Building a Host PC to run 3 or 4 VM's

[mpeterschick]

I teach IT courses at a high school (PC Repair, Security, Networking, Servers, Linux). I have $48K to build 30 new student workstations


Approximate Purchase Date: as soon as parts are decided upon. 2 weeks

Budget Range: $1600 After Rebates; After Shipping

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Running Virtual Machines for learning various Windows OS's and Linux

Are you buying a monitor: Yes

Parts to Upgrade: Build from scratch

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: anywhere but newegg

Location: Santa Barbara, CA

Parts Preferences: by brand or type Intel CPU, Gigabyte MB

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: 1280x1024

Additional Comments: none

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Have options of using multiple OS's to learn test and network from.

 

[sadams04]

Install the OS and apps on the 256GB SSD, then split your VM across the other SSDs. You could probably get by with just one of the 128GB SSDs, but you have the budget...

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($317.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($30.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($107.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($122.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($62.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($62.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($104.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($57.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($50.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD/CD Writer ($15.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $935.88

 

[logainofhades]

A mini-itx solution, in the event that space is limited.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($317.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Seidon 120XL 86.2 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($84.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97N-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($128.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($137.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($104.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($104.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($104.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case ($40.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 450W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($73.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($13.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1113.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-15 14:55 EST-0500

 

[shortstuff_mt]

If you want to use up most of the budget then here's a very nice full system with plenty of RAM and fast SSD storage to run even more than 4 VMs if needed in the future.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($317.75 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($28.75 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H-BK ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($181.97 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($282.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($88.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($88.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($88.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($88.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($53.97 @ OutletPC)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($57.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 450W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($73.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($13.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Acer G226HQLBbd 60Hz 21.5" Monitor ($99.99 @ NCIX US)
Keyboard: Logitech K120 Wired Standard Keyboard ($6.99 @ NCIX US)
Mouse: Microsoft Optical Mouse 200 for Business Wired Optical Mouse ($6.99 @ Directron)
Total: $1571.26
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-15 15:02 EST-0500

 

[sunder25]

I would honestly invest in dual monitors/pc instead of 4 ssds, you do not need a physical hard drive for a virtual pc, they generally use something like a .vhd file for a hard drive.
I was running 4 virtual machines, 2 W Server 2008r2 and 2 windows 7's on an i5 laptop with 8 gigs of ram, no ssd.

What i did miss was multiple monitors. -cannot stress this enough.

Also, virtual box is user friendly and rather simple to use, it has the option of connecting any and all the Virtual pc's to the internet and/or an external network, adding them to a domain etc.
-lest I forget, Microsoft provides test Operating system keys that last for a few days and can be reset a few times, -Perfect for VM's
my two cents.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

That's a good recommendation. I run four VMs on my system with 16GB of RAM. I only run the host OS on an SSD. I added the extra SSDs because the budget allowed for it and the VMs would be screaming fast running on SSDs. One large SSD would accomplish the same thing. I guess it depends on how the OP wants to set the systems up. I went with a 1920 x 1080 resolution instead of the 1280x1024 stated in the OP since the extra screen space can come in handy and the 1280x1024 monitors that were in the price range that I was looking at weren't very high quality monitors. I also added a couple components from Newegg even though the OP stated he didn't want to purchase there. When I removed Newegg from the retailer list the price went over $1,600.

A multiple monitor setup for running VMs would be very nice...

 

[sadams04]

Temper your expectations on running multiple VMs on a single spindle drive. Traditional hard drives can handle two or three VMs before sequential reads / writes start to seriously impact performance. This is where SSDs will shine!

 

[shortstuff_mt]

Temper your expectations on running multiple VMs on a single spindle drive. Traditional hard drives can handle two or three VMs before sequential reads / writes start to seriously impact performance. This is where SSDs will shine!

That's very true! I have a lot of HDDs in my system and each VM is installed on a separate drive. When I experimented with running multiple VMs on a single HDD the system response time suffered. I guess that's one reason I went with four separate SSDs in my build suggestion. That setup would be amazing for running multiple VMs at the same time.