What MOBO to get?!? Unique setup.

[GreenEyedMonster]

Hey everyone,

 

My motherboard just died on my Unraid 6 system.  So now I have the "opportunity" to buy a new mobo.  This lead me down the road on what I want to explore/learn about Unraid.  I really want to try out GPU passthrough for two different VM's; one Windows and one OSX. 

 

My apartment, place of work, parents, and pretty much everywhere I go will be getting Google Fiber by February.  So I plan to use OpenVPN with Steam-in-home streaming (or something similar) to allow access to these VM's anywhere my girlfriend or I go.  I have read of people doing something similar and figure it would be a fun exercises to learn some more.  I know this will be a pain in the butt but as long as Unraid continues to work for everything else I use it for (downloads, plex, and backups) I figure why not learn something?

 

I presently have everything in a Define R4 Window Silent ATX Mid-Tower Case that I would like to keep.  I will need to buy a sata controller card since I want to add 5 more drives.  I also already have a dual port nic that I would like to keep using unless I would gain anything from getting a quad port nic?  I have both a gtx 660 ti and a gtx 560 ti gpu.  I am going to put one of those into my HTPC and look for a third gpu for my OSX VM.  My psu is a EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2 80+ GOLD so unless you guys feel I should upgrade that I plan to keep it. 

 

So what is a good ATX motherboard to get for this type of setup?  Should I spend extra on ECC ram? (I don't think so?) I would like to keep the cost of the mobo below 300 if possible.  Once that is decided I will be on the hunt for a well priced CPU.  I have been looking at the e3-1246v3 but of course this all depends on the mobo.

 

I will try to keep a blog about my little journey/project. 

 

Thank you!!

[jonp]

Quick thoughts on hardware.  I am a pretty big fan of ASRock motherboards right now as they seem to work solid for GPU pass through.  Definitely a bigger fan of Intel than AMD for CPU and I believe for GPUs, your 560 may not work solid.  The 660 should be fine, but we've had issues with rebooting VMs with a 550 ti.  You can try, but know that it's a total tease (works the first time you boot up the VM, but as soon as you go to reboot, no dice). 

 

Check on the KVM forum about the guide for GPU assignment with Mac.  It's a little trickier and GPU selection there is much more important for a good experience.

 

Also know that I haven't got my hands on any skylake processors yet, so stick with Haswell if you want guaranteed results. 

 

And of course your CPU and motherboard both must support virtualization (specifically Intel VT-d) for you to pass through any physical pcie devices (like GPUs).

 

Just my initial thoughts. I'm sure others will chine in here as well with their feedback.

[GreenEyedMonster]

Hey Jon,

 

Thanks for the quick reply!  I really appreciate it!   

 

So according to this: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LnGpTrXalwGVNy0PWJDURhyxa3sgqkGXmvNCIvIMenk/edit#gid=0

 

I should get the ASRock Z97 Extreme6 and that should work for my needs.  What do you think?

 

I also can't find where in the KVM forums they talk about GPU assignment with MAC.  Mind posting a link?

 

Thank you for all you do! 

[jonp]

That mobo looks like a winner.

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=34864.0

 

The above link is to the Mac OS X VM guide written by our very own archedraft. The article linked inside there has details on GPU selection for Mac OS X.

[htpcnewbie]

I have the same mobo and does a very good job for gpu pass through. One thing to be aware of is that in the third pcie slot, only some sata cards work and also needs a separate molex power in if you are going to use that slot at all. Overall, a good mobo that I have been happy with for about a year.

Hey Jon,

 

Thanks for the quick reply!  I really appreciate it!   

 

So according to this: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LnGpTrXalwGVNy0PWJDURhyxa3sgqkGXmvNCIvIMenk/edit#gid=0

 

I should get the ASRock Z97 Extreme6 and that should work for my needs.  What do you think?

 

I also can't find where in the KVM forums they talk about GPU assignment with MAC.  Mind posting a link?

 

Thank you for all you do! 

 

[GreenEyedMonster]

Thank you!  I am putting my order in tomorrow after I figure out the ram! 

 

So which of these two should I get?

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231561

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231561

 

 

Also I think I will save up and get a gtx 970 and use that for Windows 10 and the gtx 660ti for OSX.  Seems like that should work. 

 

 

Any advise on CPU?  Think my idea of getting the e3-1246v3 still good?

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

I have the same mobo and does a very good job for gpu pass through. One thing to be aware of is that in the third pcie slot, only some sata cards work and also needs a separate molex power in if you are going to use that slot at all. Overall, a good mobo that I have been happy with for about a year.

Hey Jon,

 

Thanks for the quick reply!  I really appreciate it!   

 

So according to this: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LnGpTrXalwGVNy0PWJDURhyxa3sgqkGXmvNCIvIMenk/edit#gid=0

 

I should get the ASRock Z97 Extreme6 and that should work for my needs.  What do you think?

 

I also can't find where in the KVM forums they talk about GPU assignment with MAC.  Mind posting a link?

 

Thank you for all you do! 

[GreenEyedMonster]

So my order so far:

 

ASRock Z97 Extreme6 LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2400 (PC3 19200)

 

I am also thinking of getting a bigger SSD drive for cache.  I presently have a 240gb one but with two VM's I would like a little more space for each of them.  Only real question is how would I transfer over the information from the 240 to the new SSD? 

 

Thanks!