ptus Posted November 21, 2015 Posted November 21, 2015 Hi there. For a while now, me and my girlfriend have been thinking about converting our existing computer to something we can both work on. At first, we tinkered with running a virtual machine on top of our current OS, with physically limiting one set of keayboard/mouse to VM, using extended desktop to a second monitor and using software to limit mouse from host pc to moving over to VM. Was a disaster. Then we tried using an old laptop and allowed her to connect to the machine using RDP with concurrent users enabled. While it works better than the old laptop, its not exactly what we were looking for. Started also thinking about using software that enables multiple users on the same machine, such as softexpand and stuff, but i dont like its limitations and no, just, no. Then BAM, i notice Linuses "1 tower, 2 gaming rigs" video and i was sold. Have been a member of the forum for a while now and have been getting my daily fixes in the OCD config posts, but didnt notice v6 comming out and providing virtualization with nas in one box. Damn, thank you, thank you. But this is also where my problems start. My current cpu is a 2500k, that doesnt support virtualization. Thought about maybe swapping it for a non "k", but i dont think it would work. Ok so here is my theory and i would very much like if someone punched a big hole into it. So me and my gf would buy new hardware and set up unraid with a couple of VMs. Unraid as host with NAS capabilities, Plex docker and stuff like that. Then we would have 3 VMs; 1 for her, 1 for me and 1 for media center (maybe kodi or something with plex). But hang on for a sec. Some games dont even start with dual-core CPUs and even if they do, they run a lot worse than quad core (i.e. Skyrim). So ok, maybe i designate 4 cores for one VM and 4 for another. But, thats 8 cores already and i havent even touched unraid and media center. Ok maybe its 1 for unraid, 1 for media center and 3 for each gaming VM. But again, is this thing even viable with anything less than an 8-core? Dont know how this would work (i.e. us both playing like diablo 3 or skyrim) with an quad core. Bottom line, is it possible to get a CPU that can be used by 2 people, playing games (nothing above 1080p), without selling my left kidney? In my case; dont think quad core would be up to the task and since 8-core Intel is like 1000$+ or something (5960x is 1300$), only viable option is 8-core AMD (with newer versions pumping our 200W TDP, ouch). Would appreciate any input, been racking my brain with this for past two weeks.
mr-hexen Posted November 23, 2015 Posted November 23, 2015 I'd forget about a kodi or plex VM for a media client. Use a rassberry pi 2 instead or something like a compute stick. Using a 3rd VM for a media centre will require you to have a 3rd GPU in the system. I'd just avoid it all together. An intel i7-4790k would likely handle two VM's and the unRAID host. Do your GF and you game at the same time? Do you have two gaming while one using Plex? Some scenario's to consider to help alleviate your concerns. Do not under estimate RAM. I have an i7 based laptop w/ 750M SLi and 8gigs. I recently put in a SSD and one of the performance / longevity tips was to disable SWAP. Well, i got about 2 minutes into CoD Black Ops 3 and it crashed on "low system memory". Make sure you have a MINIMUM of 8GB ram per VM is they will game. Might want to fit the system with 32GB and give 12GB to each VM and the rest to unRAID. Lastly, SSD's. GET ONE for the VM's, otherwise performance will suck. Best luck, Mike
ptus Posted November 23, 2015 Author Posted November 23, 2015 Agreed, rasspi2 might be a better choice for standalone plex/kodi client. Gaming, i dont know. I mean, i like to play games like Skyrim or Diablo, now Fallout or Far Cry, so i would use the VM for gaming for like 40% of the time, while my GF only for like 20% of the time. Those times might clash or if we intentionally play co-op games or something. And then theres her folks who like to watch stuff on plex (on smart tv, which i rarely need to encode, since its just direct play most of the time). So 1 VM running a game, 75% chance, 2 VMs running a game, maybe 40% chance, 2 VMs running a game while plex is transcoding, maybe 10% chance. Still, would like enough headroom to be able to run 2 games, without potentially having to reallocate threads around. 4790k (425$ here)? Since one core is allocated for unraid, would the remaining 1,5 cores (3 threads) per VM be enough for me to run something like Skyrim or Fallout, while she plays something like Dying Light? I mean i know GPU takes a lot of workload, but i fear 1,5 core for a game like Skyrim might not be enough. Having said that, i would have to overhaul my whole PC (motherboard, cpu, memory) and since skylake and new sockets just came out, i would really hate "upgrading" to an older architecture. Was thinking of going Xeon route. Can get E3-1270v5 for 390$ here, but i wouldnt mind expanding the budget a bit, if it would get me a 6-core under 500$. Would it make sense to wait a couple of months for 6-cores to come out or will they be terribly overpriced? Could also get 5820K 6-core for 490$; fits on 2011-3, but its 3.3ghz and older gen. As for RAM and SSD; was thinking exactly the same. 8 gigs minimum, probably 12, so will be getting 32 gigs; 12 per VM and 8 for unraid. And SSD for each of us.
sgibbers17 Posted November 24, 2015 Posted November 24, 2015 You can allocate all your cores to your VMs, 4 to one and 4 to the other. Use a docker for plex, unraid and dockers will use cores as needed. I have all 8 cores allocated to my windows VM and have no issues with my dockers or unraid needing cores.
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