VirtualBox for FreeBSD in an Intel Atom processor

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

On 7/22/2010 3:24 AM, Harald Servat wrote:
> Hello list,
>
>    I'm planning to buy an Intel Atom based computer and install FreeBSD
> (probably 8.1) on it, and II was wondering which are my options to run
> VirtualBox.
>
>    First of all, recent Intel Atom processors do not support Intel VT-x.
> According on the section of Troubleshooting of [1]  it seems that VT-x is no
> needed, but according to [2] it seems that VT-x is needed for 64 bit guest.
> If this is correct, does it mean that in I'd be only able to install 32 bits
> guests in that machine? Even if I install FreeBSD-amd64?
>
>    Another topic would be responsiveness, I know that Atom are not speedy,
> but has anyone used it to virtualize another Linux (with or without X11) and
> Windows (XP or 7)?
>
> Thank you very much!
>
> [1]http://wiki.freebsd.org/VirtualBox
> [2] http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch03.html#intro-64bitguests

About 3 months ago I picked up from Fry's Electronics a brand new
motherboard + processor for about $50.  The CPU is a 2.5Ghz Intel
Celeron E3300.  I put a spare 1GB stick of ram in it I had lying
around.  The board itself is a clone BTC I think.  I split the disk
into a 1GB Windows XP partition and FreeBSD 8 for the rest of it.

   This runs a
session of XP in a VirtualBox that is literally just as fast as
XP running natively on the same box.  You cannot tell the difference.
In fact, in some cases I think the XP session under virtualization
runs -faster-.  I use the XP session to run Vsphere Client since
I manage some ESXi servers.

I personally think you could do better than the Atom.

Ted