Quad processor / server - recommendation ?

["Marcus Warrington" <marcus.warrington@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm beginning the process of combining the 2 PC's that I have running
24x7 into Virtual Machines running on a single more powerful PC.



The current  24x7 machines are ;



PIII 600 - handles reverese proxy access to TiVo  +  Torrent /MiRC/P2P
downloads

Duron800 - Touchscreen jjukebox running Xlobby - feeding music from a
NSLU2 NAS



My plan is to build a single PC probably based around a Quadcore (Energy
Efficient 95w GO) E6600 , and then use VMWare to have virtual machines ;



VM1 : External facing : P2P stuff running on own subnet - (imaged to
allow quick restore if infected or attacked)

VM2 : External facing : Reverse proxy / FTP access / Website to house

VM3 : Internal facing :  HA software / Xap Hub etc



Xlobby running on host machine (I don't think I can VM this as because
of the display / touchscreen) - 2 soundbalster cards running as 8 stereo
Zones

GB-PVR running from a dual freeview tuner (PCI-E). (I don't think I can
run in a VM since it needs access to the DVBT cards. Although I wonder
if USB based DVBT might be do-able in VM)



I'm hoping this will provide better resilience from attacks,/ virus'  -
allowing quick restore of image instead of complete reinstalls, and also
may provide more efficient power consumption since I'll only be using
one power supply (EE) , fan. chipset, harddisc etc



ATM I'm looking at a Quadcore processor running 4gig on a Gigbyte
GA965P-DS3 board (intel chipset), running XP professional as host and
guest O/S'



Has anyone gone down this route.. anyone have any advice or
recommendations on motherbards etc.



Marcus



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