Hi, I've been a while without a machine and am looking to build a rig I can happily run Dynamips/Dynagen and GNS3 on for lab work. I'm thinking of a Pentium Dual-Core E5200 as a start....any thoughts?
Printable View
Hi, I've been a while without a machine and am looking to build a rig I can happily run Dynamips/Dynagen and GNS3 on for lab work. I'm thinking of a Pentium Dual-Core E5200 as a start....any thoughts?
Im not familiar with those programs but presuming theyre multi-threaded as I believe most things are these days in lab settings then you would see a lot more legs from a quad and esp an i7 machine. Depends really on how much budget you have. There is nothing wrong with the E5200 if thats what your budget can go to though. It clocks fantastically and is great bang for buck.
Hawker
Interesting looking program, but I couldn't see any hints as to what hardware it runs best on.
Is there a forum specific to that program that you can ask people on?
It could well be that it doen't matter, are you looking to test what happens when you tinker with things or are you expecting long simulation runs?
The E5200 is a fairly safe platform, but as others have said, you'd need to find whether it is multi-threaded or not before buying a CPU :)
Thanks for the replies, requirements are a bit thin on the ground at the official site but I did find this:
I'm not really up on my processors (been out of the loop for a while - last pc was an athlon 2500+ barton mobile jobby a few years back) so would the E5200 do the job? I guess it's quite a bit faster than 1.86Ghz on paper so I'd assume it would be fine from that perspective......Quote:
# Intel Core 2 Duo 1.86Ghz (x86_64bit, there is no 32bit equivalent)
Notes: Higher processor is not necessary, unless you want to run other IOS images that require 128MB of RAM
# 2GB RAM (preferrably two 1GB modules)
Notes: 1GB RAM will not be enough, even if you see only around 500MB memory used, performance will be bad.
# Intel D946 GZIS Chipset Motherboard
Notes: You can use other motherboards
I would get an Intel Pentium E6300 as it has virtualisation which the E5200 lacks and this maybe useful. The AMD Athlon II X2 250 is also a good processor but in this case I am uncertain whether the software you will be using has a preferance for Intel processors or not.
This is what I would be looking at getting:
Intel Pentium E6300 ~£63
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Intel...tio-65W-Retail
4gb PC2-6400 RAM ~ £37
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=1018761
Coolermaster Elite 340 case with 460w PSU ~ £50
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coole...60W-PSU-Fitted
Western Digital 500gb hard drive ~ £40
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/500-G...MB-Cache-89-ms
Asus P5QL-EM G43 motherboard ~ ££67
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...-Micro-ATX-VGA
Has all solid capacitors which in theory should mean better reliability. Has integrated graphics onboard.
The total comes to just under £260 excluding postage,an optical drive and some case fans.
However remember that almost all G41 and most of the G43 based motherboards have issues running more than two sticks of RAM . If you want to run 4 sticks of RAM(if you need 8gb for example) I would look at getting a G45 based motherboard.
Remember you can get free postage from Scan for being a Hexus member with over 20 posts!! :)
Hi,
Thanks for the replies.
I think the better CPU and mobo are worth it for <£25 difference. I like to play around with machines so hardware virtualization support might well be worth it.
List so far (from Scan):
- Asus P5Q-VM, iG45, S 775, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR2 1066(OC)/667/800, SATA II, Micro ATX, VGA | £81.19
- Intel E6300 FSB 1066MHz | £62.31
- 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX DDR2 XMS2, PC2-8500 (1066), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-6-6-18, EPP | £39.66
I've got a good Antec case (think it's an older Sonata one?). the psu isn't 24 bpin so I recon I've got 2 choices....
1. Get a new case like the Coolermaster one CAT-THE-FIFTH mentioned ~£50
2. Just get a PSU - 500w Arctic Cooling 550RF Fusion PFC PSU 2x PCI-E, 2x 80w Fans (AC-FUSION550RF) 82%+ eff £56.34inc from Scan.
I guess 500w should be plenty although I might add a GPU later.
Do I look like I'm on the right lines?
Thanks :)
Yes get a new PSU, but not that one. Arctic Cooling is not worth the risk, get a Corsair VX450 which is the same price but much much better quality.
Hawker
Found the Corsair VX450 for £49.99 + free P&P on Play so a few quid saved over the Arctic Cooling one.
Now I've spotted the HX version on Scan.....is it worth the extra £7?
hx is modular, so upto you, depends on case size and if your into cable management :).
From what I can see the HX also has 3 rails instead of 1 which I'm guessing is better if I might add a GPU later....I've got 2 x SATA and 1 x PATA drives in my case already so the 8 rather than 6 connectors might give me some more breathing space if I add more stuff into the box.
Think I'm almost sorted on what I'm going to get now.
Thanks for all the help guys.