Ok, I want to build a new "hybrid" machine to do 3 jobs:
1) Media Center (will be hooked up to TV via HDMI and Audio to Received via SP-DIF)
2) File Server
3) VMWare Host (for 2 Win XP Guests)
Now the thing is that I am trying to build a low electricity foot print machine, whilst making sure that the hardware is capable (more than capable) of doing what I need.
The real question I have is related to HD MKV playback.
Will an Athlon X2 cope or should I go Core2Duo ?
Should I go with nVidia, AMD or integrated gfx ?
I did have a machine all speced out but then someone threw the X2 into the mix (at 45W and cheaper than the C2D).
Opinions ?
Very PC Broadleaf (http://www.very-pc.co.uk/?section=Home%20Users&category=GreenPC&system=bl32-h-e53)
Problem is, no HDMI, but DVI should do it.
One of the old Tekheads/Tekmonkeys lads works there.
One of those atom dual core jobbies will do what you need as well.
Do you think an Atom would cope with running VMWare ?
That Broadleaf thing looks interesting :)
Get a CPU that will do hardware virtualisation tbh.
low power is fine but bang for watt the c2ds are pretty good.
For low power, and virtualisation youre most likely looking at a 45nm Athlon or Phenom. The Atom isnt really much cop once you start loading heavy things in to it. Also with the AMD you get a rather nice chipset in the form of the 780G-series with HDMI/DVI/VGA all packaged together.
Youll find that a fair few of the Intel CPus dont have hardware virtualisation built in, youll need to check for that. One dude I work with was upset that his overclocked 8200 wont support the free Windows XP with windows 7 because it doesnt have it, and thats not an old chip.
Ahh yeah I remember running into that problem when the BETA came out. Id forgotten all about it, nice one for reminding me :)
I think Im back to Intel now. Got my eye on either of these:
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz
or
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33GHz 1333FSB
The Quad is £10 cheaper but obviously slower cores. I am going to check the virtualisation support on them now :)
edit:
The Quad Core doesnt support Intel® Virtualization Technology so thats out then :)