All purpose/virtualization/gaming build

A

antirush

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 1, 2004
Messages
344
I'm finally going to bite the bullet and build a new desktop - I've been running laptop only for too long.
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Some gaming, definitely running (several) virtualbox vms, and your basic web usage
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Definitely < $1000 and I'd really like it to be less than that $750 before taxes/shipping
would be great
3) Where do you live?
Cincinnati, OH 45207
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
I need everything except mouse/keyboard/monitor
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
I'll be keeping my current mouse/keyboard. I'll also be adding a few existing sata harddrives
6) Will you be overclocking?
No
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
This will be driving a 25.5" 1920x1200 HP display as well as a 19" 1280x1024 Viewsonic
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
2 - 3 weeks
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
The biggest thing will be lots of sata ports - I have a lot of harddrives
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
Yes, the computer will be running Debian Linux

As I'll be running Linux as my host operating system it's important that all components behave well and have available drivers.
I will be adding some harddrives I already have but I also definitely want a fast main drive as well.
I need a wireless card.

Thanks very much for your input - I've been out of the loop for a while.
 
ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO AM3 AMD 785G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $100

AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor Model HDX945FBGIBOX - Retail $170

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL8D-4GBHK - Retail $75

XFX HD-487A-ZHFC Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail $150

COOLER MASTER RS-600-AMBA-D3 600W ATX12V V2.3 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Retail and COOLER MASTER Storm Scout SGC-2000-KKN1-GP Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail $170

Total before S&H $665

DDR2 prices just keep going up and not likely to be cheaper than DDR3 for much longer.

Linux :confused: I am not sure. hardwareguru should be more helpful than I am.
 
Out of curiosity, which HDDs do you have? (model numbers)

lt shiro's build is good. Though, how are ATI's linux drivers these days? ... something you might want to look into.
 
You will definitely want more then 4GB of ram. I'm currently running into slow down issues running VMs with my current setup.
 
I would not recommend an AMD chipset or video card based machine for full-time Linux use, especially with VirtualBox (which IMO is quite unstable to begin with). The drivers on Linux are just not nearly as stable as the Intel ones, and with VirtualBox in particular I've heard reports of serious issues (hard locks, reboots etc.) on otherwise good hardware. As much as I prefer the AMD/ATI gear from a price/performance perspective, I've just had a lot more issues with it, particularly on Linux/BSD. And ATI's video drivers for Linux still suck feature wise, you might have difficulty getting your dual monitor setup to work properly.
 
lt_shiro said:
how many are you running? and what hard drives. - soulesschild
Click to expand...

I'm running anywhere from 1-4 VMs at a time. Windows 2k3, 2x Windows 2k8, Ubuntu 9.4, WinXP

When I have 2-3 VMs open, I can't do anything effectively in the base OS, with 4, one of the VMs has to basically be idle

I have a 640GB Caviar Black as the main drive that I run the VMs off of as well. I would really love to move to SSD but it's still too expensive :(

I have a few other HDDs here and there of various sizes but I plan to consolidate to just 1 or 2 1-1.5TB HDDs.

Also, VirtualBox is very stable for me in Vista x64 as the base OS.
 
I use WD 320 GB to host the VMs for 2 servers 2k3 and 3 win xp with the specs in my sig.

May be you should repartition your 640 GB.
 
lt_shiro said:
I use WD 320 GB to host the VMs for 2 servers 2k3 and 3 win xp with the specs in my sig.

May be you should repartition your 640 GB.
Click to expand...

Are you fully loading them? I see my limitation as more of a RAM issue because I see my free memory dropping like crazy and then it makes working in the base OS a PITA. I'd be really surprised your machine can handle 5 VMs under load + the base OS.
 
soulesschild said:
I'm running anywhere from 1-4 VMs at a time. Windows 2k3, 2x Windows 2k8, Ubuntu 9.4, WinXP

When I have 2-3 VMs open, I can't do anything effectively in the base OS, with 4, one of the VMs has to basically be idle

I have a 640GB Caviar Black as the main drive that I run the VMs off of as well. I would really love to move to SSD but it's still too expensive :(

I have a few other HDDs here and there of various sizes but I plan to consolidate to just 1 or 2 1-1.5TB HDDs.

Also, VirtualBox is very stable for me in Vista x64 as the base OS.
Click to expand...

Well it all depends on how much you allocate to the VM's. I have 4GB of system RAM and run 5 VM's at once without issues. I give the 4 Fedora VM's each 128MB of RAM and XP VM 256MB. They all perform admirably and my system has plenty of RAM to spare.
 
That is true. It's mainly when I run the 2k8 servers each with 512 + any combo of either winXP or the win 2k3 (each have 512 as well)

The reason why the win 2k3 server and the winxp have 512 each is to simulate our production environment (I know 512 mb on winXP isn't realistic but it's because the worst machine in our company is a winXP with 512)
 
enginurd said:
Out of curiosity, which HDDs do you have? (model numbers)

lt shiro's build is good. Though, how are ATI's linux drivers these days? ... something you might want to look into.
Click to expand...
I have 4 Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 200gb drives: http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...0000f5ee0a0aRCRD&locale=en-US&reqPage=Legacy#
They are currently holding FLAC versions of my cd collection but I figure I can spread the virtual disks between them to keep things speedy. They're not that fast but I think they'll do the job.

soulesschild said:
You will definitely want more then 4GB of ram. I'm currently running into slow down issues running VMs with my current setup.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I think you're right about that - I was planning on >= 8.

keenan said:
I would not recommend an AMD chipset or video card based machine for full-time Linux use, especially with VirtualBox (which IMO is quite unstable to begin with). The drivers on Linux are just not nearly as stable as the Intel ones, and with VirtualBox in particular I've heard reports of serious issues (hard locks, reboots etc.) on otherwise good hardware. As much as I prefer the AMD/ATI gear from a price/performance perspective, I've just had a lot more issues with it, particularly on Linux/BSD. And ATI's video drivers for Linux still suck feature wise, you might have difficulty getting your dual monitor setup to work properly.
Click to expand...
I've been looking into the ATI graphics drivers for Linux - they certainly aren't great. I'm researching drivers for AMD chipsets right now - I hope it's not a deal breaker as Intel just seems to be much more expensive. Does anyone have first-hand experience with this?

Thanks everyone for the replies. You've given me a place to start researching and I'm looking forward to more replies.
 
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