Hi everyone,
I'm looking at purchasing a Mac so that I can do research and eventual deployment for Windows applications and technologies via VMWare when VMWare Fusion becomes available for purchase, while having it double as my daily usage computer that I use for general tasks and Mac administration (e.g. ARD for the domain and building/updating Mac images for deployment).
My current VMWare development environment consists of the following VMs, with all of them running Windows Server 2003 Standard, and all run simultaneously:
* Domain Controller running DHCP, DNS, and Active Directory,
* Exchange 2003 (soon to be Exchange 2007),
* SQL Server 2005,
* 2 Office SharePoint Server 2007 servers,
* 3 ISA Server Enterprise servers, and
* 2 XP Pro session.
Here's the Mac I had in mind to handle this, as I have a budget of $3,000 to spend:
Mac Pro:
* 2 x 2.0 GHz,
* 10 GB memory (1 GB + 1 GB displaced from another Mac Pro + 8 GB kit purchased elsewhere),
* 250 GB SATA-2 drive for VM environment,
* 150 GB WD Raptor for boot drive, and
* All other options are either minimum available and/or not included (e.g. AirPort Extreme). I'm putting more money into the memory since the VM's performance seems to be more RAM than CPU when you reach a certain CPU speed.
It seems that the Mac Pro would be the most logical choice for this, but I'm curious if a C2D iMac could handle a load like this too, as the P4 H/T PC I have is doing the job (albeit barely).
What's your thoughts?
Thanks! 🙂
I'm looking at purchasing a Mac so that I can do research and eventual deployment for Windows applications and technologies via VMWare when VMWare Fusion becomes available for purchase, while having it double as my daily usage computer that I use for general tasks and Mac administration (e.g. ARD for the domain and building/updating Mac images for deployment).
My current VMWare development environment consists of the following VMs, with all of them running Windows Server 2003 Standard, and all run simultaneously:
* Domain Controller running DHCP, DNS, and Active Directory,
* Exchange 2003 (soon to be Exchange 2007),
* SQL Server 2005,
* 2 Office SharePoint Server 2007 servers,
* 3 ISA Server Enterprise servers, and
* 2 XP Pro session.
Here's the Mac I had in mind to handle this, as I have a budget of $3,000 to spend:
Mac Pro:
* 2 x 2.0 GHz,
* 10 GB memory (1 GB + 1 GB displaced from another Mac Pro + 8 GB kit purchased elsewhere),
* 250 GB SATA-2 drive for VM environment,
* 150 GB WD Raptor for boot drive, and
* All other options are either minimum available and/or not included (e.g. AirPort Extreme). I'm putting more money into the memory since the VM's performance seems to be more RAM than CPU when you reach a certain CPU speed.
It seems that the Mac Pro would be the most logical choice for this, but I'm curious if a C2D iMac could handle a load like this too, as the P4 H/T PC I have is doing the job (albeit barely).
What's your thoughts?
Thanks! 🙂