Win7 VM - increase cache size

One of the problems a lot of us have faced is not being able to get enough cache for our bunkers before a challenge. Some folks would load up Linux VMs after their Win machine was full. On some projects Linux runs slower and of course some don't have Linux apps.

I've added HDD to my crunchers because the Virtual HDDs for Vbox were really chewing up my small SSDs. I now have the Virtual HDD on the 2nd drive and the machines are much happier. While I was playing around with that I got to wondering how a Win7 VM would work so I installed one on a machine (Win7 Ultimate w/ SP1). It worked great with no installation issues. Once I had the VM setup I installed BOINC and did a little crunching.

In a non-definitive benchmark test (12 hours) the Win7 VM crunched 5% faster than the host machine :D This test was done on WCG but needs to be run on a project like Universe where the WU are very equal in length. Unfortunately, Universe was back in its "Windows machines" can't get work mode. I say this was a non-definitive benchmark because:

1. It was run on the machine I do email, control the other crunchers (BTasks), surf etc.
2. I only ran 10 threads versus 12 the host can do
3. I haven't tried 12 threads in the VM

The ISO file I downloaded from Microsoft will run for 30 days unless you have a validation code. Being this is a VM if it stops working you can always delete the VM Machine w/ its virtual HDD and reinstall. When I did the install I did NOT get the 1Gb of updates that Win7 now needs. I did the basic install and stopped at that point and put on BOINC and Java.

MS ISO file Win 7 Ultimate ISO

HOW TO INSTALL on VBOX
1. Download the ISO to a folder on your HDD
2. Create a new machine on Vbox that is for Win7
a. it needs 30Gb of HDD - 12G will be free after installation
b. virtual machine needs >4G RAM for installation (per MS)
3. Set Network to "bridged adapter" and the VM will get its own IP address and you can then see and control it on BTasks.

When you 1st start the NEW machine it will ask for the location of the bootable installation file. Point it at the ISO file you downloaded and then you are good to go :D During installation I actually let it join my "HOMEGROUP" and then I could see the drives on the host.

2 thoughts on the possible faster crunching:
1. All of the updates and their baggage were NOT installed.
2. A SUSA resident expert on VMs also thinks since it is virtual it isn't having to do a lot of the esoteric crap (monitor motion sensors etc). In support of this, I tried to delete the "hibernation" file to gain virtual HDD space and it says "Firmware does not support hibernation". So it definitely is "to the point" :D

EDIT: if you have a installation CD you can point at that rather than downloading the ISO.