Which is the better VMware server
Ok, I have two machines that are halfway decent. (Besides my gaming box, but that's not in play) I want to run a vmware session on it so that my old laptop doesn't feel so slow. (It's an old Inspiron 2500 with 512MB of RAM, though it does have the 1GHz CPU) Machine 1: Dual 1GHz P3 with 2GB of PC-133 SDRAM These CPU's both have 512kB of cache (identical steppings) ServerWorks chipset Built-in 64-bit PCI SCSI Machine 2: Single 2GHz P4 with 1.5GB of PC-133 SDRAM This is the socket 478 version with 256kB of cache i845 chipset 32-bit PCI SCSI I'm torn because the old machine has more RAM, and a better SCSI interface. The slightly newer machine is really a desktop, but it has a much faster CPU. I'll probably try both, and pick the one that seems to run better. They are both running Centos 5.

I think the P3 actually is slightly faster than a P4 GHz-per-GHz. I think the first machine will perform better as it has 2GHz worth of P3.

I am going to agree with Star882 here, defiantely the dual P3 box.

dual over single...two separate cpu core pipelines will work to your advantage at least, that's my opinion.

In my experience with VMWare, it is all about memory... so I would vote for the P3, too. To be more explicit, IMHO the order of importance is: RAM, Disk, CPU. (I currently am running 3 Win2k, 4 WinXP, and one Win 2k Terminal server on a WinXP64 box with 8GB ram running VMWare Workstation 6. VMWare loves the ram. Cpu load levels are "relatively" low.)

When allocating processor speed to a VM(I use the online easy VM creator), Can you dedicate your full processor speed? Or will that cause problems?

We have an 8-way (dual quad-core) Centos machine at work, and you can specify as many CPU's/cores as the machine has for each VM (at least in VMware server). I have a dual-core in my work laptop, and I use both in my VM's. That box is nice - it has 16GB of DDR2, a metric crapload of disk storage (2.5TB) in a mirrored RAID6 config. We maxed out as much as we could for $5.5k, and our Dell rep got us a 30% discount, so we tossed in the next grade up CPU's. :twisted: I neglected to mention (since both machines have Ultra160 SCSI controllers) that the primary data drives are 10k Ultra-160 SCSI disks with at least 8MB of cache (I think the Fujitsu may have 16MB) The disk subsystem rocks. It may not beat SATA2, but it still kicks the crap out of SATA (1). The only drawback is that the dual P3 is pure server. Instead of AGP slots, you get 2x 64-bit 66MHz PCI-X slots. Great for adding gigabit ethernet (and having it actually perform), but not so great for video. I have an old Rage 128 PCI card handling video. However, I don't plan to ever actually sit at the console unless the SSHd server is busted. :) Right now I've got Centos 5 running on both machines, and I'm trying to install VMWare server2 beta 2. (It's got better support for USB 2.0)

Radarman, Is the point just doing it with the hardware as it exists, you do not want to spend any money, or machine limits? I can't believe you don't have a box full of memory somewhere. I suspect most of us do, and you are more of a heavy hitter than most of us.

I'm married - so most of my stuff is old, or company hand-me-downs. :evil: Seriously, I have a house full of 5-8 year old stuff. But, most of it works. A lot of it was high-end in the day, and is still rock stable. Frankly, I've had more problems out of the newer systems at work than with the older systems at home. My brand new Intel dual-core laptop has already had to be serviced once in the 6 months I've had it. My fas-*test*-('") personal machine is my AMD 4400+ system with 4GB of RAM. I'm using that for gaming and game modding. I suppose I could do engineering work on it, and I probably will, but my wife hates it when I sit upstairs all night. Thus, I have my old PIII laptop that I use downstairs on the wireless. The next two "decent" machines are my 2GHz P4 system with 1.5GB of RAM, and my dual 1GHZ P3 system with 2GB of RAM. I just won a couple of bids on eBay for 1GB ECC PC133 modules (I scored the first for $3 + $7 shipping) I'm trying to see if the second guy will combine shipping, since I won the modules for $2/each. That should push my dual P3 system to 3GB and my P4 to 2GB with ECC. (It currently isn't using ECC). If all goes well, I should be able to get my two "second best" machines close to their limits for less than $30. The idea is that I can either VNC or VMware console into the server upstairs, so I'm not limited by the 512MB in my laptop. I am keeping my fingers crossed that when the new server at work comes in, I *might* be able to score a dual Xeon (p4 class) machine. It's a Dell Poweredge. My boss will probably claim it, but if he doesn't, and it goes up for grabs, I'm going to toss my hat in the ring.

I wish you luck with the dual xeon.

I managed to bring one more old dually up today. I was given an Iwill DVD266-R mainboard a while back, and it had one good 1GHz PIII in it. The other PIII was toast - aparently the result of someone failing to secure the heat sink properly. However, I was able to dig up a 933MHz PIII which apparently is "close enough" to boot in SMP mode with the other CPU. (you don't have to match the steppings exactly for older PIII's to run in SMP mode - just make sure they are in the same family) So, I now have a dual 933MHz PIII with 1.25GB of DDR memory. I discovered that one of my sticks of 512MB DDR is bad. However, even with limited RAM, it should be an interesting box. It's a shame that the only full ATX case I have left is a piece of shiznit. At any rate, I'm running a memory diagnostic on it now, and if it runs OK, I may just hold on to this beastie.

Case? Who needs a case? I ran one pc for about a year and a half 24/7 without a case. Of course, long ago heat wasn't that big of a problem. I didn't have a wife complaining about the unsafe pile of junk making noise in the office either.

Just as an aside... If your VM guests are LInux (or OpenSolaris, FreeBSD, couple others), you may want to consider Xen over VMWare. Xen has a Paravirtualization model where the guests run a Xen-aware kernel, resulting in significant speed increases. Xen also supports full hardware virtualization like VMWare should you need to run Windows, but that may be slightly slower. SaturnNights, what are you asking about pwerboox vs sun ultra2? I can tell you that the Ultra2 is a nice box but is not competitive with anything relatively recent even at maximum configuration. edit Never mind I see you're selling one.