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    Is X230 good for virtualization? (resolution wise)

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by Aikimox, Jun 13, 2012.

  1. Aikimox

    Aikimox Weihenstephaner!

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    The title says it all.

    Asking for advice from those of you X220/X230 owners who actually have experience in this.

    Thanks!
     
  2. sniper_sung

    sniper_sung Notebook Evangelist

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    For my X220 I don't see problems running VMware Workstation with Intel VT-x or even VT-x/EPT. Just enable VT in BIOS and enjoy the reduced kernel time. As long as you upgrade it to 16GB RAM and an SSD you should do fine running multiple guest OS concurrently.

    However I don't think you can run ESX Server (as I think it has specific and picky hardware requirements).
     
  3. schizrade

    schizrade Notebook Enthusiast

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    Yes you can run ESX/ESXi. Just run it in Workstation 8. Runs like a champ.

    OP, I run Workstation 8 and it works REALLY well. I have 2 Win 2012 servers, Ruby on Rails on UbuntuServer64, ApacheTomcat on UnbuntuServer64, UbuntuServer64 with GCC, a wordpress turnkey linux, 2 2008r2 servers (one PDC one Exchange test). 16GB of ram is plenty and I usually have 2 or 3 running at once, 1 cpu/core each. The windows machines need at most 4GB since they are simply running testing scenarios between each other or being used to create powershell scripts. They need more RAM than anything else. I need a bigger SSD though. I have to move some off to storage when not in use. No biggie.

    The screen res is fine once vmware tools is installed for GUI systems (my windows server installs, others are cli only). Tools scales the screen to native res. A taller (16:10) screen would be better, but for the size of this laptop and it's power I am totally taken care of. I had a W700 a few years back, and while it was nice, it was FAR too big for what it could actually do.

    Specs of my machine below. Runs like a champ.
     
  4. sniper_sung

    sniper_sung Notebook Evangelist

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    Ah I misunderstood OP's point. Resolution-wise, my guest OS usually sets resolution to 1024x600, and if I move the Menu bar of VMware Workstation towards the upper right corner of the Window, then the Guest OS fits well without any scrollings.
     
  5. schizrade

    schizrade Notebook Enthusiast

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    Still good info. This thing rocks as a super portable workstation.
     
  6. Aikimox

    Aikimox Weihenstephaner!

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    Thank you for your feedback, guys! Exactly what I needed to know!

    +1 rep everyone