How Much RAM?

[drtech]

Hi folks,

I recently built myself a new system, leaving me with my old computer having the following specs :

i5-3570k @ stock speed

2*8 GB DDR3 @ 1333Mhz

4*1 TB WD Blue 7.2k Drives

120 GB Kingston UV400 SSD

2*Gbe Intel NIC

 

I'm planning to use this machine as an ESXi Server, virtualizing all my physical instances of various servers.

I'm curious as to know whether at this point of time, given that my processor is fairly old, is there any point in adding two more sticks of 8GB ram, or should I just continue running the same config, and save money for an entirely new build ?

 

I'm also a CS and IT undergrad, so sometimes I can have anywhere from 4-10 VM's running (hence the 4 * 1 TB Disks in my old system).

 

Also, if I do upgrade to 32 gigs, together with a RAID 0 of 8 * 1TB Purple WDs (Raid controller and spare disks lying around from various builds), how many VMs can I run simultaneously run without the CPU being a bottleneck ?

 

 

[jiyeon]

If you can comfortably run this machine as a server with 8GB of memory, I don't see the need to max out the memory. Conversely, if you're limited by RAM, then by all means max it out.

 

Also, you said at the start you 'recently built a new system', but later say you might 'save money for an entirely new build', I'm assuming you mean build a new server machine?

[TheLaserCucumber]

You won’t get 10VMs running at one time on an i5, that won’t be possible.

I also suggest installing ESXi on an USB flash drive, not on the SSD.

ESXi 6.5 needs between 1 and 2GBs of RAM alone, how much you need depends on how much VMs you want to run simultaneously on the machine, but 10 isn’t realistic.

[drtech]

33 minutes ago, seoz said:

If you can comfortably run this machine as a server with 8GB of memory, I don't see the need to max out the memory. Conversely, if you're limited by RAM, then by all means max it out.

 

Also, you said at the start you 'recently built a new system', but later say you might 'save money for an entirely new build', I'm assuming you mean build a new server machine?

Oh yes, I meant a new server machine just for running VMs.

[drtech]

The max I've ever run on this machine is 5 Linux VMs, 2GB of ram for each.

 

I'm planning to start out in the ASP NET world, for which I'll now be running Windows Servers, which by comparison consume alot more ram than Linux, so I might run out of ram.

 

I guess I'll still be able to run 3-4 Win Servers on my current config and as @TheLaserCucumber stated, I can't run 10 VMs on an i5, so I see no use adding more ram.

I'll just save money and build something using some old xeons bought off of eBay.

[jiyeon]

10 minutes ago, Ausaf Ahmad said:

Oh yes, I meant a new server machine just for running VMs.

Ah, then you should probably build a new machine, it will be so much better at running servers.