Old CPU's vs New cpu's virtualization

[zazzn]

Hi,

I've been looking into making a new server to replace my old EH490 windows home server.

I was planning on making a whitebox sever, and was considering waiting for Devils Canyon, but I have a feeling there is no point because it probably won't be much of an upgrade over my 2600k @ 4.9 GHZ.

This had me thinking of purchasing someone's old 2600k system off craigslist for a few hundred and overclocking, stuffing 32/64 GB of ram in the system and calling it a day. I know the 2600k doesn't support VT-D but I figured the extra performance from the overclock would make up that difference easily.

My question is, is VT-D really needed? The intended use for the server will be

WHS Backup
Asterisk PBX
XBMC/PVR/PLEX server with max 3 streams (usually just 1)
Work client/server test vms which will run from time to time.

The only place I could see VT-D helping is when the server is acting as the HTPC. I do have 4k TV, but there is no content so I don't care about that right now.

Any suggestions would really be appreciated.


The other options I was considering was a white box AMD 8 core, but since hey are so much slower than the Intel counterparts, I pretty much disbanded that idea.

 

[Recycled]

VT-D is not used except when running a virtual machine.

I do not see any virtual machines listed in what You plan to run.

So You do not need VT-D.

OTOH, if You did want to run (for example) 64 bit Linux in VirtualBox, You would be screwed.

 

[zazzn]

Thanks for the reply, it was supposed to be a virtual server running ESXi. In the end i settled on a ivy bridge xenon that I picked up second hand for dirt cheap with a motherboard and 32gb of ram. 400$ for all of it was a steal to me.... The only shitty thing about ESXi is it's limited ability to handle local storage. I think i may move away from that and run hyper V for the ability to pool the dives and data using storage spaces.