you have it in a well ventilated area, you shouldn't have too many problems. Also, research how easy it is to swap RAM on the model you are looking for. Some of them are crazy hard and require you to nearly completely disassemble the unit. Definitely not for the faint of heart.

smguthrie

Actually, I've changed my mind and going to opt for a traditional tower rather than the all-in-one. The all-in-one I was looking at would have cost $933.98. I managed to find a tower with the same specs, but with 12GB RAM instead of 8GB for $627.82. I will need to buy a monitor (most likely a 23" touchscreen for around $250) and probably wireless keyboard and mouse. This should all come to about the same price as the all-in-one, but I'll have the additional RAM and the ability to upgrade the components as I see fit in the future.

However, is the touchscreen something I really even need or should I save some money there? I really don't see myself using the touchscreen too much, but I do plan on going through with the Windows 8 cert. That's really the only reason I can see the need for a touchscreen.