Here's how I managed to overcome the odds, and get CentOS 7 working via Virtual Box on my laptop prior to my long-term goal of creating a headless server that will live in my loft.
I am also setting a CentOS 7 VMWare up and running on my work's server, where it will combine three or so roles into one 'machine' releasing a few IP's on a strained and not initially well set-up network.
Why CentOS
I've chosen this Linux Distro instead of one of the many others for a few simple reasons - it's pretty rock solid. So far, I've not managed to break anything. Secondly, it's one of the most secure distro's around, using what it can from the RedHat Linux camp. Thirdly, I've personally found it easier to work with than Debian and other distro's that I have tried so far.
This is not to say that it is the "Bestest distro in the world evah!!!1" - but, for what I want it to do; it looks like it will do it really well without compromising or digging through obscure posts on how to get so-an-so to work.
First steps
Choosing a download from the CentOS repository
Initially, I got the middle of the road Everything ISO - which was fine for my first set-up; but to be honest, there's way too much on there.
For the first attempt, it's worth getting to see the plethora of install variants you can get - though in the end, just get the minimal ISO and build up from there.
The "Everything" DVD ISO is only worth getting if you have a limited connection on the target machine, since it will have a copy of almost everything you may want, even if it's not quite up-to-date.
Setting up your Virtual machine
My VirtualBox set-up was 20Gb of HD, 3Gb of RAM, 2 Processors and 64Mb of Video RAM.
The VMWare ended up with a bit more drive space as the smallest allocated block we could give it was 25Gb. We decided to only allow 1 processor and 2Gb of RAM with 16Mb of Video RAM.
The reason behind such small settings was that running command line tools such as Glances and HTop (once installed), showed that the CPU was ticking along at 3% most of the time - RAM was 75% used and the Swap drive wasn't touched.
Plus, there was no need for graphics and sound as the server will be running headless the majority of the time.
Once my loft based server is created, it may be a bit more capable; due to some of the plans that I have in mind.
Next up:
Installation