Advice Needed on new rig, want to run 6 x VM's

[badger face]

Hey, so I want to buy a new system to run 6 x virtual machines for matched betting purposes. I'm going to try and set it up myself, but never messed with virtual machines before so will be relying on youtube for the setup side of things. But hoping someone can help set me off on the right path by guiding my equipment purchase as I don't want to waste money of course.

 

I want to know what sort of setup I'm going to need. I assume:

- a lot of of Ram,

- fairly decent processor (not sure how important a good one is? / or if extra cores provide much advantage)

- a big monitor

 

...but any other specific requirements? And will I be able to use 1 mouse and keyboard across all of them, or will they each have their own input devices? All help much appreciated thank you.

[JakeB]

Well you going to need alots of ram to run them all at the same time amd lots of HD space. You will also need a license for every install if your using WIndows OS. I have VM's for Linux but I don't run that all at teh same time. In have tons of disk space. 1 1tb SSD, 1tb HD and 750 GB HD plus tons of external space with 16 gb of ram. 

[Vvo]

For processor, you'll need an i7 6 core processor or more or a xeon processor if you have the money for that. Other than that, you'll need lots of ram and hdd space. If you're running vms with 2 gb of ram then you'll need at least 16 gb of ram minimum to run 6 vms simultaneously or 32 gb + if you choose to run vms @ 4gb of ram. 

[SIE]

Sorry mate but I don't understand the whole "matched betting" thing, what is it you want to do?

[Bryan R.]

In addition to RAM and suitable CPU, you really need fast storage. With the cost of SSDs now, I would go with some combination of those. You will notice a performance hit with HDDs, I guarantee it.

[badger face]

41 minutes ago, SIE said:

Sorry mate but I don't understand the whole "matched betting" thing, what is it you want to do?

Oh matched betting is kind of a UK thing, where you place bets on multiple outcomes to lock in profits. I make a killing by doing it, and helping my friends, hence i want to help my friends run their accounts all from 1 PC, but you need a different IP. Currently I have 6 laptops and 6x 3G dongles but it's a bit of a pain in the ass to use them all efficiently, and you kinda have to be quick sometimes. check out profitsquad.co.uk for more info on that, matched betting is awesome I will be funding this setup with my profit from last week alone. But anyway back to the topic:

 

30 minutes ago, Bryan R. said:

In addition to RAM and suitable CPU, you really need fast storage. With the cost of SSDs now, I would go with some combination of those. You will notice a performance hit with HDDs, I guarantee it.

Definitely going for an SSD, I assume only need 1 though? I will not be doing anything on these VMs besides placing bets / slot machines etc. so dont really need anything too resource-heavy on any end. I was thinking to install windows XP on all 6 to keep it very basic, would that be the best idea? I may need to install the occassional casino software (.exe) 

 

Also - as I've never used a VM before, can someone confirm they run kind of like any other window, so only need 1 mouse/keyboard to use all of them? Maybe I will just start with 4x VMs to see how I do, and then invest in a 2nd system for another 4x later down the line, if it's going to be heavy on resources.

 

Thanks for all the help though I really appreciate it. Not often I'm completely new to anything computer related but VMs are something I never thought I'd need til now.

[wiretap]

I'd recommend building a simple ESXi setup (free license). You can get away with pretty low hardware specs, but if you want to run more than 3 or 4 VM's, you'll need plenty of resources. You can pick up dual xeon Dell servers very cheap off of datacenter closeout wholesalers, Ebay, etc. Or you can even go the route of a small Intel NUC for just a few VM's. Recently, I just purchased a great setup from Natex. For $475, it came with an Intel S2600CP motherboard, 2x Intel Xeon E5-2670 CPU's, and Kingston 128GB DDR3-1333 ECC RAM. That gives you 16 cores / 32 threads and a ton of RAM to work with. They also sell other kits for less money, and older generation stuff like dual LGA1366 for dirt cheap. If you're going to run a low level hypervisor, first make sure your hardware is fully supported, or else you'll run into having to roll your own drivers in -- that can sometimes get tricky. Make sure the processor/mobo you choose supports virtualization technology like VT-d and virtualization directed I/O if you plan on doing hardware passthrough directly to the guest OS.

[PaulATMOS]

On 18 May 2016 at 7:09 AM, badger face said:

Oh matched betting is kind of a UK thing, where you place bets on multiple outcomes to lock in profits. I make a killing by doing it, and helping my friends, hence i want to help my friends run their accounts all from 1 PC, but you need a different IP. Currently I have 6 laptops and 6x 3G dongles but it's a bit of a pain in the ass to use them all efficiently, and you kinda have to be quick sometimes. check out profitsquad.co.uk for more info on that, matched betting is awesome I will be funding this setup with my profit from last week alone. But anyway back to the topic:

 

Definitely going for an SSD, I assume only need 1 though? I will not be doing anything on these VMs besides placing bets / slot machines etc. so dont really need anything too resource-heavy on any end. I was thinking to install windows XP on all 6 to keep it very basic, would that be the best idea? I may need to install the occassional casino software (.exe) 

 

Also - as I've never used a VM before, can someone confirm they run kind of like any other window, so only need 1 mouse/keyboard to use all of them? Maybe I will just start with 4x VMs to see how I do, and then invest in a 2nd system for another 4x later down the line, if it's going to be heavy on resources.

 

Thanks for all the help though I really appreciate it. Not often I'm completely new to anything computer related but VMs are something I never thought I'd need til now.

Who do you bet with, Bet365?

[+Biscuits Brown MVC]

Your biggest challenge will be the need for different ip's. My guess is you are behind a router so all 6 vm's are going to have the same external IP.

[PaulATMOS]

you can often cover any losses and make a profit in head to head sports betting as the odds change throughout the match. For instance, you put $500 on one team at 2.50 while the other team would be at 1.50. The team who's odds were 2.50 starts dominating the game so the odds for this drop down to say 1.20. The team who's odds were 1.50 drifts out to say 4.20. You can then put $200 on this team at 4.20. This will guarantee you a profit regardless of the winner. 

[badger face]

6 hours ago, freqnasty said:

Who do you bet with, Bet365?

Yes, and everyone else. The site i mentioned posts loopholes too, made 6k the other week when they found a casino offer on william hill where you could avoid the wagering requirements completely and also had a 50% chance of trebling your deposit. good stuff! that's how i'm buying my new rig haha.

 

6 hours ago, Zag L. said:

Your biggest challenge will be the need for different ip's. My guess is you are behind a router so all 6 vm's are going to have the same external IP.

I've seen someone else do this with 3G dongles - I have no idea how, and neither did they as they hired a tech guy to come in and set it all up. But basically he has 3 computers with 3 monitors and about 16 VMs across them all, each on a different IP address via dongles. Was just hoping to set up a similar rig here on a smaller scale to begin with.

 

7 hours ago, wiretap said:

I'd recommend building a simple ESXi setup (free license). You can get away with pretty low hardware specs, but if you want to run more than 3 or 4 VM's, you'll need plenty of resources. You can pick up dual xeon Dell servers very cheap off of datacenter closeout wholesalers, Ebay, etc. Or you can even go the route of a small Intel NUC for just a few VM's. Recently, I just purchased a great setup from Natex. For $475, it came with an Intel S2600CP motherboard, 2x Intel Xeon E5-2670 CPU's, and Kingston 128GB DDR3-1333 ECC RAM. That gives you 16 cores / 32 threads and a ton of RAM to work with. They also sell other kits for less money, and older generation stuff like dual LGA1366 for dirt cheap. If you're going to run a low level hypervisor, first make sure your hardware is fully supported, or else you'll run into having to roll your own drivers in -- that can sometimes get tricky. Make sure the processor/mobo you choose supports virtualization technology like VT-d and virtualization directed I/O if you plan on doing hardware passthrough directly to the guest OS.

Thanks very much for the insight, i'm not sure what half of it means but at least I have things to google now I am UK based though so I doubt i'll be able to buy anything at the prices you mentioned but I'll look into it. To buy a PC with an i7 and 32gb of RAM and SSD etc. seems to be £900+ (about $1300) but maybe the things you listed are cheaper for some reason. Will do some research after work, thank you for the help

[T3X4S]

Rule #1 in business when buying equipment:   Never go cheap.

You dont need to go all Rolls Royce, but if you want a ROI - get the Cadillac, since you're in UK.. (a mid level Mercedes)

 

 

 

[Luis M]

Did you manage to get your VM setup? Would love some help!

[Jim K Global Moderator]

Luis M, please start a new thread with your question w/ respect to VMs.  This thread is almost 3 years old.

 

//locked