I have always used server hardware for my Unraid builds, 6 to date. My kid is wanting to tackle their first build but are limited to an apartment so a full rack isn't an option right now. I was solicited to assist in the build and was intrested in the following hardware. 
ASUS ROG Strix Z790-E and a gen 13 or 14 intel processor.  All of my buildis required a HBA controler to manage all of the devices attached to the backplanes. My main question is will the sata controller on this board allow for JBOD so that the unraid software can contol them properly, or will I still need a SATA controller set to IT mode in one of the PCIe slots. Likewise, does anyone know if I should be able to utilize the M.2 drives on this board for Cache drives? I would assume that it uses the same controller the Sata does, but not sure.

It is my understanding that this processor should have quicksync and allow video transcoding in apps like Plex, is this true?

My second question is will I be able to pass through the hardware on this board to unraid for the dockers and VMs. Say the usb printer, motherboard audio and video to a windows VM. Or say a Home Assistant to usb dongles to control devices? I can do all of this with the servers I have, just not sure how much "pass through" finctionality this board will alow with the Unraid OS.

I did search the site, but could not find anything about this particular board. Thank you all in advance for any advise you have.

https://rog.asus.com/us/motherboards/rog-strix/rog-strix-z790-e-gaming-wifi-model/

 

Hi,

 

I got the following setup:

* asus z790 proart creator wifi (not using wifi)

* 128GB mem (2x set of 64G)

* i9-14900 (the 65W tdp with igpu version)

 

This board has onboard 4x M.2 and 8x sata.

Beware tho coz one op de M.2 slots shares bandwidth with 4 sata port (but lsi 9211 8i are available in wide variety). If you are indeed using a backplane - cables 4x sata -> 8087 do exist. Been using them myself in my old/backup unraid server

 

I got 2x 2T m.2 in raid 1 zfs pool for user shares / appdata, 1 xfs 1T m.2 for vms and on 1 xfs m.2 for whatever (not used but probably going to use it for temp transcoding directory for plex and maybe if i start to reuse sabnzbd to unpack files (to save the use of my 2 expensive 2T nmve drives)

Futher 4x 8T ironwolf in a 1 parity configuration.

 

I don't have experience with pass-through but my printer is attached to the network anyways and have no need to hook up the server directly to an AV although I'm going to try to pass-though an installed low power nvidia to a linux desktop and windows desktop although I have no clue how to do that a.t.m. I assume that you can select all you want to pass-through in the properties of the vm.

Thanks for your input it is helpful. Yea I was trying to avoid setting the disks up in a raid and then having unraid control the seperate raid pools. If I understand you correctly this is what you had to do, or can I bypass the onboard raid controller for the board and allow unraid to set up whatever pools I want?

I was hoping to not have to use an LSI card, but sounds like that is my best option.

in unraid you do not setup the disk from the array in any raid configuration (hence UNraid) but having a raid1 zfs pool for cache ain't such a bad idea.. Google @SpaceInvaderOne  cache" on youtube. This unraid user has godlike video's on youtube about setting up and replacing anything that has to do with disks - and more. If I got "stuck" or uncertain how the perform a certain unraid managment procedure. He probably got a vid for it.