Hi all!

 

I'm new to unRAID but am looking to build a new server to replace my headless Ubuntu server. I've got a few parts already laying around or currently in use that I'd love to use in the new server if possible. Could you let me know if what I have will work or what you'd recommend instead and what you would recommend for a good motherboard / CPU combo? Thanks in advance!

 

End Goal:

A gaming class Windows 10 VM (to play GTA V, Rocket League, CoD, Battlefield/Battlefront at or near 60fps)

An unRAID system with Plex running to stream to a few clients throughout the house (no more than 2 streams at once)

An additional linux vm or two for running surveillance cameras, possibly hd homerun, etc.

 

Budget:

My budget is around $700-900.

 

Already Owned Parts: 

Power Supply: EVGA - 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply

Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Superclocked+ ACX 2.0+ Video Card

Case: NZXT - Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case

 

Drives: (Not sure which should be array/parity/cache)

• Western Digital - Red 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
• Western Digital - Red 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
• Seagate - 5TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive
• Seagate - 5TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive
• Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
• PNY - CS1111 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive

 

RAM: (I have 16gb of this G.Skill Ripjaws but was going to add another 16gb of the exact same)

• G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory

So you are going to want a quad core i7 CPU, four cores for your gaming VM, passthrough the 980, give your VM 8-16GB of ram and run it off the SSD, you should be fine. Choosing the motherboard is the fun part. Do you have a preference for motherboard brands?

Just now, ashman70 said:

So you are going to want a quad core i7 CPU, four cores for your gaming VM, passthrough the 980, give your VM 8-16GB of ram and run it off the SSD, you should be fine. Choosing the motherboard is the fun part. Do you have a preference for motherboard brands?

 

Does it need to be a K model or will a locked CPU work?

 

I don't really have a preference for motherboard brands. I've had good luck with Asus and Gigabyte but am completely open to suggestions.

Locked or unlocked, it will work. Overclocking is not something I would advise with the type of system you are proposing.

 

I would write down a list of motherboard features, budget etc and start doing some research. There is so much out there to choose from.

Great, so an i7-7700 should work?

 

I'll start thinking about mobo features and do more research. So far all I know I need is 6 sata ports that are 6gb/s and gigabit lan. Is there a particular chipset I should be looking for?

You may want to do some searching, I've seen some posts about Kaby Lake processors, not sure if there are issues with them an unRAID or what so have a look. No specific chipset that I am aware of.

9 minutes ago, ashman70 said:

You may want to do some searching, I've seen some posts about Kaby Lake processors, not sure if there are issues with them an unRAID or what so have a look. No specific chipset that I am aware of.

 

Okay, great. Thanks for the pointers!

Take a Mainboard with the following features:

8x SATA 6Gb/s - if you need 6 SATA-Ports, you have 2 spares.

1x Intel-NIC (I219-V)

Example: ASRock Z270 Extreme4 (64GB RAM max.)

Edited August 22, 20178 yr by Zonediver

Here's what I ended up buying (excluding a CPU cooler):

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-7700 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($289.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: ASRock - Z270 Extreme4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($138.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($125.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: PNY - CS1111 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Storage: Western Digital - Red 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Storage: Western Digital - Red 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Storage: Seagate - 5TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Storage: Seagate - 5TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Superclocked+ ACX 2.0+ Video Card  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Case: NZXT - Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Power Supply: EVGA - 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Other: Rosewill 3 x 5.25-Inch to 4 x 3.5-Inch Hot-swap SATAIII/SAS Hard Disk Drive Cage - Black (RSV-SATA-Cage-34)  ($53.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $608.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-08-22 15:30 EDT-0400

Edited August 23, 20178 yr by m1a8x2