Which VM should I use with my HT i7 920?

Question stated in the title : Which VM should I use with my 8 thread cpu? I tried vmware player and I confirm it can only use 4 threads.

My main concern is octo-thread support, and the fact that the memory allowed to the VM is not dynamic, it's fixed and spare (attributed to the vm but not used) memory is unusable by the host OS.

Dynamic ram ? 8 threads? Free VM software? Am i asking for too much?

I downloaded VMware server yesterday and will configure ubuntu tonight. Would Kubuntu or xubuntu be more efficient than ubuntu? Lots of questions, i know. I think I'll give fedora a try, it looks neat. I read on wiki about linux distributions with a scientific apps oriented use..

I'm very bothered that I have (do I really have to?) to attribute 4GB of my precious ram to the VM, which only leaves me 2GB for gaming/idling/surfing internet/anything I'm doing on my 64bit win7! I'd LOVE my host and my guest OS to share the same pool of memory. Is that an hypervisor job?

Thank you for your help.. I like you all guys :D

If you use the player version 3.0 that comes with 7.0 of workstation (not 7.0.1) then the player will work for 8 threads.

I have an i7 920, and I chose to run the latest folding CPU version because if you run 8 threads it'll take up less than 1GB for all 8 threads combined.

The choice is either max PPD using VMplayer I mentioned above and losing 5GB of RAM for your virtual machine, or run 8 threads in Windows and lose only 1GB of RAM.

Me personally, I ran the vmplayer machine with 5GB of ram on my machne with 12GB of RAM and had no problems.

ESXi and vSphere can the new Hyper-V in server 2008 R2 has dynamic ram etc as well.
Free? yeah you asking for to much maybe.
i would check out VirtualBox

VirtualBox will definitely work for 8 threads.

Back when VmWare player came out (3.0.0...), it had slightly higher performance than VB. That may or may not have changed, so that is your call. Just make sure to give the VM >= 4600mbs of memory.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by josh1980

7.0 of workstation (not 7.0.1) then the player will work for 8 threads.

I have an i7 920, and I chose to run the latest folding CPU version because if you run 8 threads it'll take up less than 1GB for all 8 threads combined.

The choice is either max PPD using VMplayer I mentioned above and losing 5GB of RAM for your virtual machine, or run 8 threads in Windows and lose only 1GB of RAM.

Me personally, I ran the vmplayer machine with 5GB of ram on my machne with 12GB of RAM and had no problems.

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I have the latest version of Vmware workstation on my desktop. Only 4 threads support? If it's only 4 threaded it's going in the trashcan.

The 8 cpu clients, I can not do that.. Too complicated for too little benefit, plus I use the pc everyday so there is too much potential for it to go wrong. I only use 2GB of ram

Using 4GB of ram for a VM would be ok for me, since I use max 2GB while gaming or else, but dynamic ram adressing would be downright perfect!!! 5GB permanent is too much, i'd need another kit.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bot@xs

ESXi and vSphere can the new Hyper-V in server 2008 R2 has dynamic ram etc as well.
Free? yeah you asking for to much maybe.
i would check out VirtualBox

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I have some experience with virtualbox, we tried it in on of my classes. I have acces to msdnaa stuff, so microsoft softwares are not out of reach. Is hyper-v a software or an OS?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ColonelCain

VirtualBox will definitely work for 8 threads.

Back when VmWare player came out (3.0.0...), it had slightly higher performance than VB. That may or may not have changed, so that is your call. Just make sure to give the VM >= 4600mbs of memory.

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Alright then I download VBox, because at the moment it's the most appropriate VM. I don't really like using older versions of stuff. Why 4.5 GB and not 4 or 5?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by metalop1g

I have some experience with virtualbox, we tried it in on of my classes. I have acces to msdnaa stuff, so microsoft softwares are not out of reach. Is hyper-v a software or an OS??

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little bit of both
server 2008 has hyper-v included as an extension to the OS.
but there is a standalone version of the hyper-v server, kind of like ESXi

Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserv...perv-main.aspx

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2
http://www.microsoft.com/hyper-v-ser...s/default.aspx

It sounds like I<d have to flush my main partition (win7). Am i wrong?

i know you can dual boot with server 2008, not sure about hyper-v server
they assume a fresh install

Quote:

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Originally Posted by metalop1g

Alright then I download VBox, because at the moment it's the most appropriate VM. I don't really like using older versions of stuff. Why 4.5 GB and not 4 or 5?

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That's why I said greater than or equal to 4600mbs.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by metalop1g

I have the latest version of Vmware workstation on my desktop. Only 4 threads support? If it's only 4 threaded it's going in the trashcan.

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Then the trash can is where it will go. I was running VMWare Workstation 7.0.0 on my computer, so I had VMWare Player 3.0.0 installed (comes with Workstation). Strangely Workstation would not give me 8 threads, but Player would. In January it gave me the weekly message that there was an update. Since I wanted to have all the latest and greatest fixes, I updated. Poof, My F@H VM Machine would no longer work. I downgraded back to VMWare 7.0.0 and went right back to folding.

So yeah, to the trash is where it will go.

Damnit look at this screenshot. I deleted 3.0.1 and installed back 3.0.0 and this is what I get.
http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/5185/4threads.th.png

That's because once you open the file in the new vmware version it changes the settings of the vmware image file. You'll need to change the settings back manually.