Good time of the day to you guys!

After a few years we are finally moving to a new flat with my GF. And i've started to thinking about building a system which we can both use.

 

So far, both of us use our personal machines to play, i so happen to have 2 notebooks and 1 tower, she is using her notebook.

 

Here is the link to the system i'm thinking of building PC Part Picker.

 

Also, i have a system with ~ 30TB of storage available, so this will also migrate into this system. And with the M.2 SSDs i'm planning on using this new thing called DRAM SSD (or what is it actuall name).

 

I saw a video by LinusTechTips where they've made 1 CPU 10 Gamers type of machine and it got me thinking:

• What are the chances of actually accomplishing this goal with the hardware provided in the link
• Is it actually viable to run such a setup? (Crashes/Updates/etc)
• Do you actually need "thin" client for this setup to work?
• Can you assign the IO (keyboard, mouse, usb headphones AND dedicated Ethernet port) to the specific VM 

 

With the mentioned hardware i want to be able to use unraid to do the following:

• 12 physical cores (24 threads) for me, 4 (8 threads) for her
• 1 GPU for each of us (Maybe later ill drop in another GPU for myself)
• 24 GB of ram for me, 8 for her

 

So the question basically comes down to the following:

• Can you create a VM and "bind" mouse + keyboard + video out from GPU + Ethernet port to a specific VM
• If it is possible, are there any guides on how to do that?
• If not, is this functionality planned?
• If no, that means that i need a "thin" client for that?
• Also, what will be performance like with direct connection of peripherals (if possible) and direct Display Port connection? Is it worth to build 2 systems, or Unraid will work just fine (if it is possible)

 

Edited January 17, 20188 yr by darki73

I'm not a pro when it comes to vms so take everything i say with a large grain of salt and hopefully someone can come in after and correct me or back me up. 
 

8 hours ago, darki73 said:

• What are the chances of actually accomplishing this goal with the hardware provided in the link
• Is it actually viable to run such a setup? (Crashes/Updates/etc)
• Do you actually need "thin" client for this setup to work?
• Can you assign the IO (keyboard, mouse, usb headphones AND dedicated Ethernet port) to the specific VM 

 

This is actually accomplish-able and it looks like your hardware chosen will hinder more than enough performance to do so. Unraid has been very reliable in my short time with it. It is a viable thing once you get over the learning curve. You will have a cost of unraid key, but that saves you costs on two psus, two cases, motherboards and ram.  No thin clients are needed, just the length of your cables for mouse/keyboard/monitor will dictate your distance from the machine. and yes specific ports can be assigned to certain vms or even full controller cards.  Thin clients would be more for if you were remoting in to the machine from a far distance or off site. 
 

 

8 hours ago, darki73 said:

With the mentioned hardware i want to be able to use unraid to do the following:

• 12 physical cores (24 threads) for me, 4 (8 threads) for her
• 1 GPU for each of us (Maybe later ill drop in another GPU for myself)
• 24 GB of ram for me, 8 for her

okay, you'll need to leave a core and thread or two for unraid, so you can't use all of the cpu for your vms. you'll need a third gpu for unraid because the motherboard and cpu don't have an igpu. (can be something like a nvidia 730) and I would recommend buying the same speed memory kits if you must buy eight 4gb sticks, but really i'd just suggest buying bigger capacity modules. may be cheaper and offers easier upgrade path for the future. and again, you'll need to leave some ram for unraid. and im not sure how friendly SLI works inside vms.

Some side notes. you talk about another machine you have that has 30TB of storage, if you have that filled then you will need more drives upfront for unraid. in your pcpartpicker list you have two 10tb drives, you will lose one to parity only offering 10tb of usable storage. and if you are bringing other hard drives over they will need to be formatted by unraid first. so you will need enough storage to contain your 30tb from the other machine. and a case that provides good airflow and the capacity to hold a few 3.5 hard drives.  Otherwise nothing i can see is stopping you. looks like you have some nice hardware picked out and should make a very nice build for you and the girlfriend. once you learn unraid and set it up. you shouldn't have to tend to it much at all. Good luck on the build and new move!

I hope this helps and I will help with any other questions to the best I can. 

2 hours ago, s_mason16 said:

you'll need a third gpu for unraid because the motherboard and cpu don't have an igpu.

 

this is not necessarily true. it seems to depend on hardware/mobo. my hp z400 has only 2 video cards (no igpu) and runs 2 desktops without issue. UnRaid boots to one gnu, then releases the card to the vm upon its startup. It's suppose to return to unRaid (I think) after the vm is shut down. Mine doesn't, but not a big deal.

 

 

 

 

@s_mason16 Thank you very much for such a complete answer! Yes, i forgot to give 1 core to the Unraid in the "explanation", but thanks again for pointing it out!

I know that i will have to reformat the drives for the unraid and the parity thing. I've spent couple of hours watching tutorials and reading this forum before i've made that post. This is why i'm only buying 2 10TB drives. 10 for parity and 10 as a starting point. So i will be able to connect second machine to transfer data through the SPF connection from 1 HDD outside to the Unraid HDD. Format -> Add to unraid, move the others.

 

In terms of case, i was thinking of going server rack since company is selling the old hardware and they've put on hold for me 2U chassis and a server rack for quite cheap. So if i will not be able to get this offer in time, im thinking of Define R2 XL. 

 

 

@1812 I think it will be better to have at least one more gpu for unraid, especially that 730 can be found for as low as 57$ new (which is probably nothing considering the total build price).

 

 

Oh, and according to this video, linus says that if you are about to add more that 2 drives to the array, you will get lower read/write speeds. This video is from 2 years ago, is it still the case and if it is, is there are any workarounds to improve the IO performance?