Hardware reqs for combined gaming+storage+etc. machine

[talueng]

I currently have a small HTCP running Kodi on Windows 7. Id like to add gaming to it, ideally being able to run all new games on 1080p with best performance and settings. I also need storage space for media and I'm interested in trying out other things like webserver, virtualizing MacOS, owncloud etc.

 

What would be the best setup and required hardware using unRaid?

Can an unRaid machine run games and serve them to my HTPC? Or would I have to replace my HTPC, run everything including Kodi from unRaid and connect it directly to my plasma using a super-long HDMI cable?

 

Thanks!

[comfox]

I am doing basically what you are asking.  Here is my hardware breakdown:

 

1 x NZXT H440 Case

1 x MSI - Z87-G45 GAMING (MS-7821)

1 x Intel® Core™ i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz

1 x NZXT Kraken X60 Water Cooler for CPU

1 x ASUS GeForce GTX 970 Turbo

4 x 4GB DDR 3 RAM (16GB total)

1 x Qualquam Killer Networking NIC (Built in to Mobo)

1 x Intel Corporation 82574L

1 x SiI 3124 PCI-X Serial ATA Controller

1 x ASM1062 Serial ATA Controller

1 x Fresco Logic FL1100 USB 3.0 Host Controller

2 x Samsung 850 EVO 500GB (Cache drive pool, effective 500GB)

1 x HGST Deskstar NAS 3.5" 4TB 7200RPM (Cache Drive)

1 x Seagate NAS HDD ST4000VN000 4TB

7 x WD Red 4TB NAS Hard Disk Drive

 

My unRAID effective capacity is 32TB and my 500GB cache drive is solely used for Docker and my VM's

 

This setup works amazingly and there is no game doesn't play at max graphics settings at 1080p at 60+ FPS.

 

This setup cost a lot though, probably close to $3500 if not more but it has been one hell of a fun project and hobby.

 

Setting up the Win 10 VM took a good month and I just spent another 5 hours on it today tweaking it for unRAID 6.2 which I just upgraded to.  The only problems I have right now, is sometimes the VM will crash after running for 10 plus days without rebooting unRAID (now this was on unRAID 6.1.9 and I hoping 6.2 has resolved this) and audio crackling every so often, which doesn't bother me really but is there.

 

Any questions you have shoot em over, happy to help.

 

You would want to connect this rig to your TV directly with an HDMI cable for gaming.

 

EDIT - Added Video Card

[talueng]

Thanks! Quick questions:

 

- What GPU did you go for? Can't find it in your parts list.

 

- Any experience running both media/games and a Windows/MacOS VM simultaneously? I understand I need 4 cores for gaming, so considering a 6-8 cores CPU just in case I want to run both simultaneously (i.e. playing a game on the plasma while doing work on another monitor). On the other hand, as this won't happen often, could save some money.

 

On a more general note:

 

- i7 vs. Xeon: Any thoughts?

- How many cores, mHz, and RAM do I need for what I want to do? 

 

 

Gesendet von iPhone mit Tapatalk

[landS]

Steam stream of games to htpc is another option with newer 70/80 Nvidia GPUs

[talueng]

Steam stream of games to htpc is another option with newer 70/80 Nvidia GPUs

I'm not a Steam-expert; to be honest, I just had to google what Steam In-Home-Straming is. But if I understand it correctly, I still would need to have one high performance gaming machine which then streams to other (lower power) machines, correct? So wouldn't my hardware requirements be the same? Or do you mean I could keep my HTPC just stream the games to it?

[landS]

You could keep the HTPC and stream games to it using more powerful hardware. 

[comfox]

Thanks! Quick questions:

 

- What GPU did you go for? Can't find it in your parts list.

 

- Any experience running both media/games and a Windows/MacOS VM simultaneously? I understand I need 4 cores for gaming, so considering a 6-8 cores CPU just in case I want to run both simultaneously (i.e. playing a game on the plasma while doing work on another monitor). On the other hand, as this won't happen often, could save some money.

 

On a more general note:

 

- i7 vs. Xeon: Any thoughts?

- How many cores, mHz, and RAM do I need for what I want to do? 

 

 

Gesendet von iPhone mit Tapatalk

 

My bad, video card is ASUS GeForce GTX 970 Turbo.  I added it to the original post

 

Xeon is more designed for the application that I am doing, but I got a great deal on the I7 from a private seller so went that route for the price.  It also fit in the motherboard that I had so I didn't need to dish out more money on a new Mobo.  If you can afford a Xeon and have the parts then have at it.

 

I have doing gaming and had other VM's/Dockers running.  The only time I experienced and issue is before I had all my CPU pinning set up and under control.  I now CPU Pin all my dockers to CPU 0 and send the remaining 7 to my VM's.  Never had a performance issue again once I set that up.  I also make sure that Docker app data is on the user share and the VM images are on the SSD cache shares.

 

You "should" have no problem running VM's simultaneously.

[greg_gorrell]

Why do you have your dockers appdata on a user share?

[planetwilson]

I am doing what you have there but on a much smaller budget than comfox

 

I picked up a Lenovo TS140 server, one of the E3 Xeon models, fitted 32GB ECC RAM to it. This model comes with a beefier power supply than the non-Xeon models so I could get away with a graphics card which requires the 6 pin extra line (again the lower TS140s don't have this extra cable in them) so I went with a Geforce GTX 950.

 

Got 3 x 3TB drives in for storage, a 512GB SSD for cache / VM duties. Whole thing runs really quietly as the E3 Xeons sip power when not under load.

 

Total price around £1000 I suppose but then there was a cashback deal on the server which gave me back 100 or so.

 

Runs VMs without any issue. I have a Win10 VM with GPU pass through for gaming. Currently getting OSX up and running. Also use various Windows Server VMs for development work and have 3 running at once (domain controller, SQL, other stuff) etc all without breaking into a sweat.

 

I also have dockers running for things like SAB, Plex, OpenVPN, nginx etc.

[talueng]

Great, very useful your answers! Any opinions regarding whether I should go for:

 

Intel Xeon E3-1275 v5 @ 3.60GHz, passmark 10,256

 

or

 

Intel Core i7-6700 @ 3.40GHz, passmark 9,965

 

?

 

Leaning towards the Xeon, but not sure..

 

 

Gesendet von iPhone mit Tapatalk

[comfox]

Great, very useful your answers! Any opinions regarding whether I should go for:

 

Intel Xeon E3-1275 v5 @ 3.60GHz, passmark 10,256

 

or

 

Intel Core i7-6700 @ 3.40GHz, passmark 9,965

 

?

 

Leaning towards the Xeon, but not sure..

 

 

Gesendet von iPhone mit Tapatalk

 

The Xeon should be better suited for all the VMing you are looking to do but I don't have real word experience so it is just an educated guess.

 

[planetwilson]

I think there is very little real world difference between those processors. Xeons are designed for servers so you often hear that they come from the "best silicon" etc but not sure it is true or not. The Xeon will support ECC RAM but if you are not planning on having ECC RAM then it doesn't matter. Would the choice mean a different motherboard for each one? If so perhaps the motherboard features could sway it for you?