A new build for Games and Virtual Environment lab…

SoJoMo

Hi Folks

I’m looking to replace my 5 year old PC which had an Asus A8n32-SLI Deluxe motherboard and Opteron CPU.

I need a PC that will be used for a few of the top end games as they come out and then primarily for running VMWare Workstation/VSphere and or Citrix XEN environments with a Windows AD setup hanging of that.

So I have decided to spend under €400 on:
- ASUS Sabertooth 990FX Motherboard
- Phenom II X6 1090T BE CPU
- Corair 16GB DDR3-1600 RAM

From my old machine I already have:
- Seasonic S12 500W PSU
- 2x Samsung SpinPoint P120S 250GB SATA2 8MB 7200RPM
- Zotac NVidia 480 GFX
- Antec P180 Case
- Samsung DVD RW

Questions
- What do you guys think of the components compared to my needs?
- Will the 500W PSU be capable of supplying enough power to this machine?
- Why would I buy the Corsair Vengence (low profile) instead of the “normal” Corsair XMS (apart from the heat sinks which people say is not really needed on RAM)?
- Should I buy DDR3-2000 RAM to make better use of this motherboard etc?
- Does any one know the difference between the two models of Sabertooth 990FX available… the 90-MIBFN0-G0EAY00Z and 90-MIBFN0-G0AAY00Z….elara seems to stock both?
- If there is anything obvious with this setup that I should change or if you have any extra advice considering my needs and current hardware please let me know.

Things to consider
- I’m not really going to overclock this until if I need to in time – I chose the board because at least it is overclocker friendly and I hope to have it still running and useful in 5 years time.
- I want to buy Corsair RAM
- I’ve no need to go with SLI/Crossfire
- I choose the motherboard as it is very solid, future proofed, has a 5 year guarantee and loads of fan connections etc.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers
S

Jonny7

Bulldozer coming out very soon.. you might want to consider holding off.

Also is that the Nvidia 480 GTX? (if so, the 500 watt PSU might need to be changed with new system)

SoJoMo

Hey Jonny7

I know, Bulldozer etc but I have to step in and buy sometime plus I dont know hat extra BD will give.

The GFX card is a Zotac Geforce 460 GTX

So you reckon I need a 650W PSU?

Cheers

Cuddlesworth

SoJoMo wrote: »

I need a PC that will be used for a few of the top end games as they come out and then primarily for running VMWare Workstation/VSphere and or Citrix XEN environments with a Windows AD setup hanging of that.

Three things for you. Hard-drive, hard-drive and hard-drive. If you intend on running a virtualised home environment, two spinpoints are not going to cut it.

In the past it would have been a high spec raid card and multiple drives. Now its all about the SSD's.

I have posted in a thread on this forum recently about it in detail.

Jonny7

SoJoMo wrote: »

Hey Jonny7

I know, Bulldozer etc but I have to step in and buy sometime plus I dont know hat extra BD will give.

The GFX card is a Zotac Geforce 460 GTX

So you reckon I need a 650W PSU?

Cheers

Ah, the 460 sucks less juice, you should be okay

The intel i5 2500k is generally better than the x6
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/203?vs=288

SoJoMo

Thanks for the info guys,
Cuddlesorth... aye HDD will be an issue until later in the year when I have more money but I thought the 16GB ram would save having to go the SSD route yet as VMware workstation should be able to put most of its work load into memory thus reducing the need for hard drive r/w's

Jonny7... grand so I'm ok with the 500watts!? nice one!
i5 2500k !? .. **** thems good stats...**** now I dont know what to do and its only a 4 core cpu! will have to research and think.
would love to spend a max of 400 - 450

I wonder what the i5 is like with virtualisation?
Cheers