HTPC/unRaid build - need validation/advice


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The HTPC I use has some pretty old hardware in it (a Q6600 and 4 Gb RAM).  Add to this the fact that my DROBO is near capacity and I'm thinking towards a unRaid build.

BTW, this is my first unRaid build!

 

My intent is to run a Windows 10 VM on it running the latest Kodi (Jarvis) and some gaming.  I would also be running several docker containers (including mySQL).

 

Does anyone have any experience with this kind of setup?  Will Kodi work well in this capacity?  I have my HTPC connected to a Denon receiver over HDMI and I use the WASAPI Sound from the existing nVidia GT970 that I bought for this purpose. Will this all pass through the VM properly so that I can continue to seemlessly play my movies at 24/60p on my projector?

 

Here is the build I'm considering putting together (for a start):

 

Im going to be re-purposing the Zotac nVidia GT 970 video card for this.

Processor: Intel Core i7-4790

Motherboard: ASRock Z97 EXTREME6 ATX LGA1150

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory

Cache: 2x Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive

Parity: Western Digital Red Pro 6TB 3.5" 7200RPM

Data: 3x Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM

Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower

Power Supply: Corsair CX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX

 

Does this look like it will be suitable for my needs?

Anything I should be concerned with or change?  Any better suggestions?

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Only thing that stands out to me is the CX power supply. I had one, but of lower wattage and I've seen several posts on the build quality of the CX line and cheap parts in them making them not the best. My CX400 worked well then all of the sudden went bonkers and things would fail or crash my system without warning.

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I'm most concerned about the abillity to run Kodi well in a VM.  If anyone has experience doing this I'd like to hear from them:  on the Kodi forums they seem to think this is a bad idea.

 

Also, the motherboard I specified has 10 SATA connectors on it.  any reason why i should get a PCI SATA controller?  or is this just fine?

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Unless you add more than 10 SATA devices I think you should be fine. Is it not possible to run Kodi in a docker instead of a VM?

 

No - I'm planning on using this box as the HTPC - its sourcing the video to the projector.  I also dont want to run it in OpenElec because I'm running Jarvis (v16) and openElec only comes with Isengard (v15).

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One thing you might want to seriously consider for HTPC use is an aftermarket CPU cooler. I'm running a Skylake i7-6700, with a nominally lower TDP than yours, in a very similar case (define r5), and I thought I'd be able to get away with the stock cooler, but the thing put out a tremendous amount of fan noise. I replaced it with a Noctua NH-U9S (about $60 at NewEgg) and the difference was night and day - I get a very low hum from the cooler but it's usually not noticeable.

 

YMMV... I didn't spend much time in the BIOS trying to tweak the fan settings, so possibly I could have got it to go quieter without needing to go aftermarket, but I'm very happy with the Noctua. You can always buy it later too if the fan noise bugs you, it was really easy to install in the r5 case and I didn't need to pull out the motherboard or anything like that.

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So you've done a similar build?  Are you running Kodi in a VM?

 

I'm actually not really worried about noise since the HTPC is actually in an adjacent room (utility closet).  I have a dedicated home theater and none of the electronics (except the projector) are actually in the theater room.

What I'm really worried about is performance.

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So you've done a similar build?  Are you running Kodi in a VM?

 

I'm actually not really worried about noise since the HTPC is actually in an adjacent room (utility closet).  I have a dedicated home theater and none of the electronics (except the projector) are actually in the theater room.

What I'm really worried about is performance.

 

Well, I know that they are running a Kodi on a raspberry pi so I think I reasonable processor could do this.  Just don't try to transcode with it.  Use some other device (AV unit or projector) in your system to do any required transcoding.  See here:

 

  http://kodi.wiki/view/Raspberry_Pi_2

 

EDIT:  I completely missed that you are using a i7 processor.  Transcoding will not be an issue with this processor.  But I would still allow the downstream components to do the scaling as they are generally hardware rather than a software solution and usually do a better job.

 

 

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I run a pretty similar setup to what you're after.  I run Dockers for SABnzbd, Sickbeard, Kodi Headless, and MariaDB (For Kodi library).  I also have a Windows 10 VM running, and am passing through a GTX950.  I can run Jarvis with no issue whatsoever.

 

Thats good news.  Are you running the same motherboard?  If not, which?

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So you've done a similar build?  Are you running Kodi in a VM?

 

I'm actually not really worried about noise since the HTPC is actually in an adjacent room (utility closet).  I have a dedicated home theater and none of the electronics (except the projector) are actually in the theater room.

What I'm really worried about is performance.

 

Oops, just realized I actually forgot to post this...

 

Cool, makes sense. If that's the case your stock fan should be fine.

 

For my build I'm running a Windows VM for gaming, and the PC is in my office right next to my desk, so having low noise was more important to me. I don't generally watch movies in the office, for that I'm running Plex media server on the unRaid box and then using a ChromeCast in the living room for playback most of the time, which works great but I kind of miss having a more traditional remote-control experience. My old setup was Kodi running on a mac mini going directly to the TV.

 

I do have a raspberry pi for playback; it works fine using OSMC and just reading off of my SMB shares, but I'm trying to set it up with the Kodi Emby plugin so it doesn't need to rescan the shares whenever new stuff gets added.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I run a pretty similar setup to what you're after.  I run Dockers for SABnzbd, Sickbeard, Kodi Headless, and MariaDB (For Kodi library).  I also have a Windows 10 VM running, and am passing through a GTX950.  I can run Jarvis with no issue whatsoever.

 

Thats good news.  Are you running the same motherboard?  If not, which?

 

Sorry, forgot to enable notify on this thread.  The mobo I'm using is the ASRock Z97 Extreme4.

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My setup is also similar to what you're planning. My unRAID server runs my Plex server in a Docker and I use a Windows 10 VM connected to my home theater as the client. It works great. My graphics card is a GT720 and it's passed through directly to my Windows VM. My server CPU is a Xeon E3-1230v2 so it's a little bit slower than your 4790. I allocated only 2 CPU cores to my HTPC VM and it's enough. In addition to the Plex Docker and the HTPC VM, my server hosts another Windows VM and several other Docker containers with no problem.

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