building a XEN system

[Dan Langille]

After a talk on XEN at a local LUG <http://www.oclug.on.ca>, I spoke 
with the presenter about putting together a small server to run XEN.  
He said my best bet was to ensure the CPU could handle 
virtualization, that is, it was VT- enabled.  To check this, read the 
box the CPU comes in.  Look for the word virtualization.

I checked prices at OEM express (prices are rounded and in $CAD):

Antec Sonata II w/smartpower 2.0 450w - $110
ASUS M2N-E AM2 PCI-e GBLan SATA  - $115
AMD Athlon64 3800+ (2.4Ghz) 640Kb AM2 - $130
2x DDR400 PC3200 1GB Azen RAM - @$110  = $220

So for about $650 including taxes, you've got a decent beefy system.  

HDD not included (I have plenty of HDD here so I wasn't pricing 
them).

The AMD Athlon64 X2 3800+ Dual Core AM2 is just $20 more, but I was 
unsure as to whether or not a dual core would be an advantage under 
XEN, but for $20 more, what a deal!

He figured this was my best bet for getting FreeBSD installed and 
running as guests.  Someone else suggested using NetBSD as domU.

-- 
Dan Langille : Software Developer looking for work
my resume: http://www.freebsddiary.org/dan_langille.php
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