[plug] Hardware and Vmware

[Kim Covil]

> 
> I am contemplating upgrading my system as I need a larger drive and a
> little more speed would be nice.
> Have followed passed debate and comments from some on the list about the
> value of SMP systems verses faster single processor with buckets of ram.
> At least where it applies to single user systems.
> I am running a small home office on my PC and find I am using Vmware
> quite a bit and would probably leave it running if it did not slooow my
> system down so much.
> 
> Would VM run any better or faster on an SMP system?  Would I still be
> better served to spend my money on the fastest single processor RAM
> combination I could afford?  
> I have considered running two machines but power consumption is a
> factor.
> 
> Any comments or directly related experiences would be appreciated.

I have just bought myself a new SMP machine... and am intending on
running vmware on it... we have it running here at work on a Dual
Celeron 300 (overclocked to 450) and it runs very nicely on one machine
and has had some problems on another... we are not entirely sure of the
cause of the problems on the other machine but I personally have a
feeling it has to do with Windows 95's Hardware profiles not being
anything near what they should be and the Windows installation getting
confused as to which configuration it is running in... (we are running
it on a native partition so we can dual boot to Windows natively if
needed)

The machine I have just bought is a Dual Celeron 400 using A-bit's new
BP6 board which takes the Socket370 PPGA Celerons directly rather than
requiring an adaptor card... seems to be a nice board with two UDMA/66 
IDE channels and 2 normal IDE channels for ~$300 inc tax... with the
Celerons at ~$140 each it seemed a good deal

I haven't had the chance to actually play with it yet as I was still
aquiring components as of today... I will let you know how it goes if
you are interested...

Cheers

Kim

-- 
====================================================================== 
Kim Covil - Australian Geodynamics CRC   E-mail: kimc at ned.dem.csiro.au 
            CSIRO Exploration & Mining   Tel: +61 8 9284 8425   ,-_!\
            PO Box 437, Nedlands,        Fax: +61 8 9389 1906  /     \
            Western Australia  6009                            *_,-._/   
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   Please direct all personal e-mail to kimbotha at it.net.au