April 20, 201610 yr I have created a list for the parts i want to buy for my new unRAID PLEX streaming NAS server. I will be using it for (prioritized list): [*]PLEX streaming (2-3 concurrent streams/transcodes). The CPU with a PassMark of 9956 should handle that. [*]Docker images. CouchPotato, Sonarr, OpenVPN etc. [*]Running a Windows 10 VM and a Ubuntu VM - just for having a playground for some testing and stuff - NO gaming! Would one be so kind to revriew the below list of parts, and let me know if there is anything i should be aware of with the components i picked? I've used hours searching other threads in here, and tried to assemble it from those findings based on my own opinions as well. Mostly I'm concerned about the Motherboard - does it have all what it takes to create VM's? Windows 10 VM and Ubuntu VM (VT-d and all that stuff - this is a new world for me)? PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant CPU: Intel Core i7-6700T 2.8GHz Quad-Core Processor CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S 55.0 CFM CPU Cooler Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory Storage (Cache): Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive Storage: Seagate Archive 8TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive Storage: Seagate Archive 8TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive Case: Fractal Design Node 804 MicroATX Mid Tower Case Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply Appreciate any help i can get.
April 20, 201610 yr Hi - looks like a good build. Just one comment on IOMMU/virtualization. I can't find any support for VT-d on that motherboard. Also, there are some issues passing through hardware groups on the Skylake platform. If your plans are just for Remote Desktop access to the VMs and they are really for play/testing then you're probably fine. If you wanted to pass discrete hardware like a GPU into the VMs, though, then you should look more closely at VT-d support.
April 20, 201610 yr Author Thanks for the help. I can see on http://ark.intel.com/products/90591/Intel-GL82Z170-PCH that the Intel® Z170 Chipset has VT-d. Also VT-d is mentioned in the official Gigabyte manual (however disabled by default), so i guess that should be fine? If not, is there another Motherboard you can recommend, which will work without issues? Yeah, for now it will just be Remote access. Maybe I will have other plans in the future, but until that, they might have fixed the issues
April 20, 201610 yr If it's in the Gigabyte manual you should be all set. I've seen instances where the chipset supports it but the manufacturer does not (hello, Asus). The issues tend to be more with motherboards than CPUs - a lot of the higher end Intel chips support it these days and increasingly the chipsets do, but official motherboard support is mixed. In any event it may not be an issue if you don't plan to pass any bare metal components into the VM.
April 25, 201610 yr If not, is there another Motherboard you can recommend, which will work without issues? Yeah, for now it will just be Remote access. Maybe I will have other plans in the future, but until that, they might have fixed the issues I have a similar build at present and use ASRock - Z170M Extreme4 with no problems. I passthrough a couple of gpus without issue. I do have to use acs override to split up iommu groups though
April 25, 201610 yr I have a similar build at present and use ASRock - Z170M Extreme4 with no problems. I passthrough a couple of gpus without issue. I do have to use acs override to split up iommu groups though ASRock seems to be on the "activate everything" crowd. E.g. their X99 mobo allows ECC RAM, unlike Asus.
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.