Stonelesscutter

Thanks for your suggestion Benson. Unfortunately, I'm not an electronics specialist, so I think it would be best for me not to go messing around with things like these. I don't want to risk damaging my costly equipment, or setting the house on fire. 😃 So I'm more looking for solutions using parts I can just purchase made by qualified specialists in their fields.

Thanks a ton Energen! I was quite charmed by the dual-system PSU you mentioned. In fact, I was so taken by it that I forgot to look at the Phanteks power splitter you mentioned until after I already placed a purchase. Thing was, I looked around for other dual-system PSU units, but couldn't find any but this Phanteks Revolt X model. Then I looked at availability and it's sold out in most places and the ones which do have it don't ship to UK. Except for one! WaterCooling UK had the 1200 Watt model in stock. And they currently offer free shipping, so I couldn't resist placing the order, all the more because I didn't want to take the risk of not being able to get one at all. Even if this turns out not to be the solution, I was still going to need a good PSU anyway, and I was already looking at higher capacity models anyway. This one has a 80 Plus Platinum rating and the manufacturer offers 12 years (!!!) warranty, so I feel pretty good about this product. Now I'll still have to figure out how to control the case fans through both or either system of course. It's a good thing that the fans are powered up regardless of which system is running, but I would like to be able to tweak the speed of separate groups of fans individually and also have them automatically adjust their speeds based on temperature. Ideally, it should be possible to do this using software through both the Unraid and the Windows system. If I end up not being able to control it through software, I guess I'd have to settle for setting things up manually through hardware. I had previously been looking at fan controllers such as the NZXT Sentry 3 and the Thermaltake Commander F6. https://www.nzxt.com/products/sentry-3 https://uk.thermaltake.com/commander-f6-rgb.html I kinda like the idea of having the display of something like this at the front of my case, since the case will be build from wood and there will be nothing else to indicate that it is in fact a computer, aside from perhaps some USB ports. If I'm not mistaken though, the use of such a controller doesn't allow the fan speed to be set through software, only through the controller itself, but I'm not sure about this. Even if this is the case, I suspect this would be an easy option to implement with the dual-system PSU, since I suppose it'll take power directly from the PSU, so it would be switched on regardless of which computer is running. I do believe however that with a system such as this, I would not be able to adjust case fans based on CPU temperature, but only use external sensors to monitor the air temperature at certain points in the case, and have the fans automatically adjust according to those readings. I'm not even sure about that last part though.

I've asked this question on another forum as well, but unfortunately didn't receive any replies, so I'll give it a shot here. Is there a way to configure a fan controller with two separate systems? If you'd build two computers into one single case, they would of course share the same air circulation system for cooling. (unless you go for watercooling obviously) So the air intake fans and exhaust fans of the case should be operational if either of the two systems (or both) is running. Normally each system would run their own fans, but in this case they would have to share them. Is this possible?

Thanks again! I checked out the other UPS models on their UK website and it seems they offer far less variety than for the US models. They do offer bigger ones, but that price range gets way out of my league and those products appear to be geared more towards enterprises. Of the lower class models, the one you linked to for example offers 6 UK power sockets, judging from the picture. This range however uses a simulated sine wave, instead of true sine wave like the CP1500EPFCLCD. Also their capacity is lower. This PowerWalker brand you mentioned looks intriguing. The price of that 2000 VA model is a lot lower than the CyberPower model while the power capacity is higher. This definitely warrants looking into some more. Thanks a lot for that one! I suspect the delivered power won't be as "clean" as that of the CyberPower one though.

After looking around some more, I'm thinking the CyberPower CP1500EPFCLCD is probably the best way to go for me. I'll just plug in one or two power strips to plug the devices into. The computers could probably be plugged into those IEC ports directly if I get the appropriate cables. What I'm wondering about now is those Ethernet ports on the UPS. Apparently they offer surge protection as well and they're 1 Gb ports. What I'm not getting is what to use them for and how to use them. If the router is already connected to a surge protected power socket, are the network cables attached to that router not already safe? Are you supposed to plug your main router into one port and then plug another router (which would hold all the connected devices) into the other port, thereby protecting all devices but the main router? Or are these ports just for the communication with the computers to implement the shutdown commands? If it is that last case, how would I connect the computers to the router if the Ethernet port is already taken up by the UPS?

I was looking at a Cyberpower UPS already, this one... https://www.cyberpower.com/uk/en/product/sku/cp1500epfclcd-uk#specification But this UK version seems to only offer two regular power (UK-style) power sockets and four IEC C13 sockets, the latter of which aren't used by any of my devices. Preferably I'd find a model with at least 5 regular sockets on power backup + surge protection. That would allow for the two computers, the TV, the PS5 and the router to keep functioning for a while on an outage. The US version however appears to offer eight US-style sockets, four of which offer power backup + surge protection and four only provide surge protection. I suppose I could plug power strips into two two sockets and connect the devices to those, but that seems like a less elegant option. Would you happen to know of any models which offer more UK sockets, like maybe 10 even? (five backed up and five surge protection only for example) Edit: Actually the US version (1500 VA / 1000 W) seems to offer 12 US-style sockets. (https://www.cyberpowersystems.com/product/ups/pfc-sinewave/cp1500pfclcd/)

Thanks! You basically already answered a follow-up question I was gonna ask, if it's possible for a UPS to shut down two separate computers. With "Windows on top of Unraid" I indeed meant in a virtual machine. I've seen people do that, and I was thinking of doing it the same way, but now, after replies I received on the other thread I posted today, I think it would be more sensible to build two separate computers rather than running Windows as a VM. Could you perhaps enlighten me a bit more about this master-client setup you have with your UPS? This UPS with network thing might be something worth looking into for me as well. I would have two PCs running on it but am also thinking about getting a PS5 and hooking that up to the UPS as well, and of course the TV, otherwise I would have no way to see what I'm doing with the computers if the power goes out. I don't know if it makes sense though to have a PS5 on a UPS though. It's not like the data on it would be critical. I'm just afraid that the device could be damaged if it gets shutdown unexpectedly. Or, perhaps two separate UPSs would be an option worth considering, one for the gaming system and one for the Unraid server.

So technically, this could still be done on the Windows 10 system itself?

Now I'm considering two systems in one case, another thing I'm pondering on is how to arrange fan control. I guess since the Unraid system would be most likely the one running continuously, it might be best to have this system control the fans for the entire case. But then, let's say this system is not running, and the gaming system is running, there would be no airflow to cool the gaming system. Is there a way to have a fan controller configured to run on multiple systems?

I'm intrigued by this but am not sure what you mean exactly. The idea was to just have a gaming system in the living room. If I'm interpreting what you said correctly, using Unraid, my stepdaughter could for example play a game in her room on her laptop, which is actually running on the system in the living room?

Thanks! From the arguments you made, plus my own argument of family members having to be able to use the system, it seems I would be better off running two separate systems. This would mean I'd have to re-think my current design, but thankfully this is all still possible and I haven't started fabricating anything yet. That said, I'd be happy to see more users weigh in with their thoughts and experiences. I was kinda expecting this to potentially be a "loaded" subject, but perhaps it isn't at all.

I've seen videos of Unraid running and Windows being started from Unraid. Maybe by means of a docker? I'm not sure how it all works really because I've been focusing almost entirely on hardware and design so far. I'm happy to take on advice or suggestions about this in any case.

For the build I've been planning, I've basically been thinking of having Unraid as the base OS and running Windows 10 on top of it. The system would function both as a media server and as a gaming system. I know this can be done and that you can even setup which CPU cores to dedicate to Unraid and which ones to leave for other functions, as I've seen this done in a Youtube video. Now that I'm getting further along with my planning, I'm starting to wonder if this would be the best setup to do. As I have no experience with Unraid or with setting up any server at all yet, I'm hoping the community will be able to offer me some advice. What I'm wondering about now is whether it would be worth considering two separate systems instead of combining them into one as described above. Since I'm both designing and building my own "case" for the build, I can manage to get both systems into a single case. I'm not concerned about heat or noise as I believe I'll have that part covered. As the total cost of the project will run into the thousands anyway, I believe the additional cost of a micro ATX motherboard and a low budget Ryzen CPU (and whatever other parts required) would likely be relatively negligible. So for my questions, you may assume that factors like cost, heat, noise and aesthetics may be disregarded, and focus entirely on the practical implications. Edit: One other thing I forgot to mention and which is probably worth considering, is that my wife and stepdaughter would also be using the gaming system and use it for watching media purposes as well, and I wouldn't want them to have anything to do with the media server aspect of things. What are the pros and cons for running a Windows 10 gaming system on top of an Unraid media server? What are the pros and cons for running a Windows 10 gaming system and and an Unraid media server separately from each other? And as side-questions... If you run the two systems separately from each other, could you run them off the same PSU? Would it be better to run each system on their own PSU or would it be better to combine them? What are the practical implications of using one PSU versus two separate ones?

I'm scouting for a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) for my planned build of an Unraid server / gaming PC. Because I have no prior experience with Unraid, some questions came up, which in this case are not specifically hardware related, but because they tie into it I thought this would be the best place to put them. The idea is to run Unraid as the base OS and run Windows 10 on top of it. The build would feature a bunch of hard drives hosting all my media content, but would also feature a fairly beefy CPU and GPU for gaming. Once I complete the project, the total cost will surely run into thousands of pounds, so I thought it would be wise to protect this investment by using a good UPS. But since, as I mentioned, I have no experience with how Unraid works, I currently find myself wondering. Does giving a shutdown command in Windows (in case of power outage) also automatically shut down the Unraid server, or would that require a separate shutdown command? Could a proper shutdown sequence (for both Windows and Unraid) be initiated by a UPS in some way, in case a power outage occurs while I'm sleeping or away? What if a power outage occurs while Unraid is running a parity check or rebuilding a drive, can this process be paused and safely continued or restarted later? If it is possible, how much time would approximately be required (to know how much time the UPS should be able to cover during outage) to safely and properly pause or cancel this process?

Nice card, but I looked up the price and o man, nice price too. (440 quid or so) I just placed an order on eBay for an Adaptec ASR-71605 for 50 pounds after a member confirmed here that he's using one and only had to change a BIOS setting to make it work.

Thanks! That's one of the cards I was looking at. I'm finding it on eBay for 50 pounds, from UK, not from China. I placed the order, couldn't resist, since you confirmed it can work my worries about this were relieved. This setting in the bios is something you only need to set once I hope, not every boot? Could you perhaps elaborate a bit on which specific setting it is and what to set it to? Also, what is this trimming of SSDs you mentioned? Not that I'll be using SSDs on this card. I'm just curious.

Thanks Hoopster. I believe I managed to retract the offer. Man, this stuff is tricky. Next time I'll ask for advice first and then decide if I want to buy.

@johnnie.black I just placed a bid on eBay on a card called LSI MEGARAID SAS 9260-16I 16-PORT (4X SFF-8087) 6GB/S SATA+SAS RAID CONTROLLER. Maybe I acted a bit hastily there. That model is not among the ones you mentioned in your post above. Would this one work for my unraid server, or should I retract my offer as soon as I can?

I was looking at some Adaptec cards today. Have zero experience with servers myself so far, but planning on putting one together by the end of the year. Which cards have you tried and what kind of results did you get?

Thanks, I will have a look at that. Ran across another Adaptec 16 port card in the meantime. Adaptec 71605. Seems to be PCIe 3 version. https://www.adaptec.com/nr/pdfs/integration_guide_71605-71605E.pdf I suppose it's a RAID card again. But wouldn't it be possible to "flash" these cards to work in IT mode as well?

Thanks. I see plenty of such cards around, but for the moment I'm really trying to find a card with 4 internal ports, or 16 ports depending on how you're counting. Apparently some cards say 4 port while it's only a single port or 8 ports when it's a duo port, for example. I keep running into cards with 4 external ports, but the ones with internal ones appear to be somewhat rare. I know I could go for a duo-port card and add an extender, but that would often mean taking up two PCIe slots on the motherboard again. There are options apparently for extenders which don't need to be slotted into a PCIe slot and could just receive power from the PSU. That might be an option I would have to look at later. Right now I've just started orienting myself on these controllers, so I'm not yet ready to give up on my ideal solution of a card with 4 internal ports. There is also the option of using a card with external ports and rerouting the cables back into the case, but again this would not be the neatest solution. From what I've seen so far, the cards with 4 internal ports seem to be multiple times as costly as the ones with external ports. This makes no sense to me. Also the ones with 4 ports are much more expensive than the ones with 2 ports, which also seems quite disproportionate.

What about this Adaptec RAID 51645 card? Could this be suitable? https://adaptec.com/en-us/support/raid/sas_raid/sas-51645/ It doesn't appear to specify which SAS version or PCIe version the card uses. Also, what is with the on-board memory, do I need that, how much memory would be desirable?

Thanks! That's rather important to know.

I just found a cheap option for a 16 port internal controller, but it's an old model, using PCIe 1.0a. If I'm not mistaken, the 3 Gb/s rating per port works out at 96 MB/s per drive. Please correct me if I'm wrong on that. That doesn't even seem that low. Hard drives these days do like 150-250 MB/s, if I'm not mistaken. Of course, I would really prefer a card which utilizes a newer PCIe version. The motherboard I'll be going for should have PCIe 4.0. But for the controller card, maybe PCIe 2.0 would be enough? Anyway, at 18 pounds including VAT, this card seems like a bargain option. Specifications in attached PDF. Any thoughts? LSI_SAS_84016E_ITM_528.pdf

Hmm... so is this why the guy from Art of Server mentions flashing the cards perhaps? Maybe the cards are basically RAID cards but the same hardware can be used for direct access by flashing a new firmware onto them?