Phenom II X6 1055T or i7 930?

[wilsonian]

Hello,

I'm soon to be upgrading my very old and slow P4 3.4ghz system with a new all singing all dancing box. Now the days of my gaming are long over so no worries about getting a super fast GPU setup however one thing I am very keen on is VM ware which I understand can be very memory intensive.

With this in mind I've decided to buy one of the 3XS Overclocked bundles from scan however picking the right one is causing me trouble.

Do I opt for the AMD Hex core CPU with only 4GB double channel RAM or take the Intel i7 route with Triple memory RAM? my budget for the memory, CPU (inc cooler) and board is around £600ish however that doesn't mean I have to spend all that on just the bundle.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[kalniel]

If you are concentrating on VM stuff then I'd recommend the Phenom - AMD-V is superior to Intels VT IMHO.

If you're worried about memory then 4gb modules are coming in these days, and soon won't carry too much of a premium.

[Skulltrail]

How many VMs will you be running concurrently and of what type? If more than three or so desktops or a couple of servers, I would say either ask Scan to put and extra 4GB with the 1055T or go with the 6GB with the 930.

I think ultimately it will be other factors such as disk IOPS that will be limiting rather the either of those CPUs, especially once the 3XS guys have got their hands on them.

[wilsonian]

Well an SSD is on the cards later in the year once I've paid a few other bills off.

I'm planning on running router simulators (study for CCNP) with a few terminals hanging off the networks for testing.