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Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Mar 30, 2008 5:31 AM
in response to: Virtual_Jazz
Click to view Argyle's profile Hot Shot Argyle 84 posts since
Dec 29, 2006
Just wanted to add to the list that I also successfully installed ESX 3.5 straight out of the box on a HP DC7600 Desktop PC.

Hardware Model HP Compaq dc7600 Small Form Factor PC
Mainboard Model HP 09F8h
Mainboard Chipset Intel i945G/GZ
Mainboard Southbridge Intel 82801GB (ICH7)
Mainboard Bios HP 786D1 v01.59
CPU Intel Pentium 4 640 Processor (3.2 GHz, 800 MHz FSB) HT. Socket LGA775
RAM 4 GB DDR2 PC2-4200 (266 Mhz)
NIC Broadcom 5752 NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet
Video Intel 82945G Integrated
Disk Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST3160828AS (160 GB - SATA)
CD/DVD HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-H10N (48x read/write. DVD Read only)

Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Mar 17, 2008 7:47 AM
in response to: Argyle
Click to view Virtual_Jazz's profile Novice Virtual_Jazz 36 posts since
Feb 7, 2008
Did you have to do any special config to get the system to boot after installation? I am quite happy investing another £300 if the system will install ok.
Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Mar 17, 2008 8:35 AM
in response to: Virtual_Jazz
Click to view Argyle's profile Hot Shot Argyle 84 posts since
Dec 29, 2006
No special config was needed. It booted right after.
Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Mar 17, 2008 9:13 AM
in response to: gopherhockey
Click to view JailBreak's profile Enthusiast JailBreak 47 posts since
Oct 11, 2006
Hi

I have the same board, and the same CPU working just fine

I have used a IDE disk to hold the VMware, and a SATA disk to hold the VMs with the ESX 3.5

I even tested with the SATA first, and work

JailBreak
Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Mar 18, 2008 5:40 AM
in response to: JailBreak
Click to view Virtual_Jazz's profile Novice Virtual_Jazz 36 posts since
Feb 7, 2008

So I guess the following will work then


HP dc7700/ Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13GHz/ 1GB RAM/ 160GB HDD/ CD-RW/ DVD-ROM Combo Drive/ 3 YR OS Warranty/ XP Pro/ Small Form

Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Mar 18, 2008 5:56 AM
in response to: Virtual_Jazz
Click to view Argyle's profile Hot Shot Argyle 84 posts since
Dec 29, 2006
Don't think so. If you check rpartmann's post on the first page in this thread the DC7700 didnt detect the internal drive as SATA.
Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Mar 18, 2008 6:13 AM
in response to: Argyle
Click to view Virtual_Jazz's profile Novice Virtual_Jazz 36 posts since
Feb 7, 2008
OK. I will stick to the dc7600. A bit pricey though, sure you can get a server for that price that works as well. We have a 4day holiday coming up, would like to get a system in before then. so I can have it setup.
Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Mar 18, 2008 6:54 AM
in response to: Virtual_Jazz
Click to view Argyle's profile Hot Shot Argyle 84 posts since
Dec 29, 2006
You could go for a HP d530 or DC7100 as well. They are not that expensive on ebay etc.
Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Mar 18, 2008 9:01 AM
in response to: Argyle
Click to view Virtual_Jazz's profile Novice Virtual_Jazz 36 posts since
Feb 7, 2008
I will see whats out there. thanks
Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Mar 18, 2008 10:23 AM
in response to: Virtual_Jazz
Click to view paulo.meireles's profile Master paulo.meireles 999 posts since
Oct 29, 2004

I recently bought a HP dc7700 and an HP P400 Array Controller (both on eBay), which allowed me to mirror two disks.
They work very well together, and I expect the P400 to last a few years and a couple of machine upgrades.
The dc7700's integrated NIC works well and supports VLANs but, unfortunately, I couldn't make it work at gigabit speed... :(

Paulo
Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Mar 23, 2008 3:13 PM
in response to: paulo.meireles
Click to view Smeagol's profile Enthusiast Smeagol 75 posts since
Jul 7, 2005

Dont forget you can write ESX 3i to a USB and boot from that then it doesnt matter if it has any local disks at all or whether they work or not. You can then run the vm's off your desktop if you set up nfs sharing which windows server can do, or linux vm etc, etc.

Or just buy a cheap network NAS device with nfs support. Then you can do clustering, HA and all the nice stuff like storage vmotion etc too. No point just having one server :)

Info on making your own 3i is on the forum just search for "winimage 3i" or similar. Thats what Id do.

When my Tyan single server gives up the ghost thats what Id do. Three dualcore desktops with 8gb and nfs NAS for a cluster.

Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Mar 30, 2008 5:31 AM
in response to: Smeagol
Click to view Argyle's profile Hot Shot Argyle 84 posts since
Dec 29, 2006
Another confirm, this time on the HP DC7100 Desktop PC. Successfully installed ESX 3.5 straight out of the box.

Hardware Model HP Compaq dc7100 Small Form Factor PC
Mainboard Model HP 097Ch
Mainboard Chipset Intel 915G
Mainboard Southbridge Intel 82801FB (ICH6)
Mainboard Bios HP 786C1 v02.14
CPU Intel Pentium 4 540J Processor (3.2 GHz, 800 MHz FSB) HT. Socket LGA775
RAM 4 GB DDR PC-3200 (200 Mhz)
NIC Broadcom 5751 NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet
Video Intel 82915G Integrated
Disk Western Digital Caviar XL WD5000AAKS (500GB - SATA)
CD/DVD LITE-ON DVD SOHD-167T (16x DVD, 48x CD. CD/DVD Read only)

Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Mar 31, 2008 3:47 AM
in response to: Argyle
Click to view rpartmann's profile Expert rpartmann 223 posts since
Feb 8, 2007
Hi,

right the 7100/7600 already confirmed on 2008/01/07.
i outranked you. ;-)
keep on testing... the more system we get to work the better for our labs....

thanks & greetings,
Reinhard.

Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Apr 23, 2008 10:25 AM
in response to: paulo.meireles
Click to view hw-man's profile Lurker hw-man 3 posts since
Apr 23, 2008

Hi Paulo,

I bought an HP P400 Array Controller too, but I found not the right cable to connect a SATA HDD directly.

Do you know which cable I need?

hw-man

Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? May 7, 2008 5:19 PM
in response to: Argyle
Click to view jkahn_au's profile Novice jkahn_au 7 posts since
May 7, 2008

Hi guys,

I've gone and set myself up a dc7100 ESX 3.5 box - works fantastically. An issue I have is that ESX only sees 3.12GB of RAM, even though I have installed 4GB. With a bit of googling I've been able to find that this is apparently to do with the chipset in the PC reserving a chunk of RAM up to 4GB for bus functions. I'm going to update the BIOS tonight to see if that helps at all. Has anyone else run into this problem? Did you manage to get around it?


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