Can the Core i5-2520m run 4 virtual machines

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Jul 4, 2016
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I was looking to buy a used laptop with an Intel Core i5-2520m, 8GB Memory, 250GB 7200rpm HDD for college. I will be running about 4 virtual machines simultaneously-Windows 10, Kali Linux, Security Onion and Metasploitable. All on a host operating system (Windows 10)
Please let me know if this Core i5-2520m can handle all 4 VMs easily. Thank you so much. Also, any suggestions will be well appreciated.
Thanks again.
 
Solution
Hlsgsz
Lord_Sunday123 explained pretty well why teh Pentium would be better. It has 4 physycal cores, not two cores doing two things at a tiem each.
As for "...but you will not be able to assign complete control on any of the system's component to any VM" this is something called VT-d, which the i5 has but the Pentium lacks. that is, teh ability to assign complete control of a resource asif it was connected physycally to the virtual machine. For example, you could have a GPU in a system and assign it to a VM in order to play games at full potentioal. The VM would take complete and exclusive control over the GPU and there would be no virtualization overhead slowing the gaming down.


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16 will work.
I have 16GB, and with 2 VM's running (Ubuntu and LinuxMint), Win 10 Pro host, it is currently sitting at 8.5GB used.
2GB allocated for each VM.
 
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USAFret. Thanks for your response. I really appreciate it. Also, what CPU are you running? Does the CPU really matter? Because I have a Pentium n3520 and I was wondering if it could do the same. Thanks again.
 
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i5-3570k

That pentium might, but performance will be lacking.
 
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USAFRet, I looked up the pentium n3520 vs the Core i5-2520m
The n3520 has 4 Cores and 4 threads - 2.16 Base 2.42 Max GHZ
http://ark.intel.com/products/79049/Intel-Pentium-Processor-N3520-2M-Cache-up-to-2_42-GHz
The 2520m has 2 Cores 4 Threads- 2.5 Base 3.2 Max GHZ
http://ark.intel.com/products/52229/Intel-Core-i5-2520M-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-3_20-GHz

Could you please explain the difference between two?
Also what does Hyperthreading really mean?
 
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Parity check server memory. Ensures stability in complex environments, but i was off-topic as the CPUs you specified do not support that.

The Pentium you mentioned is a true quad-core, supports virtualization and will be able to handle that but you will not be able to assign complete control on any of the system's component to any VM. You probably don;t need to, but just saying.

EDIT: As a matter of fact, the Pentium should to better than the i5.
 
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ECC is Error Correcting Code or something like that. Basically, it's in the title, but it helps keep the data in the memory error free, so that it doesn't mess up your system.

As far as running four virtual machines, yes, technically on paper an i5-2520 could run 4 VMs, but the memory will be slim for the pickings if all four VMs run at the same time. If you can, upgrade to the 16Gb, and the hard drive space will be slim as well, as you're looking at 70 to 100 gigabytes used at minimum for the space used just for the operating systems. Could you get away with using less space? Probably. Should you? Not if you want space to store things.
 
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Really? That is surprising. Please why would the Penitum do better than the i5 in this case, aside from the explanation you gave above about true quad core and virtualization support?
Also, could you please explain what you mean by "...but you will not be able to assign complete control on any of the system's component to any VM"?

Thanks so much for your responses. I am learning a lot as I am a newbie.
 
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Pcxnqh9.png


This is a quick thing I made in paint that explains Hyperthreading a bit. In general, choose a dedicated 4 core over a dual core with 4 threads.

As far as the Pentium being better, it's a quad core, not a hyperthreaded dual core, and I believe it's a newer chip, meaning it'll probably process more data faster. I believe the Pentium is a desktop chip as well, not a mobile chip. Mobile chips are generally more limited because they need to consume less power.

Hope this helps.

EDIT: By in general, I mean obviously there are a few exception. Don't go with a quad core from 2009 when there is a recent hyperthreaded dual core. Just use a little logic there and you'll be fine!
 
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As mentioned, 8 GB isn't going to cut it. Go with 16 GB.

I've never been happy with VMs on dual core processors. They can run it, but if you need all of them to be responsive simultaneously, you're going to be disappointed. Hyperthreading doesn't really help, as the CPU has to be doing different operations simultaneously for hyperthreading to really be effective. For basic OS stuff, each VM is mostly doing the same operations so the dual core CPU acts like 2 cores even if it has hyperthreading.

I *really* don't like running VMs off of HDDs. They're fine when you first install them or if you give them direct access to the drive. But that gives up one of the best features of VMs - snapshots of virtual drives. Once you build up a short history in the VM with a couple snapshots, the HDDs starts to become unbearably slow. If you plan to use snapshots, I highly, highly recommend putting the VMs on a SSD.

ECC is good to have, but it requires a processor (mainly Xeon, Celeron, Pentium, some of the newer i3s) and motherboard which supports it. For desktop app use, I would like to have it, but it's easier just to build a system without it. I keep files on a file server with ECC and ZFS (which checks every month for file corruption), and keep an external backup. So I can live with the occasional blue screen due to not having ECC RAM.
http://ark.intel.com/search/advanced?ECCMemory=true&MarketSegment=DT
 
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Lord_Sunday123. The illustration was excellent. I now understand the difference between dual cores with hyperthreading and true quad cores.
However the Pentium n3520 is a mobile processor or a System-On-Chip and has a TDP of 7.5 Watts. Please is that a limiting factor in comparison with a desktop version of the Pentium n3520 http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Pentium/Intel-Pentium%20N3520.html which is a Pentium J2900 http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Pentium/Intel-Pentium%20J2900.html?

I understood your logic-The more recent the CPU, the better.
Thanks so much for investing time to respond to my questions. God bless.
 
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Lord_Sunday123 explained pretty well why teh Pentium would be better. It has 4 physycal cores, not two cores doing two things at a tiem each.
As for "...but you will not be able to assign complete control on any of the system's component to any VM" this is something called VT-d, which the i5 has but the Pentium lacks. that is, teh ability to assign complete control of a resource asif it was connected physycally to the virtual machine. For example, you could have a GPU in a system and assign it to a VM in order to play games at full potentioal. The VM would take complete and exclusive control over the GPU and there would be no virtualization overhead slowing the gaming down.


 
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Solution


Thanks so much for your explanation of VT-d, I will now understand whenever I see it.
 
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