How important is SLAT/Nested Paging to VM performance

I

imrazor

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Nov 3, 2015
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I'm trying to create a low-budget lab for learning about server operating systems and virtual environments. I'm having to choose between two different systems I have available. One is a Core 2 Quad running at 2.2 Ghz, but without SLAT. The other is a triple core Athlon II X3 at 2.9GHz. Though it is missing one core, it has a higher clock speed and does feature nested paging. Which processor would be a better choice to run a small VM lab, running 2-5 VMs with a relatively light load? The quad system has 8GB of RAM and an SSD, whereas the Athlon has 10GB of RAM and a conventional hard drive.
 
Well, I just answered my own question. I installed Proxmox on both systems, then tried to install Windows Server into a VM. Even though I assigned two cores to the VM on the quad, and had the benefit of an SSD, WIndows installed about twice as fast on the tri-core Athlon. Really an eye opener. Might be worth it to upgrade to a Phenom X4.

EDIT: Disregard the above. It wasn't an apples-to-apples comparison. I was installing the Windows VM to a .vmdk disk image on the quad. Things are *much* faster with the QEMU disk image, putting the quad ahead of the triple core. I'm starting to wonder if the most effective thing to do would be to 1) upgrade the processor in the tri-core to quad and 2) move the SSD to that system.
 
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