Box to run Virtual Machines

BrokenArrows

Im looking into the option to create or buy a box which will be dedicated to running Virtual Machines.

With my work i always have at least 2 VM's running on my laptop. Usually Oracle Virtualbox.
The VM's usually have 4 cores assigned with 8GB of ram each and 128GB of disk space.
My laptop is more than capable of running these, its just annoying having these running on my laptop which obviously kills the battery quickly if i am out and about.

Id like a simple box with 1+TB of disk space, 32GB Ram, a couple of USB 3.0 ports and a wifi card.

Im thinking of having it connected to my home network and permanently running. I can just leave it in my home office under the desk.

I can then make it accessible externally with RDP or Teamviewer or something else.

Is there anything available off the shelf or a recommended list of parts to get a cheap but decent build?

Squidgy Black

Have a look on eBay, you might be able to nab a cheap ex-enterprise server with an 8 core Xeon and a heap load of ram that you could just throw some storage into.

Anima

Ram is super cheap latetly. I'd definitely go for 64gb.

pah

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Have a look on eBay, you might be able to nab a cheap ex-enterprise server with an 8 core Xeon and a heap load of ram that you could just throw some storage into.

Although it can be a minefield there can be good stuff on adverts that you could knock the price down on.

http://www.adverts.ie/20300152

frozenfrozen

Have a look for used Dell R330 or T330. Just coming out of their non-extended warranty and a new one is very close to extending the warranty so they will start to be recycled soon

I know the R is big but they can be very cheap for what is very recent and low power parts

Dual power supplies, IPMI, get the 3.5" version so you have 4 hot swap bays...

There's one for sale in Dublin for 400 + 50 postage. It has 16gb ram though.

Don't know about your usb3 and wifi requirement, if you want a 24/7 server these shouldn't really matter. These have a few usb ports for booting into a hypervisor, not sure if they're usb3.

zom

Anima wrote: »

Ram is super cheap latetly.

Where?

inthenip

For your usage I don't think you need a server. They can be extremely loud.

A 2nd hand desktop with something like an I7 -4770 and 32GB DR3 should suffice which can be got for around the 300 mark.

If you were going new probably around the 550 mark with parts

Samuel T. Cogley

zom wrote: »

Where?

Amazon has 16GB of DDR4 3200 for £55.

Cuddlesworth

Personally, since the 2nd market is a bit stupid and has been for years, I would just sign up for Dell and Lenovo mails and look for micro PC's.

https://www.lenovo.com/ie/en/desktops-and-all-in-ones/thinkcentre/m-series-tiny/ThinkCentre-M720q/p/10T700AAUK

For 620 quid, you can get a PC that sips power, run quietly and sits on or under the desk.

zom

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

Amazon has 16GB of DDR4 3200 for £55.

DDR4 got cheaper that's right but only because their initial price was ridiculously high. Now they keep same steady price as DDR3 kept for last 2 or 3 years...

listermint

Why not take the battery out of the laptop. And plug it in ....

frozenfrozen

think he meant when he's out and about with the laptop but still wants the vms running in the background