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What kind of system do I need ?

V

Valhalla1

Diamond Member
I want to spend around $2,000 on a new workstation

I'm not interested in 3d games on this machine. This box will be primarily running VMware server and will have 20-100 windows xp virtual machines on it. Obviously they wont all be running simultaneously, but as many as I can comfortably run I will

the virtual machines will be running resource-intensive applications. I want to maximize value in CPU and RAM on the host machine

It will also function as my main desktop box so it will likely run Vista

I've priced a system at digitalstorm, not sure I want to go with this place but I was recommended to it. I priced a system there for around 2k with :

Asus P5N-SLI
550W Thermaltake
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz Quad Core 1066mhz
2GB DDR2 Corsair 1066MHz Dual Channel
1TB Western Digital Raid 0 Setup SATA 7600rpm
nVidia GeForce 8500GT 256MB (cheapest they had, overkill for my needs)

so where can I improve or save money and spend it elsewhere, or any other tips you have
 
Newegg.com

I'd want at least 4GB RAM for that purpose. RAID0 is nice but you want a backup solution too, RAID-0 will fail twice as fast as the average hard drive. Consider RAID0+1; you'll need at least 4 hard disks.
 
Ok thanks

Also I'm way behind on up to date systems, this motherboard has multiple PCI Expressx16 slots, so if I wanted to run 4 monitors on this machine, I could run 2xPCI-E dual-head graphics cards, yes ?
If I got an SLI capable board would these 2 cards work together if I ever did want to 3d game?

basically since I will want to run 2 video cards anyway so I can 4-monitor, I might as well get an SLI board and whatever two cheapest vid cards I can that will work with SLI, if only because its there or for possible future use or resale value ?
 
Originally posted by: Valhalla1
basically since I will want to run 2 video cards anyway so I can 4-monitor, I might as well get an SLI board and whatever two cheapest vid cards I can that will work with SLI, if only because its there or for possible future use or resale value ?
Click to expand...

Don't ever buy PC hardware and think in terms of resale value. It'll depreciate, and quickly, that's guaranteed. Just go with what you'll actually use in your situation - if I were you, maybe a pair of last-gen vid cards would cut it, whichever 7x00 series cards are the cheapest with SLI. (Unless the 8x00 series cards aren't significantly more expensive, otherwise go with those.)
 
most high-end boards have native dual x16 slots, which means you could totally run a high-end ATi card and high-end nVidia card at the same time... no cross/sli crap needed at all.
 
Originally posted by: ribbon13
most high-end boards have native dual x16 slots, which means you could totally run a high-end ATi card and high-end nVidia card at the same time... no cross/sli crap needed at all.
Click to expand...

Although why you would want to do that is beyond me... less complicated to use two identical cards, whether they're Nvidia or ATI. And the ability to switch between multiple monitors and performance sounds like it's important.
 
Game devs do it all the time as do beta testers

I'm just saying, on high-end boards you can forego all that crap. I remember when multi-monitor + nvSLI was the hugest pain in the ass.
 
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