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Virtualization/Gaming Rig

Andromakennethablesorton
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I am building a machine for my home CCNA lab, but I also play Eve Online and would like to have my home lab and gaming rig in the same box.
I would like to find a decent processor which would support the necessary features required by KVM, the hypervisor I plan on installing, so that I can have multiple instances of OSes and routers running through GNS3. But, I need that processor to be fast enough to run Eve Online on top of a virtualized OS like Windows or Ubuntu.

 

I will not be studying and gaming at the same time, so I don't need more than two operating systems running while gaming. I WILL want multiple running while I am studying. Luckily, Eve Online doesnt have very serious hardware requirements, compared to other modern games, so I don't need anything CRAZY, but they do recommend and Intel i7 series or better (Or AMD/whatever equivalent, I dont do ).


I've found lots of articles and videos explaining how to build a decent virtualization lab, but those kinds of machines are optimized for running the types of services you put on a server - DHCP, FTP, VPN, etc. So, lots of cores, very slow clock speed. 

Am I looking for a motherboard that will support KVM and dual CPUs? One with many, slow cores and one with two really fast cores? And if so, what CPUs would you recommend? If not, what AM I looking for?

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Your best bet is probably a Ryzen 7 1700x because of the 8 physical cores on it and because the cost per dollar and it supports ECC RAM.  I run virtualization on my 7700k (4 cores @ 4.5Ghz haven't had time to overclock much yet) but it is usually one VM at a time using VMWare Workstation in Windows 10. What hypervisor are you planning on running? What is your budget?

Personal Rig:

CPU: i7-11700K  | Mobo: MSI Z490-A PRO | RAM: 2x G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 8GB = 16 GB  | GPU: ASUS GTX 1070 Strix (I know I need to upgrade) | Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 250 GB, WD Blue 1 TB, WD Red 2 TB, and WD Red 4 TB | Case: Enermax Ostrog Black and White | PSU: EVGA 750GT 80+G | Cooling: Noctua NH-U12S in Push/Pull with Black Noctua Industrial Fans, 2 120mm Noctua Chromax Fans, and Corsair AF120 on the side panel | Display: 22" Asus VE228 1920 x 1080 and a 32" Samsung (of somesorts) 1920 x 1080 on a WALI Arm (I share displays/desk with two builds) | Mouse: Logitech M705 | Keyboard: Logitech K350 | Random: 90mm of CableMod RGB Magnetic Strips | OS: Win 11 Education x64 

32" Samsung CF397 1920 x 1080

Linux/test Box:

CPU: Ryzen 5 2600  | Mobo: ASRock AB350M mATX | RAM: 2x Crucial 8 GB DDR4 = 16 GB | GPU: Asus GT 1030 | Storage: Sandisk SSD Plus 120 GB, Samsung 970 Evo 256GB SSD, 2x 2TB Seagate IronWolf NAS Drives  | Case: Cooler Master N200 mATX | PSU: EVGA 400W | Cooling: Stock Cooler and 3x Cooler Master 120mm Fans | Display: 22" Asus VE228 1920 x 1080 and a 34" LG 43WL500-B 2560 x 1080 on a WALI Arm (I share displays/desk with two builds) | Keyboard: Logitech K270 | Mouse: Logitech M185  | OS: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and Windows 10 Pro x64

 

13" Macbook Air M1:

CPU: Apple M1 8-Core and 7-Core "GPU"  | RAM: 8 GB DDR4  | Storage: 256 GB | Display: 2560 x1600 Retina Display | Mouse: Built-in trackpad and Logitech M557 | Keyboard: built-in keyboard and Logitech K480 | OS: MacOS Monterey

 

Laptop (Acer Pedator Helios 300 2017 edition) (Don't use as much anymore since graduating college and mostly using my Macbook and HP Elitebook for Work):

CPU: i7-7700HQ  | RAM: 16 GB DDR4  | GPU: GTX 1060 6 GB | Storage: Samsung 980 500 GB SSD and Seagate 1 TB Firecuda | Display: Acer IPS 15.6" 1920 x 1080 Display | Mouse: Logitech M557 and built-in trackpad (never use lol) | Keyboard: built-in keyboard and Logitech K480 | OS: Windows 11 Pro x64

 

Home Theater Setup

Computer: M1 Mac Mini w/8GB RAM and 256 of Storage (plus a external 500GB Samsung T7 for Plex) | TV:LG 4K - 55" UQ9000 LED | Speakers: Sonos Ray and 2 Sonos One SLs for Rear Surround | Media Box: Apple TV 4K | Consoles: Xbox Series S and Nintendo Switch | Mouse/Keyboard: Logitech K400 | HDHomerun Flex 4K and HDHomerun Flex Duo

 

Other Devices I use:

Phone: iPhone 13 Mini 128GB  | Tablet: iPad Mini 5 64GB LTE | Earbuds: Airpods 3 | Watch: Apple Watch SE 44mm

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16 minutes ago, Andromakennethablesorton said:

 

Ryzen 7 is probably where you want to be at

You're going to be running windows as the main OS correct? So you don't need to do GPU passthrough?

Level1Linux has a fair amount of videos on Ryzen virtualization
 


 

I edit my posts a lot, Twitter is @LordStreetguru just don't ask PC questions there mostly...
 

Spoiler

 

What is your budget/country for your new PC?

 

what monitor resolution/refresh rate?

 

What games or other software do you need to run?

 

 

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I don't know that I would have a main operating system since I need different OSes for different purposes. I wanna play with Kali as well as various other distributions of Linux, I need Windows for Microsoft Office and Eve Online, FreeNAS for media storage so its all in one box (i live in a single bedroom apartment so I don't have a lot of space), etc. But there would be type 1 hypervisor - most likely KVM - running these virtualized OSes. 

Trying to build this thing for under 1000 dollars but I suspect that's a little optimistic. 

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If you plan to use a linux host with KVM and gpu passthrough, Intel X299 is currently the most trouble free. Ryzen have gotten better now these days, but you need to patch the kernel and qemu.

if (c->x86_vendor != X86_VENDOR_AMD)

setup_force_cpu_bug(X86_BUG_CPU_INSECURE);

 

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I suggest the i7-8700k, it's better then the R7.

Former Bronze Contributor 

CPU: Intel i7-7700K 4.2 GHz / CPU Cooler: Cryorig H7  / Board: ASRock Z270 Taichi / GPU: Nvidia 1060 6gb EVGA SC / GPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken G12 with Thermaltake Water 3.0 120mm / RAM: White Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 2666 MHz / SSD: 2x Samsung 850 Evo 250 and 3TB WD blue HDD / PSU: Corasir 550cx / Case: NZXT s340 Elite White 

 

Im a super Italian. Kapish.

 

 

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On 17/11/2017 at 10:43 PM, Douglas The Duck said:

I suggest the i7-8700k, it's better then the R7.

I guess, but for virtualization x299 is where its easy peasy.

AMD x370 and Intel z1/2/370 can be kind wierd, like on certain Intel z370 boards you have to pipe graphics over chipset and so on. X299 is just easy.

if (c->x86_vendor != X86_VENDOR_AMD)

setup_force_cpu_bug(X86_BUG_CPU_INSECURE);

 

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