Building a VMWare Server

[joe_it]

Good Morning All,

I am looking to build my own VMWARE server for testing purposes. This will run off my home network and will most likely have between 3-4 Virtual Images running on it. I plan to use VMWare ESX for my build. (Currently 2.5, but will upgrade to 3.0 once released) I would like to go with a Full tower for this build, maybe RAID with 3 SCSI drives. I want to purchase the parts over about a 2-3 month period to break out the costs of the system.

What would you recommend for this system? I am on a budget of about $1500, but I am a little flexible on that. I think I want to go with a Dual Processor and possibly even dual cores on each if the price is not too outrageous. I prefer AMD processors myself, but would look at Intel for this build.

Let me know what you think, please give me specific parts that you think would work good for this system.

Joe

[glc]

You aren't going to do 3 SCSI in RAID or a dual processor rig for $1500. The best you are going to do is a dual core processor and SATA.

[joe_it]

Originally Posted by glc You aren't going to do 3 SCSI in RAID or a dual processor rig for $1500. The best you are going to do is a dual core processor and SATA.

You know, the more that I think about it, I think that might be OK. If I get fast enough SATA drives and run RAID 10 that might be OK. THis will not be a very highly utilized machine so I am not worried.

So here is what I need recommendations on.

1-Board
2-Case
3-Processors
4-Power Supply

Forget the $1500 limit, that is flexible since I am building this over a couple of months. I do want a full tower though. Let me know what you people think. I am probably going to order parts from NewEgg.

Joe

[glc]

Okay - here's some thoughts for an AMD dual core build.

Case: Antec PERFORMANCE TX TX1050B Black Steel Server Computer Case 500W ATX12V v2.0 Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129158

Antec quality, excellent power supply.

Motherboard: ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131540

Yeah, I know you won't use SLI, but this board has a passive Northbridge cooler (less noise) and an onboard SATA controller that's RAID 5 capable. The Deluxe is about 15 bucks cheaper but it has a fan on the Northbridge.

Processor: Whichever Athlon 64 x2 dual core you feel you can afford.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ubCategory=343

Ram - get Corsair Value Select PC3200 DDR dual channel kits.

Video card - I assume no gaming or heavy graphics/video processing, so a cheap $50 PCI-E card will be fine, just don't get a Turbocache or Hypermemory card. Either Nvidia or ATI is fine. Here's an example:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102415