Question+Advice on hardware specs for dockers + VMs


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Hi all.

I may receive a very good price on some used hardware. I actually wanted to wait for the Ryzen to get mature enough with the IOMMU part because I want to use pass thru when it comes to GFX cards. I like the price and number of shear cores

My usecase

I want to run a single hardware to act as a server when it comes to dockers like couchpotato, krusader, legacurytorrent, openvpn, xeoma, plexrequest and of course  plex. Also I want to have a few VMs, but they won't be running  normally, only if i want to play with them, so no dedicated hardware to them.

Then I need a single windows 10 VM with passed throu GFX card that will act as my day to day desktop, so this will be assigned most cores and RAM.

 

 

The hardware specs on the machine that I have been offered is the following

Intel I7-7700K CPU

Asus Prime Z270-P motherboard

32 gig of RAM @ some fast speed

GTX 1060 with 6GB RAM, can't remember the exact model

 

Question.

1- The IGPU can be assigned to Unraid via the BIOS, set the IGPU as default, correct?

2- Will this machine have enough juice to support all the above dockers+win 10 VM, - How many cores or threads would you assign to this VM?

3- I haven't tried to pass through a GFX card yet on my current server, but on this new hardware, it should be pretty straightforward, right?

4- This motherboard only have 4 SATA ports, and that are kinda not really enough for me :) So I would need to add a Raid controller of some sort. It's been 10 years since I build my current PC, and back then I just used a copy of Tomshardwareguide specs on a PC that was in my desired price range, because then I knew that the pieces fit together :P The motherboard have the following PCI slots

1 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 mode) 
1 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (max at x4 mode) 
4 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x1

 

The above mean that i can plugin a GFXcard and a raidcontroller on the second "1 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (max at x4 mode)" but if the gfxcard uses 16 lanes, the second PCIe slot will only have x4 avalible?? The speed of storage I really dont care about since it will only be hosting movies and alike, and games and VMs will be stored on fast SSD or M.2

Is there storage controllers out there that fit a slot like "PCIe 3.0/2.0 x1" or is this simply to slow?

 

thanks in adv.

And sorry for this being a dumb post, but I simply haven't got any hardware knowledge.

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  • 2 weeks later...

1. Yes

2. Absolutely.  A Pentium G4560 would do what you're looking to do with no issues.

3. Yep

4. Most decent controllers run at 4x or 8x.  Avoid those that only do 1x, they're really poop.  Even my elcheapo Marvell-based StarTech card needs a 2x.  If you're running VMs, then it's best to avoid the cheap Marvell cards, as there can be firmware/driver issues that bork when you run VMs.  Recommendations are usually the Supermicro AOC-SAS2LP-MV8 and the LSI-based IBM M1015 (and it's many clones) in IT mode.  I have both those, and there's no real difference apart from the SAS2LP uses about 5W less power than the LSI.

You should have no issues running the HBA in a 4x slot.

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I'll offer a slightly contrary point of view on the CPU.  The 7700k is very likely to be all you'd need, but there are situations where more cores help (and you seem to be aware of that since you're considering a Ryzen). Things to consider - do you plan to do a lot of Plex transcoding? You mention games, but are we talking heavy duty gaming?  Are your other VMs performance sensitive, and would you want to run any of them alongside the Windows 10 VM?   

 

My baseline assumption is that if you are doing some gaming in the Windows 10 VM then you're going to want to give it 2 cores (and their hyperthreaded companions).  That leaves you 2 (and their hyperthreaded companions) for everything else.  Which is probably fine, unless you are trying to transcode 4+ streams at the same time.

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@HelldriverUK - Thankyou on the info on controllers. I'll have a lookout for some used controller on the local market.

 

@tdallen - I will likely use it as you mentioned. I will have a gaming VM with 2 cores and its HT passed throw. I wont be transcoding that heavily, 1 or maximum 2 transcodes at the same time.... I was thinking about the Ryzen for down the line when my son grows a bit older, I would like to give him a core and his own GPU.... But, when that day comes, it willlikely ust be an good excuse to upgrade.

The 2 cores and its HT's will be used only by the win10 VM for my day-to-day workstation+gaming mashine

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