Building a PC for Xenserver

Geek · 09-09-2008, 03:49 PM

I've given up on Apple bringing an affordable mid-tower to market so instead of using their hardware coupled with OS X & VMWare Fusion I'm going to go with Xenserver instead.

Anyone build such a box recently? I've been shopping Newegg and it looks like it'll cost me about a $1,000 to build a decent 64 bit AMD system with 4GB of RAM and storage.

This will be used for running multiple virtual machines(up to 4 with the free version of Xenserver) for a lab environment.

Here are the components I'm looking at:

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-M57SLI-S4(Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-M57SLI-S4 AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards)
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core(Newegg.com - AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops)
RAM: Crucial.com 4GB kit
Hard disk: Western Digital 160GB x4 in RAID 0+1(for speed and redundance)
Optical drive - I already have a DVD-R drive, although it's IDE. Don't think I need SATA, this will primarily be used for loading software
Video card - Haven't looked for one yet, I'm open to suggestions. Can't be just any old video card, it has to be compatible with Xenserver.

Thoughts?

sheepofblue · 09-09-2008, 05:06 PM

Do you really need the drive speed? Most new 7200RPM SATAII drives are pretty quick. And for the price you could likely get a BUNCH more storage.

Geek · 09-09-2008, 07:28 PM

Yes, speed is pretty essential and at the same time I'm trying to keep cost down. I don't need the storage capacity, even that is overkill. I need enough space to build some OS partitions(~30GB per OS is plenty), there won't be much data use. For data storage I'm still looking at a NAS.

09-09-2008, 03:49 PM	#1
Geek 's make the world go 'round. Join Date: 01-02-2007 Location: SC Posts: 1,086	Building a PC for Xenserver I've given up on Apple bringing an affordable mid-tower to market so instead of using their hardware coupled with OS X & VMWare Fusion I'm going to go with Xenserver instead. Anyone build such a box recently? I've been shopping Newegg and it looks like it'll cost me about a $1,000 to build a decent 64 bit AMD system with 4GB of RAM and storage. This will be used for running multiple virtual machines(up to 4 with the free version of Xenserver) for a lab environment. Here are the components I'm looking at: Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-M57SLI-S4(Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-M57SLI-S4 AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards) CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core(Newegg.com - AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops) RAM: Crucial.com 4GB kit Hard disk: Western Digital 160GB x4 in RAID 0+1(for speed and redundance) Optical drive - I already have a DVD-R drive, although it's IDE. Don't think I need SATA, this will primarily be used for loading software Video card - Haven't looked for one yet, I'm open to suggestions. Can't be just any old video card, it has to be compatible with Xenserver. Thoughts? __________________ "People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people" Motorcycle fanatic?

09-09-2008, 05:06 PM	#2
sheepofblue Not a screen of death Join Date: 01-03-2007 Location: Huntsville Age: 48 Posts: 716	Re: Building a PC for Xenserver Do you really need the drive speed? Most new 7200RPM SATAII drives are pretty quick. And for the price you could likely get a BUNCH more storage. __________________ A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way

09-09-2008, 07:28 PM	#3
Geek 's make the world go 'round. Join Date: 01-02-2007 Location: SC Posts: 1,086	Re: Building a PC for Xenserver Yes, speed is pretty essential and at the same time I'm trying to keep cost down. I don't need the storage capacity, even that is overkill. I need enough space to build some OS partitions(~30GB per OS is plenty), there won't be much data use. For data storage I'm still looking at a NAS. __________________ "People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people" Motorcycle fanatic?

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