ESX on Dell Optiplex 755

In my test environment I am going to use Dell Optiplex 755 machine(s) in place of our normal rack servers. This is for cost reasons as we lease Dell 755 computers and I can use a few of our spare units for this test lab.

1. The NIC that is in the Optiplex desktops does NOT work with ESX/ESXi
   There are several options but the one that seems to be the best is the Intel Pro 1000 series. For this I needed the low profile option as our machines are the SFF model and only support low profile cards. (Intel Pro/1000 GT #PWLA8391GTLBL) $38
2. I increased the interal drive to a Hitachi 500GB drive (Hitachi #P7K500) $72
3. RAM is a huge factor for Virtualization so I added 4GB and can go to 8GB if necessary
   (Kingston 240 pin DDR2) $87

I did encounter a few bumps along the way:

• Processor - you need to have a processor that can run 64bit. Initially my 755 shipped with a E4600 dual-core processor. I enabled VT in the BIOS but it would not run 64bit VMs. This is because all "E" series processor's do not support 64bit - you need to have a "Q" series processor
  Here is a link from Intel that will allow a comparison of any processor and the options that each will support:
  http://compare.intel.com/PCC/intro.aspx
  select "Intel Desktop"
• You can use the AMD processors if your box supports them as all of the new AMD processors support 64-bit

I opted to move to a quad-core processor as the costs have decreased:
Q6600 (Quad-Core 2.4GHz) $245

There are a few steps to be taken to get ESX/ESXi to install on a desktop machine. Here are the link that I got this information from:
http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3.5/Whiteboxes_SATA_Controllers_for_ESX_3.5_3i.htm
This link gives a good breakdown of what motherboards/machines ESX can run on

http://x220.minasi.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=27913
This link has the setup to get ESX/ESXi to install

Pre-install:
* Go into the Bios and change the SATA operation to "Legacy"
* Enable Virtualization and VT for Direct I/O
* Disable NIC, the NIC on the mobo will not work