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JohandeKlerk
Contributor
Contributor

Will Workstation Pro Ver 14 run on this hardware

Hi,

I purchased Workstation Pro Ver 14 but it does not run on my hardware because my current hardware does not support VT-X

I am now looking into purchasing new hardware to run Workstation Ver 14 on.

1) CP-IC8700K Intel Cofelake i7-8700K/6H 3.7Ghz

2) WC-CH100IGTX Corsair H100i GTX/V2 watercool

3) ME-CD4841L19x4R Corsair CMK32GX4M4E4133C19R vengeance Lpx with Red low-profile heatsink + Vengence Airflow memory cooler , with 8-layer PCB , 8Gb x 4 kit - support Intel XMP ( eXtreme Memory Profiles ) , Ddr4-4133 ( pc4-33099) , CL19 , 1.35v - 288pin

4) MB-AZ370M10H Asus Z370 Maximus 10(x) Hero

5) HD-SG512-960P Samsung nGff/m.2 512gb 960 Pro

Will the above hardware work to run Workstation Ver 14?

Regards

Johan de Klerk

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6 Replies
wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi Johan,

You should be fine, the CPU is certainly capable of running workstation 14.

Seems that you have to enable virtualisation in the bios.

Then power cycle the machine (eg. unplug the powercord after you shut it down)

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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JohandeKlerk
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Wil,

Thanks for your reply.

The message I get on my current hardware is: This host does not support virtualizing real mode. The Intel "VMX Unrestricted Guest" feature is necessery to run this virtual machine on an Intel Processor.

I am so confused about which new hardware I must buy.


Very interesting article on Picking a Motherboard and Processor to use with Virtualization | Everything VM

According to this article "Intel has a fairly new technology called vPro. one of the components of vPro is VT-x"

I had a look at this on Intel's website but can't find anything about VT-X or virtualization.
Intel® Core™ i7-8700K Processor
So I hope it does support it.

The Asus Z370 Maximus 10(x) Hero motherboard uses the Z370 chipset.

ROG MAXIMUS X HERO | Motherboards | ASUS South Africa

Intel® Z370 Chipset
Intel® vPro™ Technology  = NO

Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d)  = YES

I tried to contact VMware support and they sent me this:

VMware Compatibility Guide - System Search

VMware Knowledge Base

I asked ASUS and could not get a direct answer out of them, lots of excuses.

I am still not 100% clear if the above hardware will run VMware 14.

Regards

Johan de Klerk

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi Johan,

VT-X is something different as "Unrestricted Guest" support and is certainly required.

The latter was introduced in processors in late Westmere based CPU's.

So any processor after Westmere will have unrestricted guest support. You cannot really locate that feature in intel's CPU specs which makes it confusing.

VT-X OTOH is visible in their specs. If we look at the specs for the processor you mention:

Intel® Core™ i7-8700K Processor (12M Cache, up to 4.70 GHz) Product Specifications

then there's this bit near the bottom:

pastedImage_1.png

so that processor has anything you would need for VT-x support.

Can't comment on the ASUS mobo, but it is extremely rare for a motherboard to not enable these kind of features on a modern processor.

Btw, not that I want to confuse you more, but VT-d is something else and not supported by Workstation.

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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JohandeKlerk
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Wil,

Thanks for your detailed reply and the confirmation on the CPU.

Yip you are correct.
You have now just made me more confused in regards to the motherboard.

It seems the Z370 Chipset is the latest and greatest from Intel but it does not support vPro/VT-X.

The guys that sells motherboards does not seem to know either, if you ask them they have not idea what you are talking about.

Do you know of any motherboard that support it?

Regards

Johan de Klerk

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bluefirestorm
Champion
Champion

If the motherboard supports VT-d, it should support VT-x as VT-d is only useful if there is a VM running using VT-x. It does not make sense to support VT-d if it does not support VT-x. But the other way around is not necessarily true, as a motherboard that supports VT-x may not necessarily support VT-d (especially older motherboards) as VT-d came after VT-x.

VT-d is required for PCIe device passthrough which at the moment VMware Workstation does not support. You can achieve this through ESXi.

FWIW, there was post here some months back of another user having a different ASUS motherboard and there was a separate option to enable/disable VT-d in the EFI. Some EFI/BIOS implementation don't even give an option enable/disable VT-x (especially on laptops). It is a rarity to have EFI/BIOS option to enable/disable VT-d.

One warning though since you are looking to buy a system with an unlocked K processor with watercooling. If you have intentions of overclocking, VMware VMs may not necessarily work well with overclocked CPU (the VM may simply crash). Just my two cents, maybe save the $ for a normal i7-8700 (and possibly get rid of watercooling) and use the $ saved for some other better component (example: better discrete GPU).

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JohandeKlerk
Contributor
Contributor

Hi bluefirestorm,

Thanks for the reply.

Good explanation.

Thanks for the advice on the overclocking.

I don't care much for overclocking.

This is not a gaming machine at all, not even one game on my machine.

This is my daily work machine and I do all my software development on it.

All I want is maximum speed, best reliability and it must work with VMware Ver 14 and newer versions.

Regards

Johan de Klerk

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