Best motherboard for Virtualization and Gaming

[James Bowler]

Hello all, my first post!!!

After reading lots of other threads I'm still confused as where to start.

I currently have my good old Dell Dimension E520, its upgraded to the MAX. 8GB RAM, Intel Quad Core Extreme 2.66Ghz, SAPPHIRE HD 7750 1GB GDDR5 LOW PROFILE. I've had this since about 2006.

Anyhow I'm finding that it is struggling when I do my networking labs with GNS3 and VMware. The ram gets used up and CPU is pegged 🙁

I normally game on the PS3 however would like to start on the PC so you could say this build is for work and play.

Another thing is when I have loads of network adapters running and RJ45's coming out of every possible orifice, it just freezes up until I have unplug everything.

I was looking at the Big Bang-XPower II board and what attracted me was the amount of PCI slots.

Any ideas?

Thanks

James

 

[AnEwG]

You don' need to go this high to get an improved virtualization performance over your current processor. An AMD 6/8 cores chip will be the best bang for the buck for a gaming+virtualization machine, the FX-8320 in particular would be the best AMD chip for the money for this purpose. The multi-threaded i7s are of course stronger but they are more expensive as well.

 

[sadams04]

I would second an AMD build for VMs. Keep in mind that hyperthreads in the i7 are not cores. For virtulization efforts, you basically have a quad core and a bonus of four hyperthreads IF the cores have low utilization. You will see this effect if you assign one core to a VM, then force it to be a hyperthread (processing thread 1, 3, 5 or 7).

If you want to post a budget with expected use and expectations, we can probably get some options together.

 

[James Bowler]

Thanks for the quick replies...

Expected use will be:
Multiple HDD or SSD's for the VM's
At anyone time I might have:
7 x WinXP's
3 x Ubuntu's
1 x Kaili or BT5 and
1 x Cisco ACS server.
Then this would be linked to about 10-15 virtual routers and 4-6 ASA Firewalls in GNS 3.

As my networking skills move on so will the labs so there needs to be room for growth.

Gaming wise.... better FPS/Graphics then new PS4? I want to eventually have 5x 24'' monitors.

Budget...hmmm (just looking over my shoulder, make sure the ''Mrs'' is not coming up the stairs)

No more than £1k

 

[James Bowler]

Also isnt Intel better than AMD? I always though AMD was cheap brand.......Ive probably just upset loads of people with that statement...however please note my expertise it in networking no computer hardware

 

[AnEwG]

Intel has the better single threaded performance and this is the way things have been since the early Intel core VS the first generation of Phenoms days but before that during the Athlon64 era AMD dominated the high end market and at the time Intel offered an affordable dual core chip, AMD used to charge premium for their dual cores. They also manufacture graphics cards by the way and their mid to high end cards are by no means cheap especially in the US because of Cryptomining. During the K6 and K7 era they were on par with Intel and offered a strong competition as well. Sorry for the rant now more to the point, when it comes to virtualization AMD processors albeit their weaker IPC happen to be great, you may be interested to check this out:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/366801-28-virtualization-8350-intel-core-3770k
GNS3 is heavily multithreaded so the number of cores (8 cores for the AMD FX-8320) is more important that the IPC (single threaded performance).
Also from what I read over the internet virtualization favors Real cores to hyperthreading.

 

[sadams04]

Also from what I read over the internet virtualization favors Real cores to hyperthreading.

Yep!

Another key part here will be your disk setup. SSDs would be the best, but not absolutely necessary. I tend to spread my VMs around over traditional hard drives (spindle drives) and limit to no more than three active machines at any given time on any single drive. More than three will have you waiting on reads / writes to the drive (sequential). What this does mean is that you can stack your machine with small(er) drives for less cost. Maybe go with four 250GB drives to spread the load...

 

[James Bowler]

Ok so i'm feeling the AMD's a little more now..... think I need to read up on this Hyper threading stuff

Do you recommend a board and CPU? Is £1K a realistic budget?

 

[AnEwG]

1K is probably more than enough. Do you need anything else beside the motherboard+CPU+RAM+ssds?

 

[James Bowler]

Yes so the shopping list is:
#Case
#Motherboard
#CPU
#RAM
#SSDs
#PSU (Maybe)

I can just reuse my graphics card for now (HD7750) if going over budget and I have a Seagate Momentus XT 750 GB 7200RPM.

Also got a CoolerMaster PSU 520W lol if thats too small then will need one of those too.

Just out of interest I have a Windows Score of 7.3 on everything except my HDD which says 5.9..... does this mean owt?

 

[AnEwG]

That is perfectly normal. I have a 7200 rpm seagate HDD and it has the same score (5.9). What is the exact model of your PSU?
Do you live in the U.S.?

 

[AnEwG]

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3gonL
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3gonL/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3gonL/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($159.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($124.79 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Dominator 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($209.99 @ Micro Center)
Storage: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($199.95 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($199.95 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Phantom (White) ATX Full Tower Case ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $994.65
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-25 18:14 EDT-0400)

 

[James Bowler]

I wish I lived in the US everything cost less!
I'm in the UK
The PSU is a M2 Silent Pro 520W

Thanks for the list, when I get home later I will do some hunting for UK prices

 

[AnEwG]

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3gonL
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3gonL/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3gonL/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor (£105.59 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£25.45 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£99.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Dominator 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£169.78 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£77.08 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£77.08 @ Amazon UK)
Case: NZXT Phantom (White) ATX Full Tower Case (£104.38 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £659.35
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-26 10:46 GMT+0000)

You can also add more memory and SSDs:
PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3gHlW
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3gHlW/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3gHlW/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor (£105.59 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£25.45 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£99.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£334.67 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£136.80 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£136.80 @ Amazon UK)
Case: NZXT Phantom (White) ATX Full Tower Case (£104.38 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £943.68
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-26 11:04 GMT+0000)

 

[Paul Hackenberger]

I wish I lived in the US everything cost less!
I'm in the UK
The PSU is a M2 Silent Pro 520W

Thanks for the list, when I get home later I will do some hunting for UK prices

not every thing there is one thing that you guys have over the US and that is cryptocurrency mining gear i have been trying to get some grid seed LTC miners for 3-4 months and still have not gotten any one that i trust to ship it to me.

 

[James Bowler]

@ Night Owl
Yeah Im going to build I mining rig at some point.... soon as i've been through Keith Barkers CBT Nuggets videos

@ AnEwG
First of all thanks for your time I appreciate the effort all you guys put in. I did price up all of the list you made on eBayUK and it came to £550

On this occasion I have decided to go with an Intel Core i7 3930K. I have read lots of good reviews about this processor for visualization. This just cost me £350 NEW from eBay.

Also just got two 256 Samsung 840Pros for £130 each

Now I have the processor and SSDs, I need a motherboard, RAM, CPU cooler and a case. Was thinking I want a case with a big window, I quite like the Cooler Master Storm Trooper because its big for future mods and looks insane! or the Corsair Obsidian 750D which is also a very nice looking case.

I spotted some RAM on ebay Corsair Dominator Platinum Link 2x8GB, then once I have a bit more money lol....will get another 2x8GB... I read somewhere that a block of four is better than two??? some sort of 4 way setup?!?

Is this RAM OK? I suppose it depends on what board I get? Again I have no idea.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Corsair-Dominator-Platinum-Link-16GB-PC3-19200-2400MHz-Memory-CMD16GX3M2A2400C10-/131068028746?pt=UK_Computing_ComputerComponents_MemoryRAM_JN&hash=item1e8443674a

As for the water cooler I thought maybe a Corsair H100i which is actually only a few £ pounds more than the H80i.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Corsair-H100i-Hydro-Series-CPU-Water-Cooler-with-240mm-Radiator-fans-S115x-201-/131151941263?pt=UK_Computing_Water_Cooling&hash=item1e8943ce8f

Motherboard is a funny one... there so many options I get lost in all the tech.

At some point I would like to have two high end graphics cards....Also would like to have more space for two 4 port Gigabit NICs.
And I think its a good idea to have 8 slots for the RAM so in the far far future I can max out the CPU with 64GB Ram (8x8GB)

Hope that's enough info, thanks