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9 Replies Last post: Jun 25, 2009 9:45 PM by vwfix  

Best CPU, and OS to run Workstation on. posted: Jun 25, 2009 9:58 AM

Click to view vwfix's profile Novice
vwfix
7 posts since
Jun 23, 2009

I am currently rebuilding one of our Lab setups. and was wondering what would be a good processor for the VM Workstation machine. The mobo can support all of the cor 2 duo and core 2 quad cpu.

So I am wondering if it is better to get a faster dual core or slightly slower quad core for workstation perfromance.

Also what is better to run as a bas OS Windows or Linux, I am trying to see what will yield me better perfromance as far as workstation goes.

Thanks and looking forward to some input.

Re: Best CPU, and OS to run Workstation on.

1. Jun 25, 2009 11:58 AM in response to: vwfix
Click to view continuum's profile Guru
continuum
12,680 posts since
Dec 18, 2003
Also what is better to run as a bas OS Windows or Linux, I am trying to see what will yield me better perfromance as far as workstation goes.

Use the OS you know best. In case you want to use physical disks inside your VMs do not use Vista or higher.

___________________________________

VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay

Re: Best CPU, and OS to run Workstation on.

2. Jun 25, 2009 12:40 PM in response to: vwfix
Click to view vwfix's profile Novice
vwfix
7 posts since
Jun 23, 2009

Thanks for the input.i am comfartable with both Linux and Windows.

The VMs and their allocated storage is going to be on a iSCSI or NFS remote volume, so disk space should not be an issue. My main concern is getting the maximum perfromance and reliablity.

In my eyes Linux is a lot more stable at runnign for longer periods of time. But I have no experience using workstation on Linux. So I am not sure which OS Workstation runs more stable on.

Also any idea if fster processor is better then more corse for running workstation.

Re: Best CPU, and OS to run Workstation on.

3. Jun 25, 2009 2:01 PM in response to: vwfix
Click to view continuum's profile Guru
continuum
12,680 posts since
Dec 18, 2003
Oh dear - this has been discussed so often - you will get all kinds of answers ...
my personal absolutely biased opinion ...

2k3 rocks best
then comes XP
then Linux with older kernels up to 2.6.20
and then all the rest

when asking about hardware ... buy RAM, buy more RAM, buy lots of fast disks, buy more cores ...


___________________________________

VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay

Re: Best CPU, and OS to run Workstation on.

4. Jun 25, 2009 2:34 PM in response to: continuum
Click to view vwfix's profile Novice
vwfix
7 posts since
Jun 23, 2009

Thanks, I figured Ram and fast transfer rates are a priority.

I will be running of a NFS NAs that provides me with about 120mb/sec reads and writes, so disk speed should nto be an issue.

But as far as the rest goes, I guess I will go with server 2003 and q9550 for the processor and start of with 8gb of quick ram and go from there.

Re: Best CPU, and OS to run Workstation on.

5. Jun 25, 2009 3:24 PM in response to: vwfix
Click to view dilidolo's profile Enthusiast
dilidolo
65 posts since
Dec 3, 2008
If you need to buy new CPU, get Core i7. It supports nested paging and is a lot faster than q9550, or even better, get XEON W3500 and ECC memory.

Re: Best CPU, and OS to run Workstation on.

6. Jun 25, 2009 3:31 PM in response to: dilidolo
Click to view vwfix's profile Novice
vwfix
7 posts since
Jun 23, 2009
I have a very nice motherboard and do not want to replace it. Aslo core i7 boards are still pretty expensive.

Re: Best CPU, and OS to run Workstation on.

7. Jun 25, 2009 6:49 PM in response to: continuum
Click to view lturkin's profile Enthusiast
lturkin
66 posts since
Mar 6, 2005
I agree with you completely. Linux allows you to do more with less. Windows is just a hog with resources and Vista is even worse. It doesn't improve with Windows 7. With that being said, I still believe the best thing you can do to run VMware Workstation is to get more processing power and more memory. You can never have enough.

Re: Best CPU, and OS to run Workstation on.

8. Jun 25, 2009 7:10 PM in response to: vwfix
Click to view louyo's profile Expert
louyo
468 posts since
Mar 14, 2005
I am running WS on a workstation with 3 Ghz QuadCore Xeon, 6GB ECC RAM and 640 GB WD SATA drives (7200 RPM). My host is ubuntu 8.04 and I think performance is very good. I do not try to run the latest/greatest so have no kernel issues. I do programming and testing on the workstation and usually have 2-4 VM's running. Almost always Windows. Visual Studio seems to run as well in a VM as native, maybe even better. I maintain a few FoxPro programs with a W2K VM and run Sharepoint in another W2003 VM. All run well.

I also run WS on a 2.0 Ghz Core2 duo laptop, running XP. It came with Vista which I upgra.. uh .. downgraded to XP. Performance is reasonable ( I did make sure to tell AV to leave the vmware folders alone). Performance is acceptable, I don't run more than 2 VM's on the laptop.

My previous workstation had dual 2.4 Ghz Xeon (single core) processors with 15K RPM SCSI hard drives and was not as fast as this workstation but I would hate to have to justify the difference.

I would recommend
1. multiple Cores/CPU's
2. lots of RAM
3. Fast hard drives
In that order.

Use the OS you are most comfortable "tweaking".
As in all things PC, Windows support comes first with almost all software vendors..

Lou

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."
  • Albert Einstein

Re: Best CPU, and OS to run Workstation on.

9. Jun 25, 2009 9:45 PM in response to: dilidolo
Click to view vwfix's profile Novice
vwfix
7 posts since
Jun 23, 2009

Thanks for all your guys help.

I think I will go with a quad core for now and start of with 8 gb of ram.

And as far as the OS go I will try server 2003 as the main OS first.

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