The Host Hardware - a PC
Gigabyte X1 Chassis - R300
Gigabyte 585W Power Supply - R450
Gigabyte Z77-D3H Motherboard - R1400
Intel Core i7 3770 3.4GHz CPU (socket 1155) - R2700
Transcend DDR RAM 8GB - 4 x R400
Seagate Barracuda 500GB SATA3 hard disk drive - R600
UPDATE: This Motherboard comes with the Atheros AR8151 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller, which is not supported OOB on ESXi or Linux for that matter. Make sure your NIC is supported before you buy.
UPDATE: This Motherboard comes with the Atheros AR8151 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller, which is not supported OOB on ESXi or Linux for that matter. Make sure your NIC is supported before you buy.
For more advice on building a lab, check out Boelowie's blog. I opted out of the SSD disk and decided to double my RAM instead. I wanted to give the SATA3 disk a go first, which doubles the SATA2 transfer speed from 3 Gbit/s to 6 Gbits/s. The spindle speed is still only 7200RPM but it remains to be seen if there is any improvement.
The base OS - ESXi
Rather than installing Windows 7, then VMware Workstation, then ESXi, then my VMs, I opted for a nested ESXi and then my VMs. The PC is only for a lab and I can easily set up the restart order of the VMs so that I can get back to my lab whenever I need to. The host is connected to a WiFi switch so that I can access my lab from anywhere in the house.
