Hi guys
before taking the plunge i would like to get your opinion.
Since this is serious to me , i take time to lay down my concerns and nothing less then 7 questions
My goals would be to have a few VM for my needs, witch are:

firewall/loadbalancer i was thinking pfsense
Nas ... freenas
Media : XBMC or maybe DLNA trough PS3 but i am having problem lately whit that, but that's another chapter:)

Here s what i have in mind for the setup
i7 3770, i could consider a i5
16 or 32 GB , i was curious to know how much the speed is important ?
i was thinking of 1600 but i would consider

Either a MSI Z77 or a Asrock Z77 board
I am undecided because of the number of sata3 and pcie 3gen 16x
available. any suggestion on the board would be appreciated

Anyways here is the real question :
Is it possible to pass the Intel raid to the vm for freenas or similar ?
would it be possible to do the same thing whit the other controler Asmedia ASM1061 ?

Also i am wondering if the same would apply for a XBMC type VM trough a GPU?
how good this will render ?

Also i do have a Crucial M4 64G SSD , would there be any used for that and where ? to load the VM ? , maybe cache the Raid ?

I know this a little bit high expectation, i tried to read here and there but the awnser vary over time and from a site to another. but still i am curious to know what you guys think about the feasibility

Thank you in advance for reading and answers ..

> i was curious to know how much the speed is important ?
Typically in a lab / home environment memory is more important than CPU speed. I'd go with 32 GB (or at least a system that is 32 GB capable).

> any suggestion on the board would be appreciated
Given that you want to use VMdirectpath I'd go with an Intel or server based MB.

> SSD
you could use it as a fast datastore, or within a VM. Definitely don't install ESXi on it as it won't use it. ESXi can use SSD for a swap file, but in that case ESXi would be running low on memory.

> Is it possible to pass the Intel raid to the vm
I'm not sure anyone has been able to do this, but technically one should be able to.

Ram: Yhea i think you are right ill go for 32g, my question about the speed was related to the memory not the cpu. Does it worth to buy higher speed memory (1600 vs 2333) since the z77 chipset , from what i read in a benchmark article it doesn't seems to make that such a big difference
Anyways i think ill go for 32gb of 1600, unless anyone recommend me not to.

Mobo. I definally want a intel board. I am really looking into the z77 chipset but i hesitate to get a x79 since it have capability of 64g instead of 32g, more slot for the ram , Quad channel , memory and more 16x lane of pcie , of corse it a hight price ... as i said im leaning toward MSI and ASrock on the Z77 but i am considering anything. and i am curious to see if anyone had success in what i am trying to do : NAS / GPU passstrough. Altough in the success section. there is the confirmation from users that the z77 have vtd working.

SSD : thanks for the recommendation, its appreciated

Raid: I realise that Intel Matrix raid is a software raid and i have read in this post that someone is doing it .
in this very interesting EPIC thread more incline on GPU VT-D ,
user : somedude1234 post 41, page 3 http://communities.vmware.com/thread/29 ... 0&tstart=0
later on someone ask more info on page user debink, Page 6 post 81

I am wondering if when u pass a SATA controller , you can pass only a few port or if u have to pass all of them, affecting other drive ?

Thank you for your reply, its such interesting topic...
I am curious to know if anyone had success doing either Intel SATA or GPU, pass trough ???

Anyone else ...

I wouldn't worry too much about the slower memory speed.

You can usually pass through a complete disk to a VM with Raw Device Mappings. RDMs are supported with SAN LUNs, but you can run the appropriate cmds to configure local disks as RDMs. vm-help.com/esx40i/SATA_RDMs.php

Definaly thanks for yours replies.

Whitch MB would u recommend , Asrock or MSI,

Here are some of my experiences with Passthrough and other VMWare "stuffs."

1) Memory speed is more or less unimportant. Your transfer rates to and from memory do not scale linearly with memory speed. It's more like a square root or even less. It's basically a way to get you to pay more for RAM.

2) I have not been successful in passing through an ICH10R disk controller on any motherboard.

3) I have only ever been successful in passing through ATI graphics cards. I've not been able to get an nVidia card to work in passthrough. My experience has been that this is not a worthwhile endeavor since passing through a GPU introduces so many headaches.

4) If you pass through a SATA controller, you indeed will pass through all of the ports on it. You can't pick and choose individual ports to pass through.

So, on SATA, what you can do is create a Raw Device Map that will give the O/S direct access to the disk. You can then do software RAID in Linux or Windows and it will work just fine.

Hey thanks for your inputs its appreciated
I haven't build yet , But its still on my mind

So far, 3 things cleared

1 ill get a raid controller : a IBM m1015 its a LSI rebadge that i plan on relfshing

2 Ill get 1600 ddr3 ram, probably 32gb

3 ill get a ATI gpu

Keep in mind you will be limited in the amount of RAM you can assign to the VM if you do use Passthrough. You won't be able to give it more than a couple of GB and have it run reliably.

Hi ehdie,
describe what you mean by a couple GB

From my reading in this post , (post no 98)
http://communities.vmware.com/message/1823563

From my understanding there was a limitation to 784 some ishhh MB RAM to avoid a Blue screen. before

What got me confuse is that from what you are saying you already reach a couple GB ?

So this user SomeMoose post a way to edit a file that apparently prevent it. and let you raise the RAM to 8GB or more..

Is that what you are doing , and you still cannot bump it to the amount you want ?.
quote
''So, guide of what i did...

1. Enable 3d acceleration of your Vmware card...

2. add pciHole.start and pciHole.end to your configuration file... (Options/Advanced/General/Configuration Parameters)

I used the values: pciHole.start = "1200" and pciHole.end = "2200"

end quote

Let me know if it work for you,
also w itch cpu/mobo, model of radeon are u using if i can ask ?