Hi guys,
A bit of background:
Currently my aging rig (which I've been using for some light gaming, multimedia, browsing, documents, etc) running on Core 2 Duo E6700 is about due for a refresh.
Since the beginning, I've relied on my work notebook or workstation for anything more robust (running multiple VMs, etc). But now that I'm going for a new build, there's a few things I need:
1. Power to run multiple clustered VMs - This is a must for my work, so i'll definitely need VT (or whatever its called now) enabled on the CPU
2. Minimum of 4 cores, so I'll have room to run 3-4 VMs (on Solaris/Linux/Windows) at a time, preferably 6.
3. Something that will work well with large RAM allocations and potentially dual GPUs down the line
I'm planning to go for some gaming-focused hardware this time round (HD 7970/GTX 680 minimum, decent ASUS ROG mobo, several SSDs, 32Gb performance RAM, etc), so I'll be able to have fun as well as work, and hopefully be set for at least the next 3 years or so.
I've been hoping that there would be a consumer 6-core desktop Haswell out by now, but it doesn't seem to be happening. I ask about the cores specifically because of the demands of running multiple clustered VMs at once.
My question is: Is it worth taking the plunge and getting a 4-core Haswell that supports virtualization now, or should I wait a few months?
Btw, I'm not anything near a build expert, feel free to point out any misconceptions I may have
A bit of background:
Currently my aging rig (which I've been using for some light gaming, multimedia, browsing, documents, etc) running on Core 2 Duo E6700 is about due for a refresh.
Since the beginning, I've relied on my work notebook or workstation for anything more robust (running multiple VMs, etc). But now that I'm going for a new build, there's a few things I need:
1. Power to run multiple clustered VMs - This is a must for my work, so i'll definitely need VT (or whatever its called now) enabled on the CPU
2. Minimum of 4 cores, so I'll have room to run 3-4 VMs (on Solaris/Linux/Windows) at a time, preferably 6.
3. Something that will work well with large RAM allocations and potentially dual GPUs down the line
I'm planning to go for some gaming-focused hardware this time round (HD 7970/GTX 680 minimum, decent ASUS ROG mobo, several SSDs, 32Gb performance RAM, etc), so I'll be able to have fun as well as work, and hopefully be set for at least the next 3 years or so.
I've been hoping that there would be a consumer 6-core desktop Haswell out by now, but it doesn't seem to be happening. I ask about the cores specifically because of the demands of running multiple clustered VMs at once.
My question is: Is it worth taking the plunge and getting a 4-core Haswell that supports virtualization now, or should I wait a few months?
Btw, I'm not anything near a build expert, feel free to point out any misconceptions I may have