So I wanna start playing with virutal machines ...

ThreeDee

ThreeDee

[H]F Junkie
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Sep 5, 2001
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Was wondering where a good place to start at was and what (free) software would be good to use under Vista Ultimate 64bit ..? :)
downloading VirtualBox right now to see what it's like..
Specs
Q6600@3ghz
4gb ram
120GB Raptor
8800GTS 640mb
 
It isn't free, but I prefer VMware Workstation. MS Virtual PC 2007 is free, though.
 
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1317277

Been covered before, many times around here so I'll just say read that thread through and get some info, then if you have questions ask...

Nothing much has changed since that thread came out aside from VirtualBox 2.0 being released a few days ago and it now offers 64 bit guest OS support (requires being installed on a 64 bit host OS, of course).
 
Joe Average said:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1317277

Been covered before, many times around here so I'll just say read that thread through and get some info, then if you have questions ask...

Nothing much has changed since that thread came out aside from VirtualBox 2.0 being released a few days ago and it now offers 64 bit guest OS support (requires being installed on a 64 bit host OS, of course).
Click to expand...

ah ..thanks

I plan on playing with different distros of linux
 
Wow .. running Ubuntu under Virtualbox and man that installed fast .. made a 7gb partition and gave it 512mb of ram and it runs faster than my P4 3ghz w/ 1gb of ram .. this is going to be fun :cool:
 
Yep... if you have a CPU with VT-x support, you can get nearly native speeds with the VM in operation, and if you're on a newer processor (something from Intel in the Core 2 Duo/Quad lineup, primarily - AMD works but not nearly as well) it's absolutely amazing what you can accomplish with VMs these days...

If you'd made an ISO of the Ubuntu CD and put that ISO on the drive, you can "boot" the VM from the ISO file itself and the installation goes like 50x faster than doing it from the physical CD in the optical drive. Amazing stuff. :)
 
In my experience, AMD processors VT-x support is lackluster at best compared to Core 2 Duos. Running PCMark 2005 inside an XP SP3 VM (the same exact VM was used on both machines; it was copied to the machines over a network and then run from the system partition itself where the OS was installed (XP Pro x64 on a Q6600 at stock 2.4 GHz with 8GB of DDR2 800 for the Intel testing, same OS installed on an AMD Phenom 9750 at stock 2.4 GHz with the same RAM just moved over to the AMD build).

In those results, and I know it's not perfect that's a given but the testing was done as accurately as could be managed across the two disparate platforms, the AMD build gave consistent results that were roughly 24-38% lower than the Core 2 Quad box. The only difference in the machines was the mobo/CPU primarily - the same hard drives, optical drives, even the same VM software, Virtual Box 1.6 (not the last 1.x version which was 1.6.6) was used too, and again, the VM itself (the .vdi file) was the same on both platforms).

I can't attribute it to much other than the Core 2 Quad (and Core 2 Duo) being far superior in at least that iteration of their technology with respect to VT-x support and processing efficiency.

Of course, it could have been the lame ass Nvidia chipset and sorry freakin' drivers on the EVGA mobo too. ;) Oops... did I say that out loud? hehe
 
yeah , I saw the option to use an .iso image for installs into the vm and so used it .. again , wow ..

no more using one of my 5 other comps to play with other OS's on is all I can say :p
 
Unfortunately, having VMs won't suddenly boost your Hard Folding ability, however. :)

But yep, they're fun to have around and be able to mess with, definitely. A far sight better than having to wipe those other physical machines so often to do such things.

One tip I'll offer:

Once you've settled in on a VM application (VirtualBox still gets my vote for the most efficient and least problematic, especially with v2.0 now available), grab some of your favorite OSes and install them then back up the VMs you create to some other media so you don't ever have to do that stuff again.

While it's pretty fast installing off the hard drive from an ISO, it's still a chore to need to do it again. I've got many VMs safely stashed so I can just copy 'em back to the hard drive if required.

Just a tip... from someone that's been messing with VMs since VMWare was just a few people with an idea and some alpha software... hehe
 
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