I currently run UNRAID on a very old (13 years) i3-2100 Sandy bridge CPU. I only run Syncthing on it as a Docker, and this seems to do a good enough job for me.

 

I also have a, now old, 2200G CPU built in a SFF box. The ITX board only has 8GB of Ram in two slots. At one time this was enough, but of late it does seem as though the system is RAM starved.

 

Since the CPU grunt power is more than enough for my needs (spreadsheets, browsing, playing media), I was considering:

 

1. Retiring the Sandy Bridge system since board failure is just a matter of time

2. Buying a B450 board for the 2200G with 4 Ram slots. Increasing RAM.

3. Moving UNRAID To the "new" system. 

4. Creating a Windows VM, consolidating two systems into one, and save electricity. Perhaps add immich as a new Docker.

 

I was also considering building a router, but that's a separate issue.

 

My question is, is the 2200G going to be good enough for this purpose? It's just a quad core CPU, so would core allocation for VM be a problem?

 

Is APU passthrough to the VM possible, or would I need a discrete GPU?

 

Early Ryzen is a poor choice for servers, they have common instability issues at low load so you typically have to disable power saving features. Also typically worse compatibilty with apps for using the iGPU.

Edited March 9, 20251 yr by Kilrah

Tried it before, circa 2020. It was a buggy mess and iGPU didn't work at first. I did give it a whirl around 2023 and it seems like it was fairly stable after the bios updates, bios tweaks, and more. But it was a piece of work to get it just right, ASPM and system power states wasn't working correctly so that server wasn't able to save power to its full potential.

That said I think it does work fine with a little TLC, as long as you don't mind the higher power draw and a bit of heat. In your case it is good upgrade than your i3-2100 since that thing is a bit dated and its power hungry. Transcoding does work with AMD AMF on Jellyfin, haven't tested in plex (I don't support them).