Today, I will be providing the hardware specs of my machines so anyone will have an idea if you want to start building one.
I have two machines doing all my biddings: a Laptop and Desktop.
Laptop
Asus ROG G73SX
Windows 7 Ultimate Edition / Vmware Workstation 9
Processor: Intel Core i7-2630QM CPU @ 2.0 Ghz, 4 Cores, 8 Logical Processors
RAM: 16 GB
Drive: 2x 500 GB
My gaming Rig. For multipurpose use!
Desktop
ESXI 5.0 Whitebox
Processor: AMD FX-8120
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 Pro
RAM: 2x G-Skill ARES 1600 Mhz 16GB (8GB x 2)
Harddisk: WD 1 TB Caviar Blue
Casing: Thermaltake V3 Black X Edition
Power Supply: Cooler Master GX550W
Keyboard: Microsoft Wired Desktop 600
Video Card: Palit GT620 1 GB DDR3
I will emphasize to use a USB Keyboard for your ESXI. The board I have can handle 2 Video Card. Installed via USB and so far everything is working fine. IOMMU is supported and this Desktop has 8 cores. Both Desktop and Laptop has Gigabit NIC. So, don’t forget to add up a Gigabit Switch.
In the future, I will be adding additional RAM and HDD on the Desktop to configure RAID. Will also add additional NIC, a NAS and eventually get another so I can test Live Migration and High Availability.
Cheers!