Does the Dell Optiplex 990 support virtual technology and therefore would be compatible with VMware workstation 8? The processor (I7-2600) might but if the  BIOS and motherboard do not it's a no buy. Are there others that do or don't?  This doesn't seem to be a spec published by any manufacturer.

The optiplex 990 is not a server to run VM's on.

www.dell.com/.../optiplex-990-tech-guide.pdf

The tech guide does say

Intel® Core™ i7 2600 / 3.40GHz, 8M, VT-x, VT-d, TXT (vPro™)

Intel® Core™ i7 2600S / 2.80GHz, 8M, VT-x, VT-d, TXT (vPro™)

Intel® Core™ i5 2500 / 3.30GHz, 6M, VT-x, VT-d, TXT (vPro™)

Intel® Core™ i5 2500S / 2.70GHz, 6M, VT-x, VT-d, TXT (vPro™)

Intel® Core™ i5 2400 / 3.10GHz, 6M, VT-x, VT-d, TXT (vPro™)

It does NOT say Certfied or Validated as a VMWARE ESX server.

ESXi 5.0

64-bit Processor

   ESXi 5.0 installs and run only on servers with 64-bit x86 CPUs.

   ESXi 5.0 requires a host machine with at least two cores.

   ESXi 5.0 supports only LAHF and SAHF CPU instructions.

   Known 64-bit processors:

       All AMD Opteron processors

       All Intel Xeon 3000/3200, 3100/3300, 5100/5300, 5200/5400, 5500/5600, 7100/7300, 7200/7400, and 7500 processors

RAM

   2GB RAM minimum.

Network Adapters

One or more Gigabit or 10Gb Ethernet controllers. For a list of supported network adapter models, see the VMware Compatibility Guide.

SCSI Adapter, Fibre Channel Adapter or Internal RAID Controller

Any combination of one or more of the following controllers:

   Basic SCSI controllers. Adaptec Ultra-160 or Ultra-320, LSI Logic Fusion-MPT, or most NCR/Symbios SCSI.

   RAID controllers. Dell PERC (Adaptec RAID or LSI MegaRAID), HP Smart Array RAID, or IBM (Adaptec) ServeRAID controllers.

Installation and Storage

   SCSI disk or a local, non-network, RAID LUN with unpartitioned space for the virtual machines.

   For Serial ATA (SATA), a disk connected through supported SAS controllers or supported on-board SATA controllers. SATA disks will be considered remote, not local. These disks will not be used as a scratch partition by default because they are seen as remote.

ESXi 5.0 supports installing on and booting from the following storage systems:

   SATA disk drives. SATA disk drives connected behind supported SAS controllers or supported on-board

   SATA controllers. Supported SAS controllers include:

       LSI1068E (LSISAS3442E)

       LSI1068 (SAS 5)

       IBM ServeRAID 8K SAS controller

       Smart Array P400/256 controller

       Dell PERC 5.0.1 controller

   Supported on-board SATA include:

       Intel ICH9

       NVIDIA MCP55

       ServerWorks HT1000

   Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) disk drives. Supported for installing ESXi 5.0 and for storing virtual machines on VMFS partitions.

   Dedicated SAN disk on Fibre Channel or iSCSI

   USB devices. Supported for installing ESXi 5.0. For a list of supported USB devices, see the VMware Compatibility Guide.

Make sure your hardware is compliant by referring to the Hardware Compatibility Guide.

For additional information, see vSphere Installation and Setup 5.0.