Unraid in Two ways

[Pistolpete47]

Hey guys, thanks heaps for all the help given on this forum!!

 

I am looking to build a Unraid Server using existing parts so I can expand the storage from my 5yo QNAP but I'm stuck with which are the best parts to use.

I have an i5 4690k on a Asus Z97 motherboard (4 sata and 1 sata m.2, onboard graphics but only 4 cores), and a

Ryzen 2600x on an Asus b450 motherboard (4 sata and 2 nvme m.2, no graphics but lots more cores and threads)

Graphics card is a Asus (bit of a theme but not intentional lol) 1070.

 

The build will be in a Node 304 ITX case using 3 Ironwolf 6TB drives from the QNAP. Initially I will use some WD Greens for the file transfers. Cache drive will either be a Crucial P1 1TB nvme m.2 or Samsung 500gb Sata m.2.

 

I am looking to use it for Plex (with Sonar, deluge etc) and file storage (business and photos) and also a Windows VM. Gaming will happen on whatever machine gets the Graphics card. Important files will get backup up to the cloud and maybe also the QNAP as well.

 

What would be the best hardware to use to get the most out of Unraid? 

[trurl]

5 hours ago, Pistolpete47 said:

whatever machine gets the Graphics card

Do you want to build 2 Unraid servers, or just 1 Unraid and another PC? 

[Pistolpete47]

Just one unraid server. What ever is leftover will be used as a general PC for office duties or a gaming PC if the Graphics card isn't used in the unraid server.

 

Interested in trying out gaming on a VM through Unraid but worried about how to get keyboards/mouse and Xbox controller to work and what the performance will be like.

[trurl]

Though you can run Unraid headless, you will need to have a monitor attached to set it up if only to get it booting as needed, and would likely need one for troubleshooting, so it would be good to have video, either onboard or video card.