Specification Differentiations These features: From the Oct 30 2018 Apple Event. Standard: Desktop 8th-generation 3.2GHz Intel Core Processor Thunderbolt 3 / USB C expansion (4 ports) NVMe based SSD storage running at full speeds Optional: up to 6 cores up to 64GB of RAM (SODIMMs) up to 10GbE…
In this article with video walk through, you'll learn exactly how to create a Windows 8.1 Profession 64 bit template, using an ESXi 5.5 Virtual Machine Version 10. The ginormous 8TB size for the C: drive in the VM shows off the vSphere 5.5-only features, including the VM's EFI BIOS setting to allow …
: The executable is digitally signed and the signature should state: "Akeo Consulting" (v1.3.0 or later) "Pete Batard - Open Source Developer" (v1.2.0 or earlier) Rufus: Reliable USB Formatting Utility (with Source), read the introduction, FAQ, and support forum. Completely free, an…
A family member's Core i5 Mac Mini 2011 started life with 4GB of RAM, a 500GB traditional (slow, 5400) hard drive, and respectable discreet graphics. A very efficient and cool little beast. It fit the bill, fairly cheap, rather portable, and runs OS X and Windows very nicely, without putting out a…
I've been watching the beta firmware levels, knowing that support for Ivy Bridge CPUs was coming in a new BIOS that ASRock was cooking up for users of the ASRock Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen3 motherboard, such as my TinkerTry.com/vzilla and TinkerTry.com/gzilla systems. Thanks to Roy's comment h…
Turns out that getting into the RAID configuration screen can be tricky on Z68 consumer-oriented motherboards (affordable), versus server class motherboards (expensive). For my TinkerTry.com/vzilla virtualization lab/backup server project, I had finalized my choices of RAID and motherboard: LSI …
Feb 28 2012 Update: Great news, with some patience and careful shopping, ~$200 USB can now get you 32GB of RAM that works great, given 32GB is what the free Hypervisor 5.0 supports maximum anyway, good deal! TinkerTry.com/32gb-memory-on-asrock-fatal1ty-z68-professional-gen3-motherboard I cannot…
I'm very happy to have finally received my ThinkPad W520. Set original preload drive aside for a bit, to play with Windows 8 Developer Preview for a bit fun first, seen here: https://tinkertry.com/windows8onw520 Now back to getting this laptop ready for work. 1) Memory I needed to upgrade to 16GB, …
I may have launched TinkerTry.com/vzilla nearly a month ago, but the vZilla documentation wasn't really complete. I need to add far more build details (photos, storage configuration, video of building RAID array, etc), and reorganize the way that I present the information. Now that I've completed th…
Here's some miscellaneous tips for folks that have been to this site before: Jul 20 2011: Check out the new Fancybox for Wordpress images, much faster loading than the NextGEN Gallery I moved away from, easier to navigate libraries on iOS devices and PCs. Jul 20 2011: In addition to PCI passthru,…
Jan 26 2012 Update: Getting into RAID BIOS setup is now found to be easy, see solution at: TinkerTry.com/lsi-knowledgebase-article-points-tinkertry-method-configure-lsi-raid-z68-motherboard This article is getting rather stale (outdated), but is still quite popular. Below, you'll find how it first…
Pricing info in this newegg.com screenshot as of Jul 17 2011 subject to change at any time: I’ve been able to spend about 10 days with the ASRock Z68 Extreme4 motherboard, and I’m now able to give it a cursory overview, having kicked the tires a bit, with both Windows 7 x64 SP1 and VMware ESXi 4.1…
I’ve tested 4 brands of Z68 motherboards out, and the results are in, certain ASRock and MSI Z68 Motherboards can do VMDirectPath! I tested these 4 mid price point boards myself while building vZilla and each cost somewhere between $170-$230. As of July 14, 2011, using the BIOS version listed in t…
Jul 12 2011 Original Post: (see also updates, appended at the end) Create your own fast and resilient VMware whitebox, for both "production" and "lab" use. I'm happy to finally be publishing this summary on July 12, 2011...the day vSphere 5 was announced. Back in April, my goals…
TinkerTry - PCs, EVs, home tech, efficiency and more, including virtualization. My opinions here, not my employer's.
Paul Braren, MCSE in 1998, VCP #2681 in 2005, vExpert 2014 to 2024, Veeam Vanguard Emeritus, 2015 to 2019.
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After 6 successful years testing then shipping well over 1,000 Xeon D Bundles, Wiredzone had to stop selling them in mid-2021 due to cost, supply, and logistics challenges. So far, Xeon D-1700/2700 (Ice Lake D) was a minor refresh for 2023, with Xeon D-1800/2800 (Granite Rapids D) refresh looking a little better for 2024. More cores, but still just PCIe Gen4 and DDR4. Looking ahead, I'm glad it's Pat Gelsinger at Intel's helm. I'm also grateful to have had the honor of working at VMware when Pat was the CIO there. I'll leave it at that, given the whole Broadcom thing.
Easily update VMware ESXi at TinkerTry.com/easy-update-to-latest-esxi
