ESXi whitebox comparison AMD FX6100 vs Intel i5 3330

[carrotpapaya]

My ESXi whitebox is for lab testing and educational purpose only at this moment.

Set 1:

AMD FX-6100
Asrock 970 Extreme 4 or Asrock 970 Extreme 3 is fine.
Kingston 8GB 1333 (KVR1333D3N9H/8G) x 2pcs

WD 1TB 7200rpm 64MB Caviar Blue (WD10EZEX)

Intel 330 SSD 60GB

Sapphire 5450 1GB

Enermax NAXN(Tomahawk II) 500W

Thermaltake V3 Black Edition

Set 2:

Intel Core i5 3330 3.0Ghz (I didn't know earlier that some i5 model does support Intel VT-x, VT-d and EPT)
MSI Z68A-GD65 (G3) or (B3) not sure the difference between this 2. (G3) I have checked the manual, it has enable vt-d option
Kingston 8GB 1333 (KVR1333D3N9H/8G) x 2pcs
IBM 1TB 7200rpm

Intel 330 SSD 60GB

MSI 5450 1GB Graphic (i5 3330 has integrated video, i might leave this out, but then I have nothing to test the VT-d ?)

Cooler Master 350Watt Extreme Power Supply
Xigmatek Asgard ATX Casing

Set 2 is about USD65-75 more expensive than Set 1.  Set 2 is far more expensive than this, but I choose cheaper casing, PSU to reduce the overall cost.

For i5 3330
http://ark.intel.com/id/products/6 [...] o-3_20-GHz
Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology:      No
Intel® Virtualization Technology (VT-x):      Yes
Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d):      Yes

[clarkwayne]

Hi,

     Couple things I would like to suggest.

-You can passthrough the built in graphics on the i5, and you can always passthrough a nic, sata controller, etc to test Vt-d.

-The Thermaltake v3 case is very FLIMSY/not solid. People like to say cases don’t really matter, but if you think long term, you can keep the case forever and never replace it (unless mobo sizes change…).

-Get at least DDR3 1600 ram.

-Instead of the Intel SSD, get a OCZ agility 3. It’s cheaper and same reliability.

-Do not buy a Western Digital Blue drive, for the same price you can probably get a 2tb 7200rpm 64mb cache Seagate drive.

Regards,

-Clark

[carrotpapaya]

Thanks.

-Get at least DDR3 1600 ram.

Both AMD and Intel motherboard I listed above only supports 1333/1600(OC), with (OC) means I need to over clock my processor? or probably just need to configure the RAM setting in BIOS?

Instead of the Intel SSD, get a OCZ agility 3. It’s cheaper and same reliability.

Always wecome alternative option, I check the benchmark comparison in the link below. It seems Intel 330 has better benchmark over OCZ agility 3 in most area.  Well benchmark doesn't always = real world performance.  I will definitely check the price in my local store here.

Intel 520 240GB vs Intel 330 180GB vs OCZ agility 3

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/ssd-charts-2011/compare,2786.html?prod%5B5418%5D=on&prod%5B5854%5...

Do not buy a Western Digital Blue drive, for the same price you can probably get a 2tb 7200rpm 64mb cache Seagate drive.

From the benchmark comparison, Seagate does beat WB green in ALL areas and does beat WB black in some areas.  Seagate would definitely be a better choice if Seagate is cheaper.  Over here, I have checked the price here in local store before.  Our seagate 1TB is slightly more expensive than WB Blue 1TB with the same cache size and rpm speed. :smileyconfused: and WD does has 2 years warranty vs Seagate's 1 year.  Thanks to your suggestion, I might end up with Seagate anway as the benchmark score does beat Green with large margin.  Though blue might be better a bit. :smileysilly:

Seagate 1TB vs WD 2TB Black vs WD 1TB Green

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/hdd-charts-2012/compare,2901.html?prod%5B5604%5D=on&prod%5B5357%5...

[clarkwayne]

Couple questions:

Do you have a microcenter near you?

Does Newegg ship to your location?

How much more time before you make your decision?

The Intel SSD costs about $1 per GB, and the OCZ costs about .50 cents per GB. Their performance is comparable and the Intel doesn't blow it away. Unless you're going to run a bunch of SQL/Oracle server's on there and keep hitting them with requests, you will hit the capacity before you hit the I/O limit. From my experience and research, a regular VM will require about 30-50 iops. Considering the OCZ put's up about atleast 30k random I/O, you'll definitly hit the capacity before you hit the I/O limit.

I still have to get you the vmware related benchmarks from my storage system thats running 4x2tb seagate barracuda 7200rpm drives with 2 OCZ agility 3 SSD's.