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Home lab advice

Spike12Spike12 Member Posts: 9 ■□□□□□□□□□
in Windows 7 exams
Hi everyone,

I'm going to be working on a couple MS certifications in the coming months, and I'm looking for some advice on creating a home lab system.

I'd like to stay within a budget of $500-$600 and I had my eye on a Dell Inspiron 660 (not the mini tower) or an XPS 8500 (around $650). If the Inspiron 600 could do the job, I would rather go that route to save some bucks, as I can always upgrade it later.

I'm open to suggestions, including other brands.

Thanks in advance!
:)
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    seth479seth479 Member Posts: 84 ■■□□□□□□□□
    Does your current computer not have the specs to run Virtual Machines? If it does that would be the cheapest and easiest way to go, install Windows 7 and then use it to go along with the material. If you want to get a good grasp on imaging and deploying maybe even install Windows Server 2008 and you can play around with WDS, WSUS and other roles to get a grasp on them. My virtual lab was mainly Server 2008 R2 and 2 Win7 Ultimate clients and I played with Active Directory, GPO, WSUS, WDS, DHCP and DNS roles and it was fun and I got a beginning grasp on some of the SA stuff.

    If you're set on getting another physical machine, the 660 would probably work for you.
    LinkedIn | www.sethhall.com
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    kriscamaro68kriscamaro68 Member Posts: 1,186 ■■■■■■■□□□
    Screw buying dell crap. Buy this from newegg


    XCLIO 320 Black Finish Steel & Plastic & Brushed Aluminum Bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case Item $34.99

    SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $84.99

    ASUS M5A88-M AM3+ AMD 880G SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard Item $99.99

    CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 (CMPSU-430CXV2) 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply) $44.99

    CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CML16GX3M4A1600C9B $77.99

    COOLER MASTER R4-L2S-122B-GP 120mm 4 Blue LED Case Fan 2 in 1 pack Item buy->X2 ($10.99 each)

    XIGMATEK Gaia SD1283 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler Item $19.99

    OCZ Vertex 4 VTX4-25SAT3-128G 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) Item $99.99

    AMD FX-8120 Zambezi 3.1GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor FD8120FRGUBOX Item $159.99


    Subtotal:

    $655.89
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    EV42TMANEV42TMAN Member Posts: 256
    I agree with kriscamaro68 about dell... but not his build I'd recommend something like this
    all prices are from Newegg 5 mins ago
    $33.99 Coolermaster Elite 330 Upgraded RC-330u-kkn1
    $74.99 Seagate ST500DM002 500GB SATA 3 Hard Drive (get 2 and put in RAID 0)
    $67.99 Seasonic S12II 520 Watt power supply
    $19.99 Kingston Hyper-X Blu 4 GB DDR3 1600(get 4)
    $99.99 Intel BOXDH77EB motherboard
    $199.99 Intel Core i5-3470 Ivy Bridge 3.2GHZ CPU
    $637.90 Total

    normally i'd recommend server drives and motherboard but, it shoots the budget up real quick. let me know if you need any help picking parts.
    Current Certification Exam: ???
    Future Certifications: CCNP Route Switch, CCNA Datacenter, random vendor training.
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    ITMonkeyITMonkey Member Posts: 200
    I'm all for new builds and all ... and yes, s***w Dell two times! But throw me a banana!! We don't know if Spike12 has ever done a build, or if he knows what to do if he hits a problem if doing one.

    I'm just wrapping up my dream lab build now. Only problems worth speaking of were an outdated bios and a mobo that crapped out into its 2nd week (the rma was approved today -- an absolutely great vendor!). Glad my wife isn't into reading this forum ... I spent way over the price range being discussed. Even then I had the benefit of two months looking for great deals (newegg, ebay and craigslist).
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    Spike12Spike12 Member Posts: 9 ■□□□□□□□□□
    Thank you for the replies, everyone!

    Your guidance is much appreciated. I've built my own computer last year and I'm working in finishing up my Comptia A+.

    I didn't realize I could get a similarly priced custom build and I'm definitely going to lean this path now.

    Thanks again! :)
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    ForeverIT27ForeverIT27 Member Posts: 60 ■■□□□□□□□□
    I honestly don't think you need to spend all that money on a lab machine. I personally like configuring real servers because you'll have experience with their unique hardware and know how to maintain them as well, if you want to lab for any MS cert, I recommend looking on Ebay or Amazon for a gently used Dell or HP or IBM server. I got a nice Powerdge on Ebay for $200 with dual Xeon 3.2Ghz and 4GB Rams. Server hardware is totally different from your normal desktop PC. For $350 or even less you could get yourself a nice gently used Server online and play around with it. I think if you Lab around with real servers you will feel more comfortable configuring and troubleshooting them in the future. Servers I think are important to know how they are build and configure. Think about it.
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    Spike12Spike12 Member Posts: 9 ■□□□□□□□□□
    I see there are a bunch of PowerEdge variations listed. Would you recommend specific models that I could purchase at this price range?

    Thanks again!
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