Need Suggestions for Gaming Rig/Virtualization Host

[Arsynic]

I need suggestions on a rig for occasional gaming and to run a virtual lab. Haven't built in a few years so I don't know what's hot and what's not from a brand perspective.

I need to be able to run 3 VMs at a time, possibly while gaming on the same box. So I'll need at least 16 GB of RAM, a large SSD to run the boot drives of the VMs and the rig itself. Then I'll need a regular HDD for files and for VM secondary storage.

Not sure about the CPU and GPU? What's hot these days.

 

[Ken g6]

Could you please answer [thread=80121]these questions[/thread]?

In general, you probably want some size of Crucial MX100, unless you do extremely heavy writes to the SSD. And you'll probably want an Intel CPU - unless your budget is low.

 

[Arsynic]

Could you please answer [thread=80121]these questions[/thread]?

In general, you probably want some size of Crucial MX100, unless you do extremely heavy writes to the SSD. And you'll probably want an Intel CPU - unless your budget is low.

Ah Jeezus, totally forgot. Here you go...


1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

Virtualization and gaming

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

Objective over budget...the least amount to accomplish what I need.

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

USA
4. IF you're buying parts OUTSIDE the US, please post a link to the vendor you'll be buying from.
We can't be expected to scour the internet on your behalf, chasing down deals in your specific country... Again, help us, help YOU.

5. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.

Traditionally AMD for GPU, but I'm open

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

No

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
OC

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?
1080p

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?

Over a few months
Note that it is usually not cost or time effective to choose your build more than a month before you actually plan to be using it.

 

[mfenn]

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

Objective over budget...the least amount to accomplish what I need.

This is unfortunately not a very helpful answer. At least when its not accompanied by very detailed description of your requirements. If you don't want to give a budget, then you need to tell us:

- What games to do play?
- What detail settings do your require?
- What minimum/average FPS do you require?
- What applications are you going to be virtualizing (in detail)?
- What are your performance benchmarks for those applications?

If you give us a budget, we can get you the best machine within that dollar amount. Without one we need to know precise requirements, otherwise we're pretty much shooting in the dark.

 

[OlyAR15]

So, here are my choices:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor ($346.50 @ Directron)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($89.99 @ Mwave)
Motherboard: Asus X99-A ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($240.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: G.Skill Value Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($432.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial M500 960GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($409.58 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Green 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive ($139.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 980 4GB STRIX Video Card ($544.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Titanium) ATX Mid Tower Case ($107.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($13.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro (OEM) (64-bit) ($128.75 @ OutletPC)
Total: $2510.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-27 02:33 EST-0500

CPU/MB combo: Haswell-e with a decent x99 motherboard. This is Intel's cheapest of its current high end CPU, with 6 cores and hyperthreading. If you don't need a ton of features like wi-fi, the x99-a is a good board. You should be able to OC up to 4GHz or higher. Six cores should be useful for virtualization and games. Haswell-e CPU doesn't come with stock cooler, so you need an aftermarket unit. Since you plan on OCing, this is one of the better (and huge) coolers available. Can always go a bit cheaper if you don't plan to push the CPU too high.

RAM: 32GB should be sufficient. Given the price of DDR-4, I went with stock speed.

Drives: A 1TB SSD and a 4TB mechanical drive should offer you plenty of storage space. I went for space over speed. There are faster drives out there if you want to spend the money.

Video card: GTX980 is a very fast card, so you should be able to play virtually any game at high detail on a 1080p monitor, and should still be good if you decide to get a higher resolution one in the future. And you still have the option to go SLI as well.

Case and PSU: A decently roomy and quiet case without getting too large or too ostentatious. I have used Seasonic PSU for virtually all my computer builds, they make quiet and high quality units.

Optical drive: cheapest listed. Enough said.

OS: I'm assuming you might need the features of the pro version of Windows.

 

[Sleepingforest]

While OlyAR15's build is in principle what you need, I think it's a bit overkill and perhaps not well suited for the purposes of virtualization, particularly if you depend on the virtualizations being stable and error free. If that's the case, overclocking may not be necessary or even a good idea, and I think what matters more is CPU threads. Additionally, the 980 is almost certainly unnecessary, particularly since both the R9 290 and the GTX 970 sit on a much better part of the price/performance curve.

A generally more efficient usage of funds, for what in practice a very similar result:

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/QY4HQ7

CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2603 V3 1.6GHz 6-Core Processor ($224.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($33.28 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI X99S SLI Plus ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($214.99 @ Amazon)
Memory (get two): Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($190.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($174.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($96.93 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 290X 4GB TurboDuo Video Card ($262.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Antec Three Hundred Two ATX Mid Tower Case ($57.00 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($57.02 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: OEM Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro - 64-bit ($134.95 @ B&H)
Total: $1659.09 (without tax)

 

[mfenn]

An E5-2603 is not a good choice for a machine that is going to play games because it has a 1.6 GHz base clock and no Turbo. Games still rely on fast single-threaded performance in their critical sections, and 1.6 GHz isn't going to cut it.

I think that an i7 4790K build probably makes sense here, but will reserve judgement until the OP gets back to us with details.