[OT?] a viable laptop for exploring virtualization on f11?

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Sun, 5 Apr 2009, Peter Robinson wrote:

> >  at the moment, my laptops aren't adequate.  one is merely 32-bit
> > with PAE, while the others are 64-bit AMD but without the AMD-V
> > virtualization extensions; hence, no possibility of experimenting
> > with KVM (right?)
>
> All the current Intel Centrino platforms have support for the intel
> extensions.

  i was checking out both the intel and AMD virt extensions and the
one thing i wanted to verify was that both were equally acceptable for
supporting KVM.  i don't know enough about the differences to make a
distinction, so if there's any reason one would be noticeably superior
to the other, by all means, let me know.  otherwise, it comes down to
pretty much a matter of money.

> I find the penryn processors very good and have run up to 3-4 virt
> machines on my Dell D630. It has a T9300 processor which has 6 meg
> cache (not sure how useful that is for virt) but I would recommend
> lots of RAM, and a 7200 RPM HDD.

  a 7200 RPM HDD would be delightful but i'm trying to keep this
within budget.  up here, the *starting* price for a D630 at dell.ca is
almost $1400 cdn (and that's with merely the T7250 processor -- if you
upgrade to a T9500, that adds $440 to the price).  i can get the
aforementioned refurbished gateway with 4G RAM for less than $800.
for that saving, i can live with a 5400 RPM drive, or just buy one
separately for way less than that difference.

  in any event, it sounds like the gateway is a viable platform, so
i'll probably go with that.  but any other recommendations that come
in under $1000 cdn are always welcome.

rday
--

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Robert P. J. Day
Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry:
    Have classroom, will lecture.

http://crashcourse.ca                          Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
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