[New and First UNRAID Build]

4 minutes ago, cat2devnull said:

You might want to keep an eye on how many slots wide the GPUs are as you don't want to block off a PCIe port that you need for an add in card.

In my case I have a PCIe USB controller and a WiFi card being passed direct to the OS X VM (that's how I get iServices and Handoff working). So I have a single slot RX550 GPU. The onboard USB and second GPU are for windows.

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. 

[New and First UNRAID Build]

17 hours ago, cat2devnull said:

You don't have to have a dedicated GPU for Unraid. It can be accessed via a web interface post boot so that's fine.

The issue will be that the GPU can only be assigned to one role at a time.
If you turn on the VM then it isn't available for the docker and visa versa.

Also in my experience switching hardware back and forth between the base Unraid OS and a VM tends to expose bugs in motherboards PCIe implementations. Aka you will get weird hardware lockups, reboots etc.

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? 

 

17 hours ago, cat2devnull said:

Getting Plex hardware transcoding has been covered by Spaceinvader One https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkC5Hi-rO2c

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.

 

 

[New and First UNRAID Build]

On 6/21/2021 at 6:28 PM, cat2devnull said:

I'm not sure about the logic for a dedicated Plex metadata drive (it's not that demanding) and VM drive.

You would get much better performance and reliability from running dual NVMe drives in a RAID cache pool and setting your VMs to be stored on the cache.

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.

 

On 6/21/2021 at 6:28 PM, cat2devnull said:

Are you planning on running Plex as a docker or within a VM? Will it need to do transcoding?

My Plex will need to do transcoding and it will be a docker, I wouldn't load it into a VM. 

 

On 6/21/2021 at 6:28 PM, cat2devnull said:

Are you going to run Unraid without a dedicated GPU?

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?

 

On 6/21/2021 at 6:28 PM, cat2devnull said:

Is the Quadro a CAD requirement?

Quadro isn't a CAD requirement but does well working for CAD program as well as Plex transcoding.

 

On 6/21/2021 at 6:28 PM, cat2devnull said:

In my own rig I have 2 x 1TB 970 Evo as a cache running all my VMs/dockers etc. The HDD array just holds media, ISOs etc.
I also have a 3rd 2TB NVMe drive dedicated for my primary OS X install which is my work machine (also dedicated USB/GPU/etc).

Just my 2c

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?

[New and First UNRAID Build]

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!