Cheapest 64bit build to study Microsoft certifications

[ozmusafir]

Hello community,

I am planning to study Microsoft certifications in the upcoming months therefore searching for the cheapest possible 64bit build with plenty of RAM and a reasonable processor. The machine will only be used as a virtual machine to run windows server 2012. I am not looking to build a up-to-date machine as my current PC although is out-of-date, but does the required day-to-day task.

Any help will be appreciated.

Regards

 

[GhislainG]

How much is plenty of RAM? 16GB or more? Will you run Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V?

 

[ozmusafir]

I will be running server 2012 using VMware Workstation. VMware Workstation is capable of running multiple virtual machines, the idea is to setup a domain controller, hosts, file server etc using VMware. I believe 8GB should be plenty, however I prefer a motherboard which can support upto 16GB of RAM

 

[GhislainG]

What host OS? Windows 8? What VMs will you run and how many? I've given up running several VMs on an 8GB system as it was too slow (VMs swapping to disk), but 16GB is fine for your requirements. Unless you select a really weak processor, the bottleneck will most likely be the hard disk. Using SSDs or multiple hard disks alleviates that problem.

 

[USAFRet]

If you're going to be running more than one VM, I'd suggest starting with 16GB ram.

4GB for the host + 4GB for Server2012 eats up all the 8GB, leaving nothing for another VM. You might want to have something as a client (Win7) to the server, and you'd be mostly out of resources.

 

[ozmusafir]

- The host operating system would be windows 7.
- I will running a total of 3 VMs


right I understand 16 GB is acceptable to run as intended.
Can anymore suggest a motherboard/CPU which is efficient for the task.
I prefer amd as suppose to Intel due to the cost factor.

 

[GhislainG]

- The host operating system would be windows 7.
- I will running a total of 3 VMs


right I understand 16 GB is acceptable to run as intended.
Can anymore suggest a motherboard/CPU which is efficient for the task.
I prefer amd as suppose to Intel due to the cost factor.

You may be fine with 8GB if you allocate 2GB per VM. If performance isn't that important, then an Intel Pentium G2020 and a ASRock H77M motherboard (only 2 memory slots) would be fine. You'll need a cheap case, a decent PSU like the Corsair CX430, 8GB or 16GB of memory and at least one hard disk. A DVD may also be useful.

 

[ozmusafir]

Would a dual-core be efficient without lagging or do I need a quad-core (AMD)?

 

[GhislainG]

Would a dual-core be efficient without lagging or do I need a quad-core (AMD)?

The bottleneck will be the hard disk because AD can run on a low power system. What do you mean by lagging? What else will you be using the server for? If you want great performance (specify for what?), then I can suggest a server that will be very fast and expensive.