I'm making a build to use for UNRAID 6.0 in order to do something for my school's science fair.

I'm currently replicating this build and project from LinusTechTips, but needed some help validating a lot of this would be compatible. I've checked the compatible list a few times, but would like to make sure before I pour money into this project.  (The following is the video in which I will follow.)

 

 https://pcpartpicker.com/list/pz946X

 

this is my part list. I plan on getting different parts (mostly smaller HDDs.) But nothing that should effect UNRAID. IE No GPU/CPU/MOBO Changes.

Would this build work with unRAID? Thank you for any and all advice or comments.

Very old Hardware - and the price is...

Take a new i3-8100 with a cheap Z370 Board and DDR4-RAM.

And for what these 2 GPU's? Do you use VMs?

All in all a strange list - you didnt specify, for what this Hardware is...

Edited November 28, 20178 yr by Zonediver

To the OP, it seems like you are getting a lot of this hardware for free?

3 hours ago, Zonediver said:

Very old Hardware - and the price is...

Take a new i3-8100 with a cheap Z370 Board and DDR4-RAM.

And for what these 2 GPU's? Do you use VMs?

All in all a strange list - you didnt specify, for what this Hardware is...

That was for what the video had covered. It was to use VMs to basically run two computers off of one set of parts. My bad, in my haste to write that with my remaining class time I had left out crucial details. 

3 hours ago, tdallen said:

To the OP, it seems like you are getting a lot of this hardware for free?

Not exactly. Only one part, within reason. Otherwise, I must pay for it. 

Hmm.  Well, two considerations.  As Zonediver pointed out, this is all old hardware - so don't overpay for it.  Second, I can see you've done your homework - both the CPU and the motherboard seem to support VT-d (IOMMU) for hardware pass-through.  But how well will that work?  Older server level hardware (E5 - Socket 2011) is pretty reliable there, but older consumer hardware is a little more dicey.  Unless you're aware of other people successfully doing hardware pass-through on this motherboard, and what the IOMMU groups look like, etc., you're taking some risks. 

 

Is modern hardware an option?  This is an area that has changed a lot recently - prior to Sky Lake / Kaby Lake, fairly few consumer motherboards supported VT-d but now a lot more do.

24 minutes ago, tdallen said:

Hmm.  Well, two considerations.  As Zonediver pointed out, this is all old hardware - so don't overpay for it.  Second, I can see you've done your homework - both the CPU and the motherboard seem to support VT-d (IOMMU) for hardware pass-through.  But how well will that work?  Older server level hardware (E5 - Socket 2011) is pretty reliable there, but older consumer hardware is a little more dicey.  Unless you're aware of other people successfully doing hardware pass-through on this motherboard, and what the IOMMU groups look like, etc., you're taking some risks. 

 

Is modern hardware an option?  This is an area that has changed a lot recently - prior to Sky Lake / Kaby Lake, fairly few consumer motherboards supported VT-d but now a lot more do.

Anything is an option, as long as it's cheap. The reason I need things as budget as I can (the i7, I can get it for about ~$100. Which is sorta why I chose it, but it's also used.) Whatever works I can and will use, just need it to work, and to be cheap. Thank you for the compliment, by the way. 

1 hour ago, tdallen said:

Hmm.  Well, two considerations.  As Zonediver pointed out, this is all old hardware - so don't overpay for it.  Second, I can see you've done your homework - both the CPU and the motherboard seem to support VT-d (IOMMU) for hardware pass-through.  But how well will that work?  Older server level hardware (E5 - Socket 2011) is pretty reliable there, but older consumer hardware is a little more dicey.  Unless you're aware of other people successfully doing hardware pass-through on this motherboard, and what the IOMMU groups look like, etc., you're taking some risks. 

 

Is modern hardware an option?  This is an area that has changed a lot recently - prior to Sky Lake / Kaby Lake, fairly few consumer motherboards supported VT-d but now a lot more do.

I don't exactly understand all of this content. IOMMU is still a confusing concept and given how no teacher at my high school teaches computer lessons this advance (the farthest we go might be like, control panel for windows.) I've caught onto what it does, it's taken a few days, but I'm learning. What exactly is an IOMMU Group? And is there any server-grade MOBO that might support IOMMU/VT-D, and RAID? (Speaking of which. Does a MOBO have to support RAID in order to use unRAID?) 

9 hours ago, Zonediver said:

Very old Hardware - and the price is...

Take a new i3-8100 with a cheap Z370 Board and DDR4-RAM.

And for what these 2 GPU's? Do you use VMs?

All in all a strange list - you didnt specify, for what this Hardware is...

I would use the i3, but I'm afraid of the lack of active multithreading and a low core count. However, it is cheap. It provides me some budget, at the cost of performance. 

The Core i7-2600s is a low power chip, with reduced TDP and clock speed.  The 2600 would be a better pickup.

 

Games aren't known for being heavily multi-threaded, but they do like pure clock speed.

1 hour ago, tdallen said:

The Core i7-2600s is a low power chip, with reduced TDP and clock speed.  The 2600 would be a better pickup.

 

Games aren't known for being heavily multi-threaded, but they do like pure clock speed.

I'm not looking to run games on this system, mostly just do basic consumer task. IE Surfing the web, watching videos, and some stress test.

Rather than building an older system, have you considered buying one?  This is just a random grab from eBay, I don't know if it would work for you - but as an example:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Z420-Workstation-Xeon-E5-1620-3-6ghz-4-Core-32gb-1tb-2x-DVI-Win10-64-/232497924595?_trksid=p5731.m3795

 

Older workstation type systems might get you many of the components you need, if you can confirm ability to do pass-through.

5 hours ago, tdallen said:

Rather than building an older system, have you considered buying one?  This is just a random grab from eBay, I don't know if it would work for you - but as an example:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Z420-Workstation-Xeon-E5-1620-3-6ghz-4-Core-32gb-1tb-2x-DVI-Win10-64-/232497924595?_trksid=p5731.m3795

 

Older workstation type systems might get you many of the components you need, if you can confirm ability to do pass-through.

Yeah, but then I'd automatically have to replace atleast two parts. It's really tempting to do so, though. 

5 hours ago, tdallen said:

Rather than building an older system, have you considered buying one?  This is just a random grab from eBay, I don't know if it would work for you - but as an example:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Z420-Workstation-Xeon-E5-1620-3-6ghz-4-Core-32gb-1tb-2x-DVI-Win10-64-/232497924595?_trksid=p5731.m3795

 

Older workstation type systems might get you many of the components you need, if you can confirm ability to do pass-through.

Not to mention the fact that I wouldn't get reimbursed for part of the payment by the school. And I can get discounts if I order online, such as newegg and amazon. (If I order through the school, I also get it Tax free.) 

Do you have a budget you're trying to hit for motherboard, CPU and RAM?

1 hour ago, tdallen said:

Do you have a budget you're trying to hit for motherboard, CPU and RAM?

For the CPU, under 150, or around that area. I'd prefer to keep it low cost. 500 is the max I can hope to for this whole build. I already got a PSU, a case to use, and I can get my hands on some 7.2K RPM HDDs. They'll be low on storage, but that's not a problem for this. This is only for a science fair, afterall. I don't know what to do with it after, but it's not gonna be used other than presentation.

Not sure how much you've spent already, but you could get the setup Zonediver recommends (a new i3-8100 with a cheap Z370 Board and DDR4-RAM) for under $500.  4 full cores, a higher Passmark score than the 2600S, and a setup where virtualization will almost certainly work.  In comparison the Biostar/2600S is an actual science experiment - it looks like it will work, but you may be the first person in history to do it .

 

You probably know this, but the 2600S is a Sandy Bridge chip.  The 8100 is Coffee Lake.

 

Sandy Bridge -> Ivy Bridge -> Haswell -> Broadwell -> Sky Lake -> Kaby Lake -> Coffee Lake.

1 hour ago, tdallen said:

Not sure how much you've spent already, but you could get the setup Zonediver recommends (a new i3-8100 with a cheap Z370 Board and DDR4-RAM) for under $500.  4 full cores, a higher Passmark score than the 2600S, and a setup where virtualization will almost certainly work.  In comparison the Biostar/2600S is an actual science experiment - it looks like it will work, but you may be the first person in history to do it .

 

You probably know this, but the 2600S is a Sandy Bridge chip.  The 8100 is Coffee Lake.

 

Sandy Bridge -> Ivy Bridge -> Haswell -> Broadwell -> Sky Lake -> Kaby Lake -> Coffee Lake.

 

I really just want it to work. I've made a few experimental builds on pcpartpicker to see the prices. I haven't spent a single dollar, making sure all my information is correct and at the best it can be before I purchase anything. Maybe in the future I can do the 2600s/Biostar 

 

54 minutes ago, Spectralunicorn1 said:

I really just want it to work.

Then the most important thing to focus on is the motherboard.  Pick a motherboard where you know other people are doing VT-d/IOMMU hardware pass-through, preferably using unRAID.  Once you have that sorted out, buy as much memory and CPU as you can afford (ensuring that the CPU supports VT-d).  Keep in mind that unRAID is an OS, not just a hypervisor - so it needs some memory for itself and a reasonable CPU allocation.

Edited November 30, 20178 yr by tdallen

On 11/30/2017 at 10:32 AM, tdallen said:

Then the most important thing to focus on is the motherboard.  Pick a motherboard where you know other people are doing VT-d/IOMMU hardware pass-through, preferably using unRAID.  Once you have that sorted out, buy as much memory and CPU as you can afford (ensuring that the CPU supports VT-d).  Keep in mind that unRAID is an OS, not just a hypervisor - so it needs some memory for itself and a reasonable CPU allocation.

Gotcha. Might try to pump some parts up in cost. 

11 hours ago, Spectralunicorn1 said:

Gotcha. Might try to pump some parts up in cost.

That might help, but the issue is more compatibility than cost.  Effective consumer level virtualization with hardware pass-through is very new stuff - hot off the presses.  We’re nudging you towards newer hardware because, no surprise, the newest stuff works well on the newest hardware.  It can also work on carefully selected older hardware, but you take your risks if you are the first one to try a set of hardware.  FYI, the reason E5 setups have been very popular for unRAID is because corporations have been doing virtualization for a while (though without hardware pass-through), and the E5 was their platform of choice.