Laptop for running VMs

[lubuda]

hi there!!

Need your help/suggestions in shortlisting a laptop.

The laptop will be used by me and my younger brother. We are on a very tight budget (around 600-650USD).

Purpose:

learn networking (run GNS3 on VMs) for cisco CCNA certification.
MCTS certification - run virtual machines - red hat linux/windows servers/windows clients/domain controllers
little bit of programming - web development/PHP/MySQL
Run some analytics software like R/SAS/SPSS
No gaming on the system

We are planning to connect the laptop to an external monitor to go through the training videos on one screen and learn/work on the other.

We have zeroed in on the following laptop:

http://www.flipkart.com/lenovo-esse...NWAM&ref=7f6ae9e1-fa3f-4299-bae4-e67cabfee086

Would this be a good buy?

or should we buy an intel based laptop like the one below and upgrade the RAM to 8GB

http://www.ebay.in/itm/Asus-K55A-La...48482664?pt=IN_PC_Laptops&hash=item3cd39f7d68

 

[Gillbot]

Get as many cores and as much ram as you can afford.

 

[lubuda]

^^Thank you Gillbot,

So in that case the AMD solution would fit us better as the laptop can support upto 16GB RAM?

 

[Gillbot]

My Intel is running an i5 with 16gb ram and it does very well as long as I don't have too many VM's open. I plan on upgrading from the i5 (dual core) to an i7 (Quad Core) so I can have more running at once.

 

[easp]

I'd put RAM ahead of core count (or performance). Find a machine that you can stick 16GB of RAM in and then work from there.

 

[Gillbot]

I'd put RAM ahead of core count (or performance). Find a machine that you can stick 16GB of RAM in and then work from there.

I agree, but it depends on how many machines you plan on running simultaneously. If you need to run multiple machines, you can't do that very well on a single core machine.

 

[imagoon]

I agree, but it depends on how many machines you plan on running simultaneously. If you need to run multiple machines, you can't do that very well on a single core machine.

Actually that is point of VM's... It heavily depends on what you are running but in many cases RAM > CPU cores until you hit a certain VM density. We are sitting at a density of 15:1 for VM:Host and CPU is generally not the issue.

 

[lubuda]

Thank you all for the inputs.

I guess I will stick with the AMD laptop which supports 16GB RAM

"Lenovo Essential G505s (59-379862) Laptop (APU Quad Core A8/ 8GB/ 1TB/ DOS/ 2.5GB Graph)"

 

[Gillbot]

Actually that is point of VM's... It heavily depends on what you are running but in many cases RAM > CPU cores until you hit a certain VM density. We are sitting at a density of 15:1 for VM:Host and CPU is generally not the issue.

I have a dual core with HT so I have 4 logical cores. When I try to run 4-5 VM's at once with 16gb of ram, one of the VM's usually locks up. If I keep it to 3-4 VM's, the system is fine. Now you may be able to get away with a much higher density, but for what i'm doing it just doesn't work. not to mention, if you are looking at a laptop for VM's, they usually do NOT scale as well as a purposeful built server or desktop as they seem to handle VM's better.

 

[imagoon]

I have a dual core with HT so I have 4 logical cores. When I try to run 4-5 VM's at once with 16gb of ram, one of the VM's usually locks up. If I keep it to 3-4 VM's, the system is fine. Now you may be able to get away with a much higher density, but for what i'm doing it just doesn't work. not to mention, if you are looking at a laptop for VM's, they usually do NOT scale as well as a purposeful built server or desktop as they seem to handle VM's better.

VM lockups are an indication that something else is wrong. There is absolutely no reason why you could not run 2-4 VM's on a single core baring performance issues if the VM's are cpu intensive.

I have a picture around here showing 14 machines with 26 vCPUs running on a single i5. Over 6 vCPU to a physical core and other than the machines taking awhile to boot if I boot them all at once, once they are up and running they perform as well as I need them to for my testing / training. This isn't a purpose built server either. I leave those at work.

 

[holden j caufield]

you definitely want a laptop with 4 ram slots. I prefer the thinkpads as there is a huge community and any issues are solved through this channel. I7 quad because those ensure you can use 4 ram slots. I'm running 10+ vm. You'll want one with an 2nd hard drive caddy so you can have ssd + 2nd hard drive caddy to keep other vm.

limitations are usually going to be ram and storage. But also note most dual core intel i5 or i7 aren't compatible with 4 ram slots.