Good day, everyone,

 

Brand new here. Been researching, seems like forever, on what server software I need. I was impressed with some of the youtubers detailing actually gaming on their unraid NASs. So be it, UnRaid it is.

 

Since I have finally decided to build my own (ALMOST pulled the trigger on the QNAP 453mini - awesome build for home media serving) I need some guidance on my (ever so close) hardware purchase.

 

First, I am in Bangkok. Gaming is huge and all the cutting, bleeding edge hardware is mostly available, at a price comparable with US. I found the following hardware, and request some commentary:

MOBO: Gigabyte h170 mITX

CPU:    i3-6100

RAM:  G.Skill DDR4 2400 8gb

PSU:    Thermaltake Smart M 650w

Case:  Cosair Carbide Air 240

HD:    2 X WD Red 6tb

 

Again, lots of this is overkill for a NAS, but should allow me to expand into gaming later. Everything is similar in cost except hard drives. They are about 50% more here, cannot figure out why.

 

My initial question is regarding all the 'bells and whistles' on the MOBO. Things like the dual NIC, bluetooth, WiFi, super SATA (or whatever the heck it is). Will I be able to now, or later, take advantage of these features? Will UnRaid even run on the new SkyLake HW?

 

I was a Win7 guy back in the day. Been a Mac guy for about 3 years. My history with *nix is playing with a Fedora/Win7 dual boot a few years ago, never got terribly fluent in Linux.

 

My home network is 2 X Macbook Pro, 2 X iPad, 2 X iPhone6, connected via True Fiber 30mbit.  Want to dump my online cloud services and do it myself. Want Time Machine for both Macs. Want to store all photos. Want to plug the NAS into the TV HDMI and home theater the unit while still possibly transcoding and feeding one or 2 other Apple devices on the network.

 

The case is a choice because this will sit next to the TV and serve up home theater. Probably PLEX, maybe KODI, with the MOBO HDMI.

 

I understand that starting with only 2 HDDs is not ideal, but since my case is limited to only 3 3.5" HDDs, I want to go with big ones. And price dictates only 2 to start with.

 

So many questions. Your advice is eagerly awaited and happily received.

 

Thank you so much,

Michael

Good day, everyone,

 

Brand new here. Been researching, seems like forever, on what server software I need. I was impressed with some of the youtubers detailing actually gaming on their unraid NASs. So be it, UnRaid it is.

 

Since I have finally decided to build my own (ALMOST pulled the trigger on the QNAP 453mini - awesome build for home media serving) I need some guidance on my (ever so close) hardware purchase.

 

First, I am in Bangkok. Gaming is huge and all the cutting, bleeding edge hardware is mostly available, at a price comparable with US. I found the following hardware, and request some commentary:

MOBO: Gigabyte h170 mITX

CPU:    i3-6100

RAM:  G.Skill DDR4 2400 8gb

PSU:    Thermaltake Smart M 650w

Case:  Cosair Carbide Air 240

HD:    2 X WD Red 6tb

 

Again, lots of this is overkill for a NAS, but should allow me to expand into gaming later. Everything is similar in cost except hard drives. They are about 50% more here, cannot figure out why.

 

My initial question is regarding all the 'bells and whistles' on the MOBO. Things like the dual NIC, bluetooth, WiFi, super SATA (or whatever the heck it is). Will I be able to now, or later, take advantage of these features? Will UnRaid even run on the new SkyLake HW?

 

I was a Win7 guy back in the day. Been a Mac guy for about 3 years. My history with *nix is playing with a Fedora/Win7 dual boot a few years ago, never got terribly fluent in Linux.

 

My home network is 2 X Macbook Pro, 2 X iPad, 2 X iPhone6, connected via True Fiber 30mbit.  Want to dump my online cloud services and do it myself. Want Time Machine for both Macs. Want to store all photos. Want to plug the NAS into the TV HDMI and home theater the unit while still possibly transcoding and feeding one or 2 other Apple devices on the network.

 

The case is a choice because this will sit next to the TV and serve up home theater. Probably PLEX, maybe KODI, with the MOBO HDMI.

 

I understand that starting with only 2 HDDs is not ideal, but since my case is limited to only 3 3.5" HDDs, I want to go with big ones. And price dictates only 2 to start with.

 

So many questions. Your advice is eagerly awaited and happily received.

 

Thank you so much,

Michael

 

WOW!  That CPU must have just came out recently because that's the first i3 processor I see shipping with VT-d support.  Previously I believe VT-d was restricted to i5+ series processors.  That's a pretty good deal, but that is only a dual core processor.  You can get 4 threads with hyperthreading, but this is going to mean only 1 core is really going to be able to be dedicated to your VM.  That said, it looks like the mobo supports VT-d as well, so you're good there.

 

The only comment I have about that motherboard is that it will very likely NOT have an isolated IOMMU group with the graphics card.  It is also likely that the graphics slot could be grouped with a critical device like a storage controller.  I've given this speech about IOMMU groups and the ACS override so many times now, so I hope I don't have to do it again, but in short, be prepared to have to use the ACS Override to accomplish what you're looking to do.

 

With only 2 HDDs, you'll basically have a RAID1 configuration, but it will be performance bound to the fastest drive you have of the two.  When you're ready to add gaming, I would recommend adding an SSD to the cache so you can at least put your virtual disk there for better performance.

 

As far as taking advantage of the hardware, the only thing that matters really is the dual NIC.  You can bond your NICs in unRAID if you wish.  You could also technically pass through the wifi controller to a virtual machine for direct control if you had a reason to (unRAID probably won't have the drivers itself for the device, but a VM can provide drivers for it independent of unRAID).  I think the super SATA stuff is your M.2 ports which I honestly don't know if we can support today.  I need to look into that some more, but we don't have any systems with those to test with here, so couldn't tell you, but we would probably add support for them if requested.

 

Everything you say you want should be achievable, but you are squeezing quite a bit into a very tiny box.  I would like to see a faster processor (probably something with at least 4 natural cores, hyperthreading preferred.  It's just that you are going to be generating a lot of IO, bound to the speed of a single spinning disk, and transcoding multiple media streams, and potentially doing gaming.

 

Hope these comments helped.

That's a pretty good deal, but that is only a dual core processor.  You can get 4 threads with hyperthreading, but this is going to mean only 1 core is really going to be able to be dedicated to your VM.  That said, it looks like the mobo supports VT-d as well, so you're good there.

 

The only comment I have about that motherboard is that it will very likely NOT have an isolated IOMMU group with the graphics card.  It is also likely that the graphics slot could be grouped with a critical device like a storage controller.  I've given this speech about IOMMU groups and the ACS override so many times now, so I hope I don't have to do it again, but in short, be prepared to have to use the ACS Override to accomplish what you're looking to do.

 

Not familiar with IOMMU (will google) but do understand cores and threads. I could upgrade to the i5, get 4 cores, but lose hyperthreading. Worthwhile?

 

Michael

... I could upgrade to the i5, get 4 cores, but lose hyperthreading. Worthwhile?

 

Certainly 4 cores is a LOT better than 2 cores with a couple extra register sets 

 

However, I'd consider bumping up to the i7-6700k and just "get it all" => 4 cores, hyperthreading, etc.    The only thing you'll lose with an i5 or i7 is ECC support, but since you're using a consumer grade motherboard that doesn't support ECC anyway, that's moot.  [And there aren't any Socket 1151 server boards available yet that I can find, so ECC's not an option anyway at this point.]

 

 

 

 

... I could upgrade to the i5, get 4 cores, but lose hyperthreading. Worthwhile?

 

Certainly 4 cores is a LOT better than 2 cores with a couple extra register sets 

 

However, I'd consider bumping up to the i7-6700k and just "get it all" => 4 cores, hyperthreading, etc.    The only thing you'll lose with an i5 or i7 is ECC support, but since you're using a consumer grade motherboard that doesn't support ECC anyway, that's moot.  [And there aren't any Socket 1151 server boards available yet that I can find, so ECC's not an option anyway at this point.]

I agree with Gary's assessment here. If you can sport for the i7, it'll give you the most runway out of that system, but an i5 is still certainly better than the i3.

Certainly 4 cores is a LOT better than 2 cores with a couple extra register sets 

 

However, I'd consider bumping up to the i7-6700k and just "get it all" => 4 cores, hyperthreading, etc.    The only thing you'll lose with an i5 or i7 is ECC support, but since you're using a consumer grade motherboard that doesn't support ECC anyway, that's moot.  [And there aren't any Socket 1151 server boards available yet that I can find, so ECC's not an option anyway at this point.]

I agree with Gary's assessment here. If you can sport for the i7, it'll give you the most runway out of that system, but an i5 is still certainly better than the i3.

 

 

Yah, I can see the logic, but then again, gotta start somewhere. And with this MOBO, by the time I am ready to game, SkyLake will be old hat and I can get the i7 and swap it in then for much less $ than today. Gonna start with the i3, and will ask the CFO (the wife) about perhaps bumping to the i5. NO way the i7 is in the budget. It would almost double the build cost.

 

 

Thank you for the input,

Michael

Certainly 4 cores is a LOT better than 2 cores with a couple extra register sets 

 

However, I'd consider bumping up to the i7-6700k and just "get it all" => 4 cores, hyperthreading, etc.    The only thing you'll lose with an i5 or i7 is ECC support, but since you're using a consumer grade motherboard that doesn't support ECC anyway, that's moot.  [And there aren't any Socket 1151 server boards available yet that I can find, so ECC's not an option anyway at this point.]

I agree with Gary's assessment here. If you can sport for the i7, it'll give you the most runway out of that system, but an i5 is still certainly better than the i3.

 

 

Yah, I can see the logic, but then again, gotta start somewhere. And with this MOBO, by the time I am ready to game, SkyLake will be old hat and I can get the i7 and swap it in then for much less $ than today. Gonna start with the i3, and will ask the CFO (the wife) about perhaps bumping to the i5. NO way the i7 is in the budget. It would almost double the build cost.

 

 

Thank you for the input,

Michael

Sounds like a good plan if you ask me! 

...  NO way the i7 is in the budget. It would almost double the build cost.

 

Double the build cost !!??

 

Hardly.    The parts you listed total $968.11, and do not include a USB flash drive ($10) or an UnRAID license (assume a Plus license for $89) ... for a total of $1067.11.    Bumping up to a Core i7-6700k ($374.99 at Newegg) adds 249.72 ... an increase of 23%.    And that's on a system with only 2 hard drives -- as a % of the eventual system it's much smaller a percentage.

 

Not actually bad considering that it more than DOUBLES the performance [Passmark 11,023 vs. 5,494].

 

It certainly doesn't "double the build cost" (23% is FAR from double) ... but it DOES double the performance 

 

 

 

...  NO way the i7 is in the budget. It would almost double the build cost.

 

Double the build cost !!??

 

Hardly.    The parts you listed total $968.11, and do not include a USB flash drive ($10) or an UnRAID license (assume a Plus license for $89) ... for a total of $1067.11.    Bumping up to a Core i7-6700k ($374.99 at Newegg) adds 249.72 ... an increase of 23%.    And that's on a system with only 2 hard drives -- as a % of the eventual system it's much smaller a percentage.

 

Not actually bad considering that it more than DOUBLES the performance [Passmark 11,023 vs. 5,494].

 

It certainly doesn't "double the build cost" (23% is FAR from double) ... but it DOES double the performance 

 

I think he was exaggerating.  It sounds like this is still outside his budget, unless he was over estimating the cost of the i7.  If he can afford to defer a few years before upgrading to gaming-quality parts, a little cash could be saved.  The tricky party with gaming hardware recommendations is that some of us have been spoiled with crazy high-end hardware that prohibits us from considering i3/i5 processors as valid gaming CPUs, but the truth is that the system he's building, even with that i3, will still outperform all the latest generation consoles with a relatively modest graphics card.  So if you're just trying to do gaming better than an XBOX One or a PS4, this build will get the job done.

Yes, a bit of hyperbole. But you guys must be familiar with the kiddy book "If you give a mouse a cookie"?

 

 

If I pull the trigger on the i7, then, well, 8gb just doesn't seem like enough ram. And, the PSU? Better bump that. And that case? Pretty soon my rig is competing with Deep Blue.

 

 

Here in Thailand, i3 is $130.  The i7 is $397. This is significant to me for this build. Triple the price.

 

 

And I am a very casual gamer (at the moment). I think the i3 will be great for now.

 

 

Thanks for the input, it helps!

Michael

Agree ... the i3 will be fine for what you want to do => especially since you're only "... a very casual gamer"

 

... and if you wanted to improve the gaming performance for a single VM, you'd likely be better off spending more on a better GPU than on a higher performance CPU anyway.