Spec'ing a new workstation rig for my office
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 If you're considering running multiple VMs on your computer rather than running them on a server, you're going to need more IOPS. Consider using an SSD for a system drive and perhaps some tiered storage, such as Windows Storage Spaces, for your VM and data volume. 
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 Thanks @alexntg 
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 Use SSD no matter what. Best investment for a desktop. 
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 @scottalanmiller said: Use SSD no matter what. Best investment for a desktop. The last SSD I used died a horrible death 2 months ago. It was less than a year old. Many times a day it would show 100% disk usage and my PC would come to a crawl. I am guessing that I just had a lemon. 
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 We've been essentially all in SSD for years now. Haven't lost one yet. No issues at all. They've been amazing. 
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 @technobabble said: @scottalanmiller said: Use SSD no matter what. Best investment for a desktop. The last SSD I used died a horrible death 2 months ago. It was less than a year old. Many times a day it would show 100% disk usage and my PC would come to a crawl. I am guessing that I just had a lemon. In that case, perhaps SSD system drive in RAID1 
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 SSD are okay in RAID 5 too. 
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 @scottalanmiller said: SSD are okay in RAID 5 too. RAID5 SSDs seem a bit overkill for a system drive. 
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 @alexntg 
 I was also looking to make my "desktop" a VM as well running on Hyper-V. I wanted to be able to test out backing up VM's and other cool stuff I read on ML.
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 In that case, someone's prior suggestion of a basic workstation and an ESXi host would be the way to go. Don't use Hyper-V. 
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 @alexntg said: @scottalanmiller said: SSD are okay in RAID 5 too. RAID5 SSDs seem a bit overkill for a system drive. So does RAID 1  
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 @alexntg said: In that case, someone's prior suggestion of a basic workstation and an ESXi host would be the way to go. Don't use Hyper-V. HyperV has an option for a VM with direct access with a local console. 
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 @scottalanmiller said: @alexntg said: In that case, someone's prior suggestion of a basic workstation and an ESXi host would be the way to go. Don't use Hyper-V. HyperV has an option for a VM with direct access with a local console. That makes it a much better solution for a small home lab than ESXi 
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 @scottalanmiller said: @alexntg said: @scottalanmiller said: SSD are okay in RAID 5 too. RAID5 SSDs seem a bit overkill for a system drive. So does RAID 1  The OP expressed concern about their SSD failing. RAID1 would alleviate that. I don't see the justification of the third drive's cost. 
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 @Dashrender said: @scottalanmiller said: @alexntg said: In that case, someone's prior suggestion of a basic workstation and an ESXi host would be the way to go. Don't use Hyper-V. HyperV has an option for a VM with direct access with a local console. That makes it a much better solution for a small home lab than ESXi If on a desktop, yes. 
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 @alexntg said: @scottalanmiller said: @alexntg said: @scottalanmiller said: SSD are okay in RAID 5 too. RAID5 SSDs seem a bit overkill for a system drive. So does RAID 1  The OP expressed concern about their SSD failing. RAID1 would alleviate that. I don't see the justification of the third drive's cost. Potentially smaller, cheaper drives. 
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 @scottalanmiller said: @alexntg said: @scottalanmiller said: @alexntg said: @scottalanmiller said: SSD are okay in RAID 5 too. RAID5 SSDs seem a bit overkill for a system drive. So does RAID 1  The OP expressed concern about their SSD failing. RAID1 would alleviate that. I don't see the justification of the third drive's cost. Potentially smaller, cheaper drives. It's the system drive, not a data drive. A basic 120GB drive would work just fine. Edit: Besides, by the time you get a RAID5 card installed, it'd overshoot the cost of the drive. 
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 For a lab those are often one and the same. 
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 Thanks guys for all the input. 
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 VM's would run on the data drive, correct? 


