[kwlug-disc] new hardward for linux - recommendations?

[Darcy Casselman]

On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 7:58 AM, Insurance Squared Inc.
<gcooke at insurancesquared.com> wrote:
> We need:
> 1) powerful processor.  I want to run a 64 bit version of linux on it though
> of course we don't need much power for that.  But she also runs virtualbox
> with XP inside it and that does need some horsepower.

Any desktop processor is going to be 64 bit these days.  And processor
isn't your biggest concern for virtualization, honestly.  Although
make sure you get a processor with virtualization support.

RAM is the biggest concern for running virtual box.  2GB minumum (1GB
for WinXP, 1GB for Linux).  More is better, as always.

The other big performance factor for virtual machines is harddrive.
The difference in performance between a disk image file on a spinning
disk and a disk image file on a SSD is staggering.  If you're going to
splurge on anything, get a fast SSD.  It's worth it.

> 2) quiet.  The box sits on her desk in our home so quiet is better.

Beware chipset fans!  Also VGA fans.  Tiny fans in general are bad
news.  You're probably looking at something less than top of the line
power-wise if you want quiet, unless you feel up for putting together
a liquid cooling rig.  Try to get something with as few fans as
possible.  And if there are fans, make sure they're big.

Darcy.