Building Advice: ESXi WhiteBox and Hackintosh

[timswim78]

I have built dozens of machines over the last decade, and I am looking at going back to school for an IT degree. I will want a machine to run ESXi, and I want to play around with Hackintosh. (I already own an iMac, so the OS X will be strictly for playing around).

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
- ESXi white box to host multiple VM's, about 2-3 VM's running at any time. Windows Server, Windows 7, Various flavors of Linux.
- Hackintosh. Would prefer Intel for ease of installation.

2. What YOUR budget is.
- $300 to $500
I already have a good case, power supply, optical drives, keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc. for this project.

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
- USA

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
- I like both Intel and AMD
- I do not like Seagate drives.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
- case, power supply, optical drives, keyboard, mouse, and monitor

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
- Yes, but did not find any threads with ESXi and HAckintosh.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
- No plans to overclock.

8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with.
- No plans to game.

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
- 1 week to 3 months.

10. Don't ask for a build configuration critique or rating if you are thin skinned.
- OK.

 

[Davidh373]

AMD Phenom II X4 - $139.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-809-_-Product

ASRock AM3 - $84.99 + $4.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-197-_-Product

GSkill 8GB DDR3 1333 - $189.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-311-_-Product

Samsung Spinpoint F4 320GB - $42.99 + $7.28
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152244

Total: $470


I'm not experienced with ESXi, but from my limited research it doesn't look overly intense on it's own.

EDIT: Hackintosh has been able to run on AMD for some time, but I would guess it is easier to run on Intel.

 

[mfenn]

Are you wanting to run OS X in a VM or just swap hard drives or whatever to run them on the same machine?

I would say that the most important thing is getting a board that will play nice with OS X, which probably means Intel. ESXi can be slightly annoying with its requirements, but as long as you have a CPU with VT-x and 64-bit support and an Intel NIC, you should be fine.

 

[timswim78]

Are you wanting to run OS X in a VM or just swap hard drives or whatever to run them on the same machine?

I would say that the most important thing is getting a board that will play nice with OS X, which probably means Intel. ESXi can be slightly annoying with its requirements, but as long as you have a CPU with VT-x and 64-bit support and an Intel NIC, you should be fine.

I want to swap drives. I do not have an interest in running OS X in a VM.

 

[Sp12]

I successfully ran OSX on my sig rig (before vidcard upgrade). Intel has announced the new macs will have 5000 series cards though.

I would be looking at an Intel build, honestly vanilla kernal is a big advantage over AMD.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

OP, here's the HCL for ESXi. As mfenn said, you should be fine with pretty standard components and an Intel NIC, but the link below will give you more details:

http://www.vm-help.com/esx40i/esx40_whitebox_HCL.php

 

[mfenn]

Gigabyte boards seem to be the best supported by OS X for whatever reason, so I would go with one of those. It looks like you need a mobo, RAM, CPU, HDD, and (probably) NIC.

GA-H55M-S2H $90 - the IGP should work with the vanilla OS X kernel and also be fine for the limited graphics support that ESXi needs.
Core i3 540 $115 - you're not running too many VMs, and this has the IGP that you'll need
G.Skill DDR3 1333 4GB $100 - single 4GB stick, you lose dual-channel mode but get the ability to go to 8GB later.
Samsung F3 500GB $55x2 = $110 - for swapping drives
Intel PRO/1000 GT NIC $30 - ESXi support
Total: $445

 

[timswim78]

Thanks for the hardware advice. I may give it a whirl.

Other than the NIC, my Dell laptop has similar specs. Maybe I'll give ESXi a test on it, just for giggles.

Gigabyte boards seem to be the best supported by OS X for whatever reason, so I would go with one of those. It looks like you need a mobo, RAM, CPU, HDD, and (probably) NIC.

GA-H55M-S2H $90 - the IGP should work with the vanilla OS X kernel and also be fine for the limited graphics support that ESXi needs.
Core i3 540 $115 - you're not running too many VMs, and this has the IGP that you'll need
G.Skill DDR3 1333 4GB $100 - single 4GB stick, you lose dual-channel mode but get the ability to go to 8GB later.
Samsung F3 500GB $55x2 = $110 - for swapping drives
Intel PRO/1000 GT NIC $30 - ESXi support
Total: $445