New Home Server build

[Maniac]

Hi all. I've decided to build a unRAID based home server this xmas, since it's my first time it would be great to get some expert opinion on the build.

 

I currently have a bit too many devices around the flat and I want to clean up a bit. Sell all the laptops and older devices that I do not use anymore.

 

Current setup:

ASUS Pundit is my current "server", with Windows 8. It has the media-fileshare with a single 1 TB disk (no RAID). It also works as my HTPC in the office running latest KODI with PVR, so it's connected to a TV.

It also works as a simple WebServer for a few ASP.Net applications. It has scheduled tasks running each morning to download EPG for my tv-channels (KODI). Also running SabNZBD. So this one is on 24/7 and it's time to retire it.

 

Custom "Gamer PC". This one was my main PC not that long ago, around 6 years old. This was my "gamer pc" but I do not game that much anymore. I own a PS4, and use my MacBook Pro for everyday tasks. So this PC has almost not been used for 6 months now. I am thinking to use it as a baseline for the new home-server build with unRAID. But I have a feeling it's a bit too outdated...

Case: CoolerMaster Elite 430

Mobo: ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3

CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1055T

PSU: Corsair 520W

RAM: Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1333MHz 16GB

GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 2GB

 

My idea is to have one server with the following features:

• NAS: 2TB is enough, with possibility to expand.
  
• SabNzbd & ASP.net web-server
  
• HTPC running Kodi + IR Remote (VM with OpenElec or VM with Windows 10) - connected to TV
  
• VM with Windows 10 for casual gaming
  
• Silent
  

 

I have selected some upgrade components, but I get a feeling that I should go for a new setup rather than reusing old ones.

Case: Fractal Design Define R5

CPU: AMD FX-8350

HDD: 2x Western Digital Red 2TB NAS

SSD: Kingston SSDNow V300 480GB

CPU fan: Noctua NH-U14S

 

I've checked the current mobo and it seems to support virtualization. But only 16gb RAM.

 

Thanks in advance

[CHBMB]

Hey, welcome to the forums mate.. 

 

I'm not an AMD guy, so wait for someone who knows before going ahead with MB/CPU but you will need 2 gfx cards if you want to run a Win10 VM connected to a monitor and a HTPC connected to a TV.  Passthrough of internal gfx cards isn't supported.  Unraid will need a GPU but I assume that CPU has a built in one, if it doesn't then you'd need 3 gfx cards..

 

That's a really long winded way of saying, make sure you have enough PCI-E slots....

 

jonp would be a good person to wade in here.

 

Also, it may be a good idea to find a build of someone that has already passed through so many cards and copy their hardware as occasionally things like IOMMU groups etc can cause difficulties.

 

Also remember you'll need to passthrough USB devices, eg KB/Mouse for the Win10 VM and IR Receiver for the HTPC.

 

Hope that helps a little, it's a friendly place and there's a lot of people who are very knowledgeable on these things hanging around, so hopefully soon one of them will pass by and offer some useful advice. 

[Maniac]

Hi CHBMB, thanks for the welcome.

 

Hmmm, question regarding the third gfx card, why does unRAID itself need a dedicated gfx card? 3 cards woud be overkill I think, which just tells me that I might go for a newer build (newer cpu).

 

Also you mention "I need to passthrough USB devices", does this mean I just need to assign usb devices to vms via unRAID panel or do I have to do some linux-coding of some sort to get this working?

 

Thanks again.

[CHBMB]

Hi CHBMB, thanks for the welcome.

 

Hmmm, question regarding the third gfx card, why does unRAID itself need a dedicated gfx card? 3 cards woud be overkill I think, which just tells me that I might go for a newer build (newer cpu).

 

Also you mention "I need to passthrough USB devices", does this mean I just need to assign usb devices to vms via unRAID panel or do I have to do some linux-coding of some sort to get this working?

 

Thanks again.

 

I think for straightforward passthrough to Windows or Linux then you can do that via the Unraid webui.  For MacOS then you need to get into cmd line a little.  Although there are good guides for this and lots of people around to help...

[ryanm91]

i actually am doing something similar minus the htpc. But what i did was get a processor with built in graphics but a motherboard with built in graphics would probably work as well. The key is to go into the bios and tell the bios to boot on the intergrated graphics. I have a windows 10 vm im currently typing this to you running off a gtx 760 with dual monitors. So basically unraid is tied to my processor graphics for console. I have fowarded all my usb ports to the vm and my unraid stick is on its own usb bus. I will say my old motherboard did not want to split the usb ports across buses for hot plugging of front usb capabilities but you could also do it with a pci-e card i just wanted to be able to plug in usb thumbsticks because this is also my workstation. I would say if you want both htpc and a desktop at the same time just buy a cheaper older video card for the htpc 1080p markosa doesnt need a big powerhouse like games.

 

So you may want to consider a usb pci-e hub to passthrough if you can't get the usb ports to split among buses. And youll want two graphics cards if you want a desktop and htpc at the same time. My system is a little overkill but seeing as we have 3 possible plex streams at once i didnt want my desktop bogging down.

[Maniac]

Thanks for the reply guys.

 

One thing I am confused over, are the gfx. I know that I can pass PCIe gfx to VMs, but how about the integrated ones? I read mixed comments.

CPU integrated gfx are passable to VMs but not mobo integrated gfx? Or the other way around, or both?

I know that my mobo has a gfx but not the CPU.

 

I still don't understand why I need 3 gfx for my setup. Why does unRAID itself need one?

 

Thanks

 

[CHBMB]

Thanks for the reply guys.

 

One thing I am confused over, are the gfx. I know that I can pass PCIe gfx to VMs, but how about the integrated ones? I read mixed comments.

CPU integrated gfx are passable to VMs but not mobo integrated gfx? Or the other way around, or both?

I know that my mobo has a gfx but not the CPU.

 

 

I still don't understand why I need 3 gfx for my setup. Why does unRAID itself need one?

 

Thanks

 

AFAIK There isn't a way to passthrough integrated graphics to the VMs, regardless of whether Unraid is using them or not.  So if I were to boot my machine and set the BIOS to use my PCI-E gfx card not the integrated, I wouldn't be able to passthrough the integrated graphics to a VM anyways.

 

Actually I'm not sure whether Unraid needs a gfx card or not, but like I said, even if it doesn't.

 

Number of VMs = Number of PCI-E Gfx cards requires as I understand it.

 

I'm not sure about server grade hardware and whether some of those will boot a machine with no gfx card tbh, but I'd be surprised if you could get a desktop machine to boot without it having a GPU associated with it.  Once it's booted with a GPU associated with it, you can't then "take it away" to give it to another machine, regardless of whether the host OS needs it.

 

That's how I understand things right now, but as always I'm happy to be corrected by anyone who knows better, and there are a lot of them on this forum....