Spec for running several VMs - any GLARING oddities?

Hi. The following is a custom spec I have put together for my son's new PC. He wants to run several (multiple?) VMs for different OSs - Windows, Linux etc. - as part of his study/hobby. I've gone for the highest spec CPU and as much RAM as budget will allow (about GBP.800 to allow cash for a new monitor etc.). No optical device required and graphics/sound don't have to be top notch - just adequate. Not sure if the motherboard (no free slots?), PSU, cooling and case (no free bays?) are adequate although the configurator didn't show any errors. ANY advice or comments would be appreciated as I need to get this ordered for his birthday. Thanks, in anticipation...

Case: PCS 6003B BLACK CASE
Processor (CPU): AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Six Core CPU (3.4GHz-3.9GHz/19MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard: ASUS® PRIME A320M-K: Micro-ATX, AM4, USB 3.0, 6GB/s
Memory (RAM): 32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2666MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card: 1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE 710 - DVI, HDMI, VGA
1st Storage Drive: 120GB WD Green™ 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 545MB/sR)
2nd Storage Drive: 1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 32MB CACHE
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive: NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply: CORSAIR 350W VS SERIES™ VS-350 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable: 1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling: STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste: STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy™ FX OEM
Wireless/Wired Networking: WIRELESS 802.11 AC1300 867Mbps/5GHz, 400Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options: MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System: Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language: United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media: Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software: FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus: BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser: Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty: 3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery: STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time: FAST TRACK 5 WORKING DAY DISPATCH

I assume your son will be booting the OS from the SSD and VM's from the HDD? This will work but it will be slow to boot multiple VM's simultaneously. Once running, they will be less noticeably slow, although it's a slow disk at 5400RPM.

Do you know how many VM's he plans to run simultaneously?

With 32GB RAM he could potentially run 7 with 4GB RAM each and 4GB for the host OS thought performance may dip a bit at that level.

Hi Tony1044. Thanks much for quick reply. PCS configurator info shows "1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA HDD, Interface: 6 Gb/s, Capacity: 1,000 GB, Speed: 7,200 RPM, Cache: 32 MB". AIUI 7200 RPM is OK for an HDD. Compared with his (now) 5 y/o laptop I hope he will get much better performance, albeit not up to "industrial strength" 7 VMs should be more than enough for the time being and if he does have to upgrade any components it will be a good learning experience. Had online chat with PCS this PM and they thought spec held together OK. Think I'll follow my gut and go to order. Thanks once again for taking the trouble to reply. Jonathan.

Is there any chance at all your son may wish to game on the system, now or in the future? Or do other tasks that benefit from a dGPU like video editing, modelling, rendering, etc

If so, get a better case and a 450W, ideally 550W PSU to keep the option open.

Also, down the line, it wouldn't hurt to buy even a cheap high'ish capacity SATA SSD to host his most common VM's on.

The difference in IOPs between even the cheapest, slowest, SSD and an HDD will make booting multiple VM's much more pleasurable.

That said, as a virtualisation starter rig, it's a nice machine.

Do you know what he intends to use as they hypervisor? My own personal recommendation in this kind of setup would be to consider Hyper-V built into Windows.

Despite the common misconception that it's just a role you add to Windows, it's actually always a type-1 (simply - means the hypervisor has direct access to the hardware) hypervisor so he will see better performance with it than with say VirtualBox.