Hello, 

 

I am finding it pretty hard to figure this out as I am not familiar with a several different aspects involved. 

 

Basically I want to build a budget pc for a HTPC and for some light gaming. 

 

I was thinking the Ryzen 3 1200 sounded good at just over 100 euro (I am in Ireland which makes things a little more expensive) 

Then a B350 micro atx board such as GIGABYTE GA-AB350M which is just under 100 euro. 

Or a micro ITX mb like Biostar AMD Motherboard X370 AM4, this mentions it has Intel Virtualization Technology: VT-d, VT-x, it also costs almost twice as much.

Low profile 1050 gfx 

I have some old 1TB WD blue and green drives, an ssd and I think i can get some free ram off someone. 

 

 

So what I would like to know is, 

 

Can I use the Ryzen 3 with either the B350 or X370 boards for unraid with a Windows virtualisation or is another cpu/board needed? 

Can I use the hard drives I have or are the likes of WD Reds needed? 

Is this a good idea in general or is it likely to lead to regular problems, I want something that works.. 

Any suggestions for the smallest and most sitting room friendly case capable of holding several drives and ideally a blue ray drive, I am looking at cube cases like the bitphonix phenom & node 804 cases but if there was something with a bit less space that is still very modular and could hold 4+ 3.5" drives, a slim bluray drive (ideally) and a 1050.. 

 

 

Any help or general suggestions appreciated as I am a bit out of my depth. 

 

Rowan

Make sure you read the Ryzen threads, there have been a number of problems using them for virtualization with hardware pass-through but the issues are almost resolved.  In order to use a video card for gaming you must have IOMMU support, i.e. VT-d or the AMD equivalent.  You can use the hard drives you have, but any hard drive you put in unRAID should be in good shape - if one fails, all the rest are needed to rebuild it.  You should run SMART tests on them.  If you are buying new hard drives then WD Reds, HGST, or Seagates are frequently used.

 

I don't know if you can find one, but a Lian Li PC-Q18 might work nicely (not sure about the 1050).