Reply to post: been doing this for many years now...

been doing this for many years now...

unless your vms are going to be genuinely busy, you don't need anything like 1 core per VM.

I started using vmware , but switched a few years ago to using linux (ubuntu) server running kvm, i've got a reasonably gutsy server server now, (core i5, 24Gb RAM, 4 discs in raid 10 array) but only need the power when I start doing serious map generation, the rest of the time it trickles along.

I do it not 'cos I'm keen on virtualisation, but 'cos I want to mess about with a number of different machines from time to time.

The single most important thing is to make sure you get a CPU with proper virtualisation support. Intel are a pita for this - you need to check the detailed spec of the specific CPU you are thinking of buying as they seem to switch it off and on on diferent CPUs on the same range at the drop of a hat. It was easy when AMD processors were the best choice by far, 'cos they all did it, but now intel are way faster in their more powerful CPUs. Oh and you might want to check for I/O virtualisation support as well, which is less common than CPU virtualisation.

Unless you are planning to run some sort of serious data centre or other heavyweight processing, you don't need an awful lot of CPU, memory and disc I/O are far more important.

I run:

1) a pfsense firewall

2) a linux apt proxy (so I only need to fetch updates from t'internet once - really helped enourmously when I started as I had a rather damp internet connection (3Mb on a good day), and dead easy to set up (large raspberry blown in general direction of windoze at this point)

3) a basic linux lamp host with some standard open soource stuff on plus my own coded web server I used to store and manage photos etc.

4) a fairly heavy linux machine running openstreetmap database / software

5) a lightweight linux server serving up music to all and sundry in the house (windoze, linux android and sony blu-ray boxes

I tend to run up a baby VM for each thing, 'cos then I can easily back them up and mess around with them.

In days of old I ran a baby data centre supporting a full micorsoft exchange service with all the bells and whistles on an early Fujitsu blade server with 4 blades, with most VMs running off the blade's internal discs (used external discs for backup etc of course). It supported about 200 users.

Oh yes what trigun said - mobo is important too. If you're using KVM check on t'internet to see what is behaving itself ('speshully if you want I/O virtualisation)