Consolidating PCs - Frankenbuild or New?


Recommended Posts

I’m looking at consolidating my desktops, and potentially upgrading my unRAID setup in the process.  My current unRAID setup is as follows:

  • UnRAID 6.1.9
  • Asrock 970 Extreme4
  • 1x8GB DDR3 RAM
  • AMD FX-8150
  • IBM M1015 flashed to IT mode
  • 2x LG Blu-ray drives
  • 1x 2TB Toshiba P300 (parity)
  • 1x 2TB WD EARX (plan to replace soon, it’s slow and old)
  • 1x 2TB Seagate Barracuda ST2000
  • 2x 1TB Hitachi HTS721010
  • 1x 500GB WD5000BEVT (through Unassigned Devices plugin for Dockers storage)

I currently use it for:

  • Plex
  • Handbrake
  • MakeMKV
  • Unifi Controller
  • Backups of other computers
  • General storage

And everything has been running wonderfully for the past 6 years or so, with drive upgrades/replacements along the way.  Only real hiccup I had was when I moved and broke off the USB stick. :$  I replaced it with a Cruzer Fit so that doesn’t happen again.

 

Now I’m looking at doing VMs to consolidate my computers a bit.  My two other desktops are the following hardware:

  • Gaming PC/HTPC
    • Intel i7-4790k
    • Asrock Z97E-ITX/ac
    • Radeon R9 270x
    • 2x8GB DDR3
    • 512GB Samsung 960 Evo
  • Productivity Desktop
    • AMD FX-6300
    • Asrock 970 Extreme4
    • Radeon R7750 single-slot
    • 1x8GB DDR3 RAM
    • 256GB Samsung 960 Evo

Running monitor and USB cables from my unRAID box to the other two locations will not be a problem.  The productivity desktop is right adjacent to the closet with my unRAID server, and I have a bunch of Cat6 run to my family room that I can use for HDMI and USB extenders.

 

So I’m thinking about three possible builds, from least expensive to most expensive upfront cost:

Build 1 ($0):

  • AMD FX-8150
  • Asrock 970 Extreme4
  • 4x8GB DDR3 RAM (from various PCs)
  • IBM M1015 flashed to IT mode
  • 2x LG Blu-ray drives
  • 512GB Samsung 960 Evo (install SSD as cache, move Dockers to cache, remove 500gb 2.5” drive)
  • Radeon R9 270x for gaming PC VM
  • Radeon 7750 for productivity VM

 

Build 2 (~$100-150)

  • Intel i7-4790k
  • Purchase a used/refurbished socket 1150 motherboard, as new ones aren't available anymore
  • 4x8GB DDR3 RAM
  • IBM M1015 flashed to IT mode
  • 2x LG Blu-ray drives
  • 512GB Samsung 960 Evo (install SSD as cache, move Dockers to cache, remove 500gb 2.5” drive)
  • Radeon R9 270x for gaming PC VM
  • Radeon 7750 for productivity VM

 

Build 3 ($700)

  • New processor (~$300)
  • New motherboard (~$200)
  • 2x8GB DDR4 RAM (~$200)
  • IBM M1015 flashed to IT mode (not sure if this would be necessary)
  • 2x LG Blu-ray drives
  • 512GB Samsung 960 Evo (install SSD as cache, move Dockers to cache, remove 500gb 2.5” drive)
  • Radeon R9 270x for gaming PC VM
  • Radeon 7750 for productivity VM

 

And I would then sell the components that I’m not using, so I would recoup some of the cost.

 

So this is essentially a CPU/motherboard question: do I keep the FX-8150 build as is, change to the i7-4790k and purchase a not-mITX motherboard, or go for all new?  And if I do go for all new, what should I pick?  My shortlist is the i7-8700k, Ryzen 1800x, or Xeon E3-1245v6 (with ECC RAM).

 

 

Link to comment

Decided to go with the Frankenbuild option.  I purchased one of the same motherboards that Lime Tech uses in their lab, the Asrock Z87 Professional: https://www.ebay.com/itm/ASRock-Fatal1ty-Z87-Professional-LGA-1150-HDMI-SATA-ATX-Intel-Gaming-Motherboard/142626520306?hash=item213533fcf2:g:vgkAAOSwLdBaNDRE

 

Now to await its arrival, and continue on with this as a build thread.  So I'm going to end up with the following specs after all is said and done:

  • Rosewill RSV-R4000
  • Intel i7-4790k
  • Noctua NH-D14
  • Asrock Z87 Professional
  • 4x8GB DDR3 RAM
  • IBM M1015 flashed to IT mode - I'm thinking about doing performance testing comparing this card to the onboard SATA ports to see if it's necessary.
  • Radeon R9 270x for Gaming VM
  • Radeon R7750 for Productivity VM
  • 2x LG Blu-Ray Drives
  • 1x 512GB Samsung Evo for cache
  • 1x 2TB Toshiba P300 (parity)
  • 1x 2TB WD EARX (might replace while I have everything open)
  • 1x 2TB Seagate Barracuda ST2000
  • 2x 1TB Hitachi HTS721010
Link to comment

I was thinking about running them off of the 512GB cache drive on a cache-only share.  I will have a couple of extra SSD's as a part of this consolidation though, so if it's recommended to run the VM's off of their own SSD's I can certainly do that.

 

The Blu-Ray drives are for my MakeMKV containers to rip my DVD/BD's for Plex.

 

As far as the M1015, I remember that this was recommended as a faster alternative to onboard SATA.  Granted, that advice was from when I originally built an UnRAID box ~8-10 years ago, so it may not apply anymore.  I may keep it anyway for convenience - I've got 8 3.5" hot swap bays and 6 2.5" hot swap bays, plus the 2 Blu-Ray drives.  So if I do keep the card, I could leave everything plugged in for ease of adding drives in the future.

Link to comment

In my limited experience with VM's on unRAID, it's easy to run out of space for your VM. Games can be large and eat up disk space quickly. I would suggest dedicating, at a minimum, 256GB SSD's in their entirety to each VM. I did this with my Windows VM and then had to migrate to a 512GB when I ran out of space.

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.