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Thread: Virtualisation on old hardware

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    Virtualisation on old hardware

    Hello

    I've been looking at setting up a box to virtualise various operating systems and to generally play around with ideas. I'd like to be able to run a virtualised firewall (possibly pfsense, or a *nix distro, checkpoint etc), a windows box and a few other bits a pieces. It's not for a production environment just for general home use.

    I have some left over hardware from a few years ago:

    Intel core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 3.2ghz
    16GB DDR2 Crucial Ballistix
    Asus P5k-e motherboard

    That combined with a PCI-e NIC card and some extra storage.

    Do you think this hardware would be able to run the kind of set up I'm looking for? Or am I miles off?


    Thanks in advance,

    - Pompalomp
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    Re: Virtualisation on old hardware

    For playing about with and semi serious use, I think you'll be just fine especially seeing as you've got 16Gb of memory. I ran a Windows 7 VM on a 1.4Ghz dual core CPU with 4Gb memory and it was fine.
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    pompalomp (23-01-2014)

  4. #3
    Splash
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    Re: Virtualisation on old hardware

    Yeah, that'll largely be fine for tinkering, especially if using a bare metal hypervisor.

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    pompalomp (23-01-2014)

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    Re: Virtualisation on old hardware

    Throw ESXi on there and you'll be rocking. There are some specialised features that won't be available but you almost certainly will not need them.
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    Re: Virtualisation on old hardware

    My main worry was running the virtualised firewall. The other bits I can handle reasonable/slow performance but I would like the firewall to be reasonable.

    On another note, It's been AGES since i've been in the know with hardware. Can anyone recommend my a small form factor case which for the components I've outlined?

    Thanks.
    Last edited by pompalomp; 23-01-2014 at 06:12 PM.
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  8. #6
    Bagnaj97
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    Re: Virtualisation on old hardware

    Quad core with VT extensions, and plenty of RAM. For home use you'll be fine!

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    Re: Virtualisation on old hardware

    Yep it'll be fine! Throw ESXi on a memory stick on there and have some fun!!! Preferably use an SSD drive for data to make things a bit more snappy?

    Butuz

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    Re: Virtualisation on old hardware

    That machine will be great for a home setup, we used to have the xeon equivalent (was it the x3220) of that processor in production on some Dell R200's.

    I wouldn't worry about raw power for a virtualised firewall, the only exception being the latency required for SIP traffic, but I doubt that will be a problem with that config and a up to date version of ESXi or Hyper-V.

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    Re: Virtualisation on old hardware

    Performance will be more than OK. Power consumption may not. My old Q6600 computer (admittedly with a GFX card that uses 90 Watts at idle) used around 180 Watts at the wall idling.
    That's around £15/month on electricity for 24/7 use.
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    F.A.S.T. Butuz's Avatar
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    Re: Virtualisation on old hardware

    The thing is to drop the overclock and put it back to standard to try and keep it at under 100w power usage.

    Yes a more modern CPU with on board gfx would be much more efficient for a 24/7 machine, my 3770k & 3xR9-290 uses 80 watts idle, probably less than your Q6600 - but soo much more powerful!

    Butuz

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