Hey all,

 

I'm trying to work out if unRAID is for me or not. I'm still very very new to this stuff so am trying to learn what I can

I want to create a media server, for my new home (moving in February so have some time). Currently video sharing in my house is done by USB or external HDD, and to be honest it's just a pain. So when I move I was thinking of building a NAS to just keep everything in one place and then be able to access it from the TV, PCs, Laptops, Phones etc. From some quick searching I think I'll want something like Plex for ease of streaming?

 

Anyway, in stumbling around the internet I found unRAID, I don't know if I'm understanding it right or not, but would unRAID give me the ability to just use my current PC as something similar to a NAS as well as still being a PC?

 

I built my own gaming pc at the end of last year with the release of the GTX 980. So I'd assume it's specs are good enough to handle it. (can post them if need be). Will just need some new HDDs, but would need to buy them to build a NAS anyway.

 

Thanks for anything you can tell me, ask for any other info you need, and I can provide it

You don't mention the OS of your current PC, but unRAID is itself an OS. It is also a virtual host though, so you can run another OS on it as a virtual guest.

It's more common to use unRAID as a dedicated server OS on a box that will sit in a closet, quietly serving up files and maintaining your backups and media library.  That said, there are a number of folks who are using the new virtualization capabilities of unRAID 6 to host Windows VMs for gaming and other purposes.  Pretty cool, but a little more involved than standing up unRAID for media server duties.

You don't mention the OS of your current PC, but unRAID is itself an OS. It is also a virtual host though, so you can run another OS on it as a virtual guest.

 

My PC is running on Windows 10 at the moment

 

But didn't realise unRAID was an OS in itself, maybe I will just build a NAS, and try work things out from there, building a PC was fun.

You don't mention the OS of your current PC, but unRAID is itself an OS. It is also a virtual host though, so you can run another OS on it as a virtual guest.

 

My PC is running on Windows 10 at the moment

 

But didn't realise unRAID was an OS in itself, maybe I will just build a NAS, and try work things out from there, building a PC was fun.

 

The nice thing with UnRAID is that you don't need high end hardware for it. You can build an UnRAID box (typically) for less money than you would spend for a typical home PC.

 

There are a couple of caveats on that statement though.

 

1) If you plan on doing virtualization, and/or dockers you will want to ensure you provide a bit of head room (i.e. with UnRAID you could run it on a Celeron or Sempron CPU, but if you are trying to future plan, you may want at least a mid-range I3 or higher).

2) For serving media you are usually looking at Plex (which streams) or Kodi (which plays video itself). If you are looking at Kodi devices you need some processing at the client end as it will actually play the media. If you want to use Plex then all the work is done on the UnRAID side, and you will need a beefier CPU (likely an I5 or higher).

 

There are ways to calculate what CPU will likely meet your needs for Plex, but we would need to know how many endpoints you plan to stream to concurrently.

If you choose UnRAID and want to virtualize a VM for gaming, the CPU and MB need to support VT-D (Intel) or AMD-Vi (AMD).

Easy enough to find out for the CPU using ARK, the MB should have the option in the BIOS/manual.

 

If you have a bit older "K" CPU, you may not have this option.

Some now do (Ex.i7-4790K), however they used to not with the "K" unlocked versions.

 

Even if you're new to UnRAID it is pretty easy to get this going (as long as your hardware isn't "picky").