I am considering a major upgrade to the hardware in my Unraid setup and want to know if its worth the hassle of stripping down my three current PC's listed below and using parts from each to create a beast of an Unraid machine capable of running VM's of Windows and all of my games as well as being a media hub with Plex Server, Sabnzbd, Sonar etc.

 

I would like to know if the Unraid server would be best relocated from its current position under my couch to my home office for gaming requirements or can I still just remote in from a laptop and display out onto my 27" IPS? Is it worth trying to build a monster or just take some of the parts from the Steam Machine and incorporate those into the Unraid build and keep the current gaming rig? Has anybody built an Unraid server and also used it as their main gaming machine?

 

I have included a list of the parts in each machine, I think it would be best to buy a new ATX motherboard for the Unraid server if I decide to upgrade.

 

Current Unraid Build

AMD A4 5300 APU

ASUS A55M-A/USB3 motherboard

4GB DDR3

Silverstone CW01 Case

Coolermaster CX 430 PSU

DRIVES

Cache

Kingston 64GB SSD

Parity

WD2002FAEX 2TB HDD

Storage

2x WD20EADS 2TB HDD

2x ST2000DL003 2TB HDD

 

Steam Box Build

Antec ITX case

G3258 Pentium CPU

H81i motherboard

Seasonic 760W Gold rate Modular PSU

2x4GB DDR3

Zotac GTX 750Ti

Kingston 128GB SSD

 

Main Rig Build

Fractal Node 304 ITX case

ASUS H87i motherboard

Intel 4770k

MSi GTX 970

2x4GB DDR3

3TB Seagate HDD

256GB OCZ SSD

Silverstone 450w modular SF-PSU

 

Looks like you'll at least need to buy a processor. I believe that 4770k series will not pass through. None of the newer K series do, to my knowledge.

 

Looks like you can use any of your power supplies. I would go with whatever is highest rated for power efficiency, personally.

 

Can trade your current Kingston 64GB cache for one of your other two SSD's, and put the remaining two as "unassigned devices" for use with VM's/dockers/etc.

 

You'll wanna add RAM, I would say for what you want try and shoot for 16GB total. 8 or so to pass through to desktop gaming rig.

 

Can add that 3TB seagate to your array.

 

You cannot game via remote desktop. You can use steam streaming, or Nvidia's take on it, if you have a compatible receiver. Otherwise, put the machine somewhere you can run an HDMI/USB to/from.

Looks like you'll at least need to buy a processor. I believe that 4770k series will not pass through. None of the newer K series do, to my knowledge.

 

Looks like you can use any of your power supplies. I would go with whatever is highest rated for power efficiency, personally.

 

Can trade your current Kingston 64GB cache for one of your other two SSD's, and put the remaining two as "unassigned devices" for use with VM's/dockers/etc.

 

You'll wanna add RAM, I would say for what you want try and shoot for 16GB total. 8 or so to pass through to desktop gaming rig.

 

Can add that 3TB seagate to your array.

 

You cannot game via remote desktop. You can use steam streaming, or Nvidia's take on it, if you have a compatible receiver. Otherwise, put the machine somewhere you can run an HDMI/USB to/from.

Just an FYI, the 4790k DOES support VT-d.  I have it in my primary workstation and its awesome for unRAID.

Looks like you'll at least need to buy a processor. I believe that 4770k series will not pass through. None of the newer K series do, to my knowledge.

 

Looks like you can use any of your power supplies. I would go with whatever is highest rated for power efficiency, personally.

 

Can trade your current Kingston 64GB cache for one of your other two SSD's, and put the remaining two as "unassigned devices" for use with VM's/dockers/etc.

 

You'll wanna add RAM, I would say for what you want try and shoot for 16GB total. 8 or so to pass through to desktop gaming rig.

 

Can add that 3TB seagate to your array.

 

You cannot game via remote desktop. You can use steam streaming, or Nvidia's take on it, if you have a compatible receiver. Otherwise, put the machine somewhere you can run an HDMI/USB to/from.

Just an FYI, the 4790k DOES support VT-d.  I have it in my primary workstation and its awesome for unRAID.

 

Thanks for the correction, it was my understanding all newer K series did not, good to know. Do you overclock? Any luck with unRAID+overclocking+stability?

Since overclocking is about pushing performance to the edge of stability, and media servers tend to be about high stability and availability, you don't find too many people overclocking their unRAID servers.

Thanks for the replies.

 

I will have to run CAT5 from my router to my home office if I want to take advantage of unRAID as a gaming PC and NAS. It would be nice to play with these features first but as none of my current CPUs support Vt-d I may as well try to trade up to a 4790k or even to newer Intel tech. Has anybody used unRAID with Skylake?

 

I assume using my GTX 970 for gaming will not be an issue?

Looks like you'll at least need to buy a processor. I believe that 4770k series will not pass through. None of the newer K series do, to my knowledge.

 

Looks like you can use any of your power supplies. I would go with whatever is highest rated for power efficiency, personally.

 

Can trade your current Kingston 64GB cache for one of your other two SSD's, and put the remaining two as "unassigned devices" for use with VM's/dockers/etc.

 

You'll wanna add RAM, I would say for what you want try and shoot for 16GB total. 8 or so to pass through to desktop gaming rig.

 

Can add that 3TB seagate to your array.

 

You cannot game via remote desktop. You can use steam streaming, or Nvidia's take on it, if you have a compatible receiver. Otherwise, put the machine somewhere you can run an HDMI/USB to/from.

Just an FYI, the 4790k DOES support VT-d.  I have it in my primary workstation and its awesome for unRAID.

 

Thanks for the correction, it was my understanding all newer K series did not, good to know. Do you overclock? Any luck with unRAID+overclocking+stability?

 

I used to think the same thing, but alas, when the 4790k hit, I checked and was surprised to see that it did support vt-d.

 

I used to overclock all the time but honestly don't see the point much anymore because the processors are fast enough nowadays for everything I want/need and overclocking is just prone to causing instability issues.  I water cool my entire system so I could easily overclock and even did so at one point, but reverted to stock because when testing our OS, I need to be able to know if an issue I experience is the result of a software defect or hardware overclocking.