Muelz

Interesting, so since my motherboard has a wifi card built in, could I(in theory) pass that through to OS X and just use my 1GBe ethernet connection for Unraid, Plex, etc? Yeah, I know my P2200 doesn't overlap with any other PCIe slots, but worst comes to worst, my case has two vertical PCIe slot covers next to the rest.

Ahhh I see. So if I were to use this as a workstation, I would need a GPU for Plex AND for my VM. I wouldn't need a third GPU to run UNRAID while I'm running my VM, would I? So I'm already using hardware transcoding on my current Plex device(Synology NAS DS920+). This is starting to sound more and more like I'm going to need a second GPU....hopefully not a third.

So I wasn't necessarily dedicating a 2.5" SSD to Plex metadata, that would just be the first thing that I put on there and would have room to add more as I go. I do like your idea of loading all of the VM's onto a raid cache on two NVMe drives. Also, my case can handle 6x 2.5" drives and another 14x 3.5" HDD's, I'm not worried about having a few 2.5" SSD's. My Plex will need to do transcoding and it will be a docker, I wouldn't load it into a VM. Do I need a dedicated GPU for UNRAID? I read that I would be able to share the GPU between UNRAID, Plex and whatever VM I am running. Is that not the case? Quadro isn't a CAD requirement but does well working for CAD program as well as Plex transcoding. So I am curios since you said you run OX X, how do you like it? Are you using Mac In A Box? Is it clunky?

For starters this will be my first UNRAID build, so I wanted to come to the forums to get some advice. I am looking to make this a computer something I can work off of as well as run Plex in the background. I wanted to run a windows and MAC VM. I primarily want to use the Windows VM to work from since I’m not sure how much I want to rely on Mac In A Box(I’ve heard some interesting stories). I do some light gaming and I use CAD programs a lot for work. I am aiming to spend in and around $1,900. So far the parts list below puts me right around that threshold Parts List: CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro Wifi ATX RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX (2x16GB sticks) HDD: 2x WD RED 4TB(one for data, one for parity)(might end up for 6TB drives) SSD: Samsung 860 EVO Plus 2.5" 256GB(For plex metadata) SSD: Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe M.2 2280 250GB(For all VM’s) GPU: PNY Quadro P2200 5GB Case: Fractal Design Define 7 ATX Mid Tower Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2021) 750W 80+ Gold Something I have been aiming for is to make this machines as upgradable as possible. Naturally, I’ll be adding more HDD’s and SSD’s later on, but I wanted more PCIe slots for future expansion and…well basically just room to grow all around. Somethings I’m worried about right now is sharing cores of the processor between UNRAID, Plex and whichever VM I am running. Do I need to dedicate cores to each VM? Is 8 cores enough for what I am doing or is it overkill? Can I passthrough the GPU to Plex, Windows and MAC or only one? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!