Best low budget CPU and MB for VMware Workstation Pro

[routebee.au]

Hi

I want to build a machine to run abandoned Microsoft Operating Systems ranging from MS-DOS right through to Windows XP as virtual machines and set up a repository of abandoned software for them at www.microsoftmuseum.com. I have been out of ICT for a long time, the last machine I built was a Windows 95 Pentium 233 with a Voodoo 2 8MB Graphics Card, 128MB of RAM and a 4GB HDD so I have a lot of reading to do. I need a leg up; what processor and mainboard technology is there that is related to running virtual machines and what processor and mainboard bundle can you recommend for the job at between AUD $500 and $750 (USD $350 and $500)?

Thanks in advance.

 

[asoroka]

What host OS are you planning on using? ESXi? or are you thinking VMPlayer on top of windows or Linux?

You will need as many cores as you can and as much memory as you can afford.

What about storage?

What components need to be covered by your budget? If you need case, PSU, disk, Keyboard, monitor etc then you will struggle.

Are you looking for a new build or second hand?

 

[routebee.au]

What host OS are you planning on using? ESXi? or are you thinking VMPlayer on top of windows or Linux?

I want to be able to host MS-DOS under Windows 10 and as I understand it Player doesn't support DOS as a guest OS so I was thinking Workstation Pro. Workstation does still load under Windows doesn't it?

What about storage?

I'm thinking a 128GB SSD and a 1TB HDD.

What components need to be covered by your budget? If you need case, PSU, disk, Keyboard, monitor etc then you will struggle.

I'm thinking new for AUD $1,500 to $2,000 for just the tower (USD $1,000 to $1,400), $500 to $750 for the processor and MB together with a cheap ass GPU and another $600 for the software.

The Virtual machines are going to be quite small, XP wasn't a massive resource hog and DOS is tiny by today's standards so I was hoping to get away with 16GB of RAM. The most expensive processor I could afford would be an i7 8700K but I'd like to save a little money and go for a 4 core AMD. The last time I took an interest in IT was about 2010, the i5 and the i7 had just come out and AMD processors didn't support VMware so I have to find out what has changed. I need to know about virtualisation technologies on processors and mainboards and select my combo accordingly.

 

[asoroka]

I would recommend something similar to my RIG.

Based around AMD R5 2600, 32GBRAM, NVidia 1050Ti, 512SSD plus 2TB hdd.

OS is Win10 and Virtualization is VMware Workstation Pro.

I also have another machine running ESXi for server virtualisation (no GUI) but doesn't sound like you need it.

I find good prices here
https://www.umart.com.au/

 

[routebee.au]

I want to work out minimum specs so I think I'll start with i5 7600 Quad Core with 16GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD and graphics on the MB, I'll see how that runs then sell it on Gum Tree and upgrade.

IF ANYBODY KNOWS OF ANY RESOURCES ABOUT HARDWARE VIRTUALISATION TECHNOLOGY AND HOW IT ALL STARTED BACK IN THE NAUGHTIES WITH THE Xeon, THE i5 AND THE i7 PLEASE LINK THEM HERE.

 

[asoroka]

I would suggest that you also get at least a 2TB hdd.

You will not have much room for many VMs with only 120GB

 

[Peter Martin]

Vmplayer runs great on my a6 with 8gb ram and ssd

 

[failboat]

8100 or 8400 8G ram.

 

[routebee.au]

Just learned about hyper threading. Has to be a hyper threading CPU.

 

[dudeman509]

Just learned about hyper threading. Has to be a hyper threading CPU.

The only 8th gens with hyperthreading enabled will be found in the i7 range.

However, 4C or 6C like the i3/i5 8th gen processors will juggle multiple VMs fairly well. A 2C/4T processor like older i3's will not.

 

[failboat]

Just learned about hyper threading. Has to be a hyper threading CPU.

compare passmark not cores/threads, Ghz as a decent guestimate. cores/threads ghz can be fairly misleading, on the same platform and gen it's comparable.

security flaws in ht and maybe a little in smt are bringing updates that kill off the performance they add. on the 4+ core count it's only adding 20%ish performance. on the 2/4C it's a nice jump. not sure what causes the variance.