AMD or Intel when using ESXi

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KapsZ28

2[H]4U
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May 29, 2009
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What do you think would be better for non critical apps? Just looking to virtualize a lab. The Intel CPUs seem so damn expensive. Just spec'ing out a server and it is already over $4k.

By the way, you can run a domain controller in a virtualized environment, right?
 
just built mine and the x3440 xeon isnt a bad price at all
and yes you can run a DC in a VM just make sure its backed up if its a live environment :)
 
Putz said:
just built mine and the x3440 xeon isnt a bad price at all
and yes you can run a DC in a VM just make sure its backed up if its a live environment :)
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What kind of hardware did you go with if you don't mind me asking?
 
KapsZ28 said:
What kind of hardware did you go with if you don't mind me asking?
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The build I have here except for the Raid Controller and RE3 drives and choice of case, PSU etc.. seems to be the most popular build right now: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1583156

The main compnents are:

SUPERMICRO X8SIL
Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Server Memory
Intel Xeon X3440 Lynnfield 2.53GHz

You can make it cheaper with the Xeon X3430 and different sticks of that RAM.

Also I beleive that right now Intel is the only one that support passthrough?
 
AMD_Gamer said:
The build I have here except for the Raid Controller and RE3 drives and choice of case, PSU etc.. seems to be the most popular build right now: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1583156

The main compnents are:

SUPERMICRO X8SIL
Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Server Memory
Intel Xeon X3440 Lynnfield 2.53GHz

You can make it cheaper with the Xeon X3430 and different sticks of that RAM.

Also I beleive that right now Intel is the only one that support passthrough?
Click to expand...

That is more or less what I already have. Xeon quad core with 8GB of ram as my ESXi server. My other server which is not virtualized has a quad core i7 with hyperthreading and 12GB of ram. That was originally a gaming rig.

I was more looking along the lines of something with dual CPUs and 24GB of ram.
 
KapsZ28 said:
That is more or less what I already have. Xeon quad core with 8GB of ram as my ESXi server. My other server which is not virtualized has a quad core i7 with hyperthreading and 12GB of ram. That was originally a gaming rig.

I was more looking along the lines of something with dual CPUs and 24GB of ram.
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You said you are wanting to build a lab? what exactly are you doing?
 
AMD_Gamer said:
You said you are wanting to build a lab? what exactly are you doing?
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I already have a lab, I just want to expand on it. I want to be able to run serveral instances of Server 2003, Server 2008, and more. But I don't want anymore boxes. So I would prefer to build something that can handle quite a few VMs.
 
memory is more important than dual cpu unless your talking like a dozen vms.. at least from what i read so i went with a single cpu and lots of ram since its a lab will be 1 or 2 users but lots of vms running but they wont be doing alot

i went with an x3440 x8sil 32gb ram, ssd to boot and a raid 10 array for 2tb drives on an lsi controller for the vms

still waiting on the drives to show up and ram using 2gb right now just to set things up
 
Well, yes it will be at least 10 VMs including multiple 2008 servers running Exchange 2010, SQL, BES, etc. Although, VMWare does do a pretty good job allocating the CPU.

My problem with the 1156 socket is that you can only get one per board. I already have a system with an Intel i7-920 overclocked to 3.6GHz. So I wouldn't really be gaining much by switching to a X3440 other than additional virtualization technologies.
 
In doing some research on this it's kind of a wash either way. The best thing you will want to do is find a proc family and stick with it. We have AMD procs now and have had no issues when them. They do a good job for the money.
 
I doubt that you will need a dual CPU system for a home lab, save the money and pickup better storage and RAM first. Lynnfeilds are great for Home labs, and hell even most production systems.

I would stick with Intel... We do here. When the new AMD G34 platform launched a wile ago we had samples a few weeks before the official launch, and they preformed a fair bit worse than the Intels... (to give you an idea of the system, dual 6172's (24 physical Cores), 96GB RAM, all backed onto an LSI Sas2 SAN. We also had an 8 core machine as well later (diffrent motherboard) with the same issue.

We normally dont run anything AMD in the feild, but we decided to give this stuff a shot (why not iw was all free), but we wont be rolling any out or reccomending it to anyone. that 24 core 2U is now collecting dust under my desk, makes a mighty fine footrest though.

just my 0.02. YMMV, also my comments do not express the views of the company that I work for, yadda yadda.
 
It is also about the future. With a 1156 socket, I am pretty much stuck. At least going with the 1366, I will always have the option to add a second CPU if necessary.

It is not only a home lab, it is used for all my PCs, media, email, and my business.

Here is what I would have running at the very least.

Domain Controller
Exchange 2003 / 2007 / 2010
Citrix XenApp / Access Gateway / XenDesktop
BES
SharePoint 2010
SQL 2008
Lync Server
Windows XP Professional
Windows 7 Enterprise

Possibly Forefront and anything else I may want to test. Everything will always be running and I don't want it to impact my streaming media of course. :)
 
That is kind of what I was thinking. As far as cost per cores, the AMDs are much cheaper.
 
Kaps,

I'm using a dual AMD C32 4180 system for VMware - board + CPU's were under $700. It runs in a standard ATX case. 12 Cores + as much RAM as you can throw at it makes for a great lab server.

H.
 
hspeirs said:
Kaps,

I'm using a dual AMD C32 4180 system for VMware - board + CPU's were under $700. It runs in a standard ATX case. 12 Cores + as much RAM as you can throw at it makes for a great lab server.

H.
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What motherboard, memory and RAID card are you using with that?
 
KapsZ28 said:
By the way, you can run a domain controller in a virtualized environment, right?
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Not sure if anyone answered this but yes you can. ESX does seem to have a cow for 15 minutes or so if it can't find its registered DNS server if you boot it up and your DC isn't set to auto boot (I'm sure there is a way around this, I have never bothered to find out!) Unless its changed things like snapshots aren't supported (probably not an issue with a single domain controller in a single forest / domain I guess). Choose and fix your time sync if possible.
 
KapsZ28 said:
Well, yes it will be at least 10 VMs including multiple 2008 servers running Exchange 2010, SQL, BES, etc. Although, VMWare does do a pretty good job allocating the CPU.

My problem with the 1156 socket is that you can only get one per board. I already have a system with an Intel i7-920 overclocked to 3.6GHz. So I wouldn't really be gaining much by switching to a X3440 other than additional virtualization technologies.
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You've got 4 cores spread amongst 10 or so VMs, that should be fine depending on what you're going to do. In the majority of cases, it's the memory that keeps you from stuffing more VMs into an ESX/ESXi host, not CPU. Especially in a lab environment. I wouldn't worry too much about dual CPUs.

The i7s are nice because you can get motherboards that support 6 DIMM slots, so you can go to 24 GB relatively cheap.
 
tonyb said:
You've got 4 cores spread amongst 10 or so VMs, that should be fine depending on what you're going to do. In the majority of cases, it's the memory that keeps you from stuffing more VMs into an ESX/ESXi host, not CPU. Especially in a lab environment. I wouldn't worry too much about dual CPUs.

The i7s are nice because you can get motherboards that support 6 DIMM slots, so you can go to 24 GB relatively cheap.
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Well, it is partially a lab environment. Some will be used quite frequently including Windows 7 and XenDesktop.

But I may go with something like this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.590197

x2 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139268

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115063

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115064

I already have hard drives, case, and PSU I can use. The RAID card supports SAS for a future upgrade, and I get 8 threads from the CPU.

Unless someone can suggest something better?
 
Word of advice, first thing you should do is upgrade the firmware on that RAID card. I have the same one and needed the latest BIOS for the ESX driver to see multiple arrays.

It will save you a day of tweaking, Initializing 3 2TB Arrays takes about 2 days.

-ItsTooHot
 
Looks fantastic.
I have a 3GHz quad core and the CPU utilization barely gets over 25%. I'm not doing anything processor heavy though. Its just a lab server.

Memory utilization is up there though. 80% with 9 WMs running. 6 of which are Windows based. Definitely good choice on going the 24GB RAM route. I have 16GB and it is holding me back from running more VMs at once.

-ItsTooHot
 
Intel i series or SB since both has a much higher IPC ( > 20% better clock for clock) than any AM3 processor. For me the biggest problem is disk performance reduction that comes with virtulization. Only if I could afford an array of SSDs.
 
drescherjm said:
Intel i series or SB since both has a much higher IPC ( > 20% better clock for clock) than any AM3 processor. For me the biggest problem is disk performance reduction that comes with virtulization. Only if I could afford an array of SSDs.
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I am seriously considering some SSDs to host the VM's with mechanical drives for backup and storage.
 
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