January 28, 201610 yr Micro ATX Case - Fractal Node 804 : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352047&cm_re=Fractal_Design_Node_804-_-11-352-047-_-Product CPU - i5-4590 3.3 GHz : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116991&cm_re=i5-4590-_-19-116-991-_-Product GPU - Evga GeForce 750 TI SC 2gb : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487024&cm_re=EVGA_GeForce_GTX_750Ti_SC-_-14-487-024-_-Product Motherboard - Gigabyte Z97 : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128717&cm_re=GA-Z97M-D3H-_-13-128-717-_-Product Memory - 4x8gb G.Skill : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231568&cm_re=G.SKILL_F3-1600C9D-16GXM-_-20-231-568-_-Product PSU - Rosewill 550 : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA07235W6660&cm_re=Rosewill_80_PLUS_BRONZE-_-17-182-131-_-Product I have been running this setup since August now, mainly as a Plex server, Win10 Virtual Machine, ruTorrent. I have all 6 Sata ports filled already, with 3 - 5tb Toshiba's | 2 - 4tb Seagate's | 256gb Corsair SSD Cache drive So far overall I love this case that I found. It is aesthetically pleasing and extremely quiet. I put http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186033&cm_re=ARCTIC_F12-_-35-186-033-_-Product in every open fan slot, which I am sure is overkill, but the Fractal Node is still extremely quiet. Not to mention the expand-ability for hard drive's in this Micro ATX case is up to 8 x 3.5", 4 x 2.5" or up to 10 x 3.5", 2 x 2.5" drives HDD/SSD. I have yet to have a drive failure or any sort of bottleneck since August. For a Micro-ATX form, I don't believe I could have done any better. I was originally looking at Mini-ITX, but I found it to be to small, and the Micro-ATX was a perfect compromise. The only issue I have come across is what to do for expanding beyond 6 sata drives. Which having only 2 PCI-e slots a x4 and x16, really limits my options, especially with needing a slot for my GPU. My i5-4590 comes with all the goodies for VM, VT-d. 90% of my storage is for media, I have a huge problem with E-Hoarding, and refuse to delete anything I download, which now-a-days is only 1080p or 720p media. I have seen my CPU get taxed by trans-coding media for Plex, but not ever bottle-necking. If anyone has any other questions or comments please feel free to let me know!
March 1, 201610 yr Hey Acps! Been thinking of a similar setup: GA-Z97M-D3H + i5 4690K. Have you run into any problems with this setup? Does unraid work 100% out of the box with virtualisation, passthrough...? Cheers,
March 11, 201610 yr Author Hey Acps! Been thinking of a similar setup: GA-Z97M-D3H + i5 4690K. Have you run into any problems with this setup? Does unraid work 100% out of the box with virtualisation, passthrough...? Cheers, Hi barnaby, I think just about any i5 would be great for this motherboard. I have not had any real issues with virtual machines or pass-through. I have ran several flavors, no limited to; Windows 7, 8, 10, server2k12, Ubuntu, SteamOS. I have had no issues passing through my GPU to my Windows VM, havent tested others yet, I also was able to send a pci-usb 2.0 card through as well, although this can be tricky if you want more than 1 USB device. The only con I might have is not enough pcie slots, but that is not a motherboard issue, that is a form factor of Micro-ATX. If you pass through a GPU you only have access to one pcie slot for Sata controller expansion. Which is what I am doing right now, with a 8 port AOC-SASLP-MV8 in my x4 slot. This gives me 6 onboard sata and 8 expansion ports for a total of 14, of which I am only using 8 right now 6 data disks and 2 SSD's. SO I have plenty of room to expand! If you have any other questions please feel free to ask, I did not set it and forget it! I have done quite a lot with my unRaid server! ~Acps
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