2018 Plex/Home PC Build


XtyX

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I am new to Unraid, it was recommended by a friend so I did a lot of research and have started my build list.  Currently I have an old PC (Core 2 Quad - Q6600) running Windows/Plex Server with 4 TB Drive that is almost out of space.  I am choosing Unraid for redundancy and the ability to easily add storage as needed.

 

Here is my build thus far: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/HYMdCb

 

image.thumb.png.a649dfd2a02bc0ce8c6d752f397a98a2.png

 

Essentially I will be using this machine to rip my bluray collection for Plex & everyday Windows use, browsing, light work in MS Office etc.  No interest in gaming.


CPU

Intel I7  7700k
I picked this CPU as it seems suitable for CPU transoding using Ripbot & powerful enough to run 1 or 2 1080p streams for Plex.

 

Motherboard

ASRock - Z270 Extreme4

Went with this Motherboard for the following reasons:

  • 8 Sata ports (Good for addittional stoarge in the future)
  • The board uses the ASMedia ASM1061 SATA-Controller which is supported by unRAID.


RAM
Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000

16GB seems to be plenty.   I am not very familiar with newer RAM, picked 3000 as it seems to be a mid point.  Not sure if its the best choice?

 

Cache
Samsung - 960 EVO 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive

Correct me if i'm wrong but I believe the Windows VM will reside on this drive & I went with 500GB as the Blu-Ray Rips will be placed here before transcoding.

 

Array
3 Hitachi - Deskstar NAS 6TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drives

  • 1 @ 6TB - Parity
  • 1 @ 6TB - Storage
  • 1 @ 6TB - Storage

 

Case
Fractal Design - Define R6 Black TG ATX Mid Tower Case

Great looking case that comes with 6 Drive trays expandable to 10.  Good air flow & decently quiet.

 

PSU
EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

With no video card I think this supply should be good enough and allow for future expansion.

 

 

Budget
$2000 - $2500

 

Goals
1 VM - Windows 10
Docker - Plex (possilbly some others)

 

Other Parts
Already have a LG UH12NS40 16x Internal Blu-Ray Reader that I plan on adding to it

Old PC has the following drives:

  • 4 TB WD Green
  • 1 TB WD Green
  • 1 TB WD Green

 

All input will be greatly appreciated.

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3 minutes ago, XtyX said:

Other Parts
Already have a LG UH12NS40 16x Internal Blu-Ray Reader that I plan on adding to it

Old PC has the following drives:

  • 4 TB WD Green
  • 1 TB WD Green
  • 1 TB WD Green

Maybe you already know but unRAID won't use the Blu-Ray Reader. You might use it in your Windows VM

 

1TB HDDs are a waste of ports and bays IMO.

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5 minutes ago, trurl said:

Maybe you already know but unRAID won't use the Blu-Ray Reader. You might use it in your Windows VM

 

1TB HDDs are a waste of ports and bays IMO.

Yes the plan is to utilize the Blu-Ray Reader in the Windows VM.

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I'd buy 8TB external drives and remove them from their enclosures.  Or whatever the best external is to buy now.

You paying $600 for 18 TB doesn't seem right when I think I get 16 TB for ~$280 usually depending on the sale/brand (I try to not always get Seagate and diversify).

 

I think the SSD is great, but I personally wouldn't get a super high performance SSD.  I got a 1TB and 500 GB SSD (Back when 500 GB was large), for where things reside.  500 GB will feel small as a temporary holding place EVENTUALLY.

 

Mobo

You went with the board for 2 extra SATA Ports, which I understand, but you're spending a lot extra to get them.  You can get the same thing expanding via a PCI slot for far cheaper.

 

If you have no interest in gaming, unless you have a reason for going the 7700k, I'd look to other CPU options/mobo options.  No reason to get the OC CPU unless you intend to OC.  Depends on how many people are watching/need transcodes as to CPU choice.

Also the 8700k is a better CPU for this task since it has more cores.  If you can get them for similar prices, the 8700k basically unlocks more usability since more cores can of course be assigned to other tasks.

 

 

Great build otherwise, I'd just save some money on the points I mentioned personally!

 

Edited by tential
  • Upvote 1
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1 hour ago, tential said:

I'd buy 8TB external drives and remove them from their enclosures.  Or whatever the best external is to buy now.

You paying $600 for 18 TB doesn't seem right when I think I get 16 TB for ~$280 usually depending on the sale/brand (I try to not always get Seagate and diversify).

I'll keep my eyes open for External Sales.

 

1 hour ago, tential said:

I think the SSD is great, but I personally wouldn't get a super high performance SSD.  I got a 1TB and 500 GB SSD (Back when 500 GB was large), for where things reside.  500 GB will feel small as a temporary holding place EVENTUALLY.

I'll take the speed of the M.2 for now, I think your right and I will eventually need more.  When the time comes, Ill sell it and upgrade to a 1TB.

 

1 hour ago, tential said:

Mobo

You went with the board for 2 extra SATA Ports, which I understand, but you're spending a lot extra to get them.  You can get the same thing expanding via a PCI slot for far cheaper.

Yes, I get 2 extra SATA Ports, and from my research on the forum, The Z270 Extreme4 was recommended for that reason and because of the ASMedia ASM1061 SATA-Controller which is supported by unRAID.

image.thumb.png.493f3cb94c4eace8b5da8485241b3dd2.png

Originally I was looking at the ASRock Z270 Pro4 until I saw the post below. 

 

However I do agree in the extra money to get 2 SATA ports as the Pro is $135 & the Extreme4 is $222, an $87 difference.

Now i'm unsure :P

 

1 hour ago, tential said:

If you have no interest in gaming, unless you have a reason for going the 7700k, I'd look to other CPU options/mobo options.  No reason to get the OC CPU unless you intend to OC.  Depends on how many people are watching/need transcodes as to CPU choice.

Also the 8700k is a better CPU for this task since it has more cores.  If you can get them for similar prices, the 8700k basically unlocks more usability since more cores can of course be assigned to other tasks.

The 7700k is on sale right now locally for $389, 8700k is $450.  Only real reason for 7700k was for faster Blu-ray transcoding & now that its on sale, it seems to be a great deal.  Likely 1 - 3 maxx Plex streams.  I have never OC'd before but I would like to experiment with it.

 

Picked up the PSU today cause it went on sale for $109 from $145 and also grabbed the Define R6 cause they matched the lowest online price of $198.

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Are you not able to order off newegg right now for the 8700k for $350?

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117827

Amazon had a crazy sale as well.  I'd never pay $380+ for an i7.  For last gen i7 that isn't HEDT?  Do not do that.  

 

HDD

Set an alert for 8TB on slickdeals.net.  I never pay more than $150 for HDDs usually.  

6TB is probably the worst size to buy due to the lack of use.  The worst return for your money. 

You even had more cost efficient 6TB drives to use so I'm just confused as to your choice and the reasoning behind it.  

 

mobo

Yes, it's recommended for the 2 extra ports, doesn't mean it's cost efficient.  Only in one post by 1 member.  I mean... you're a human you can do the math.  $50+ per port?  Why?  You can get the LSI Controller I just got for 8 extra ports in a PCI slot for $30-50.

Or any of the PCI expansion slot cards I got for under $50 for more sata slots.

It's the LEAST efficient way possible to add sata ports via a more expensive mobo.  

 

As for the M2 ssd, to be clear, you are not making any use of the 960 EVO drive.  It's like buying a porsche 911 to drive on roads going 40 miles an hour.  You can buy a large 1TB M2 SSD for the same price, or 2 500GB SSDs for each M2 slot on your board.

 

You are buying a rig for light windows use but have a bunch of gaming centered parts in your rig.

 

I'm seeing you want to experiment with OCing though so I guess that's why.  I'm not sure what benefit you're expecting to get but I mean if you want to experiment with OCing now in 2018... it's not as exciting as it used to be.  Now, for the average person, click a button it auto OCs for you.  If you want to really get into OCing... well..... you really should first be learning about PC hardware in general.  To get any further, you would not need the assistance of this thread as you'd also be decently educated about PC hardware after that.  

 

Don't want to overwhelm you and I don't think I'd get more than a $25-30 saved for the RAM.  The other parts are the large savings/large performance differences/performance left completely underutilized that matters.

----------------------------------

 

Just step back from an overhead perspective.... 

You're spending an extra $100 on an SSD for a fast speed you wont utilize, but won't spend an extra $50 on the CPU to bump up to the 8700k, and get 50%+ more usability out of your system?

The 8700k is a 7700k+ 2 cores...  It's 50% more CPU for $50 more dollars.  

 

I mean, I'm assuming your current CPU is working for you since you didn't mention it being slow, it isn't the end of the world, but just something I have to explain as its a small pain of hurt everytime I see people spend money on PC parts they can't utilize and skip the major parts of their build they use all the time.

 

I'll stop here as I can just talk about hardware picks for years.

Edited by tential
  • Upvote 1
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4 hours ago, tential said:

Are you not able to order off newegg right now for the 8700k for $350?

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117827

Amazon had a crazy sale as well.  I'd never pay $380+ for an i7.  For last gen i7 that isn't HEDT?  Do not do that.  

 

HDD

Set an alert for 8TB on slickdeals.net.  I never pay more than $150 for HDDs usually.  

6TB is probably the worst size to buy due to the lack of use.  The worst return for your money. 

You even had more cost efficient 6TB drives to use so I'm just confused as to your choice and the reasoning behind it.  

 

mobo

Yes, it's recommended for the 2 extra ports, doesn't mean it's cost efficient.  Only in one post by 1 member.  I mean... you're a human you can do the math.  $50+ per port?  Why?  You can get the LSI Controller I just got for 8 extra ports in a PCI slot for $30-50.

Or any of the PCI expansion slot cards I got for under $50 for more sata slots.

It's the LEAST efficient way possible to add sata ports via a more expensive mobo.  

 

As for the M2 ssd, to be clear, you are not making any use of the 960 EVO drive.  It's like buying a porsche 911 to drive on roads going 40 miles an hour.  You can buy a large 1TB M2 SSD for the same price, or 2 500GB SSDs for each M2 slot on your board.

 

You are buying a rig for light windows use but have a bunch of gaming centered parts in your rig.

 

I'm seeing you want to experiment with OCing though so I guess that's why.  I'm not sure what benefit you're expecting to get but I mean if you want to experiment with OCing now in 2018... it's not as exciting as it used to be.  Now, for the average person, click a button it auto OCs for you.  If you want to really get into OCing... well..... you really should first be learning about PC hardware in general.  To get any further, you would not need the assistance of this thread as you'd also be decently educated about PC hardware after that.  

 

Don't want to overwhelm you and I don't think I'd get more than a $25-30 saved for the RAM.  The other parts are the large savings/large performance differences/performance left completely underutilized that matters.

----------------------------------

 

Just step back from an overhead perspective.... 

You're spending an extra $100 on an SSD for a fast speed you wont utilize, but won't spend an extra $50 on the CPU to bump up to the 8700k, and get 50%+ more usability out of your system?

The 8700k is a 7700k+ 2 cores...  It's 50% more CPU for $50 more dollars.  

 

I mean, I'm assuming your current CPU is working for you since you didn't mention it being slow, it isn't the end of the world, but just something I have to explain as its a small pain of hurt everytime I see people spend money on PC parts they can't utilize and skip the major parts of their build they use all the time.

 

I'll stop here as I can just talk about hardware picks for years.

 

All of my prices are in Canadian. 

 

The mobo is $223 CA which equals $173 US.  Will any modern mobo work with Unraid?  is there any to avoid?

 

The $350 US 8700k you posted equals $450 CAD and the I7 7700k ill be getting for $389 CAD equals $301 US.

 

How am I not making any use of the M2? The M2 is now on sale in Canada for $259 which equals $200 US.

 

Thanks for the feedback, its very helpful and I want to make the right decisions and not spend money where I don't need to.

Edited by XtyX
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4 hours ago, XtyX said:

How am I not making any use of the M2? The M2 is now on sale in Canada for $259 which equals $200 US.

 

You will be running a VM. The SSD will be helpful, but nowhere near the difference that having Win running directly on an SSD.  You are also paying a premium for speed, when it doesn't actually gain you any extra work.  The Porsche analogy is pretty apt.  You have a daily commute of 1 mile on neighborhood roads - and you're pricing out sports cars or off-road vehicles to do the driving.  So buying the fastest SSD will literally make zero difference in the performance of your VM.  Almost any reputable SSD will give you nearly identical performance in your situation. SSD size is useful in this situation, not SSD speed.

Unless you have to have it TODAY, find the long term value in parts - not the fact that it is $50 less today.

The add-in card for SATA vs. on board ports is a no brainer.

Since you want to also run a VM - the extra cores vs. extra speed in your CPU is a no brainer.

 

Edited by whipdancer
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I preface this post by saying that because I'm from USA, I may not be able to find the best prices.  You probably know better where to shop in CA, I just used PCPartpicker at this point which I dont personally do (I'm a weirdo, I'll look at each vendor I use individually and find better prices usually).

I type a lot about this as I spend all my free time on hardware so please let me know where I need to be precise and succinct.  

------

Any mobo will work.  Like if you do anything or learn anything at least learn that there is no reason to overspend on a mobo.  You're buying the features.  Sometimes there are price differences of $130 for an entry Z level board to $300+ and I'll see someone pick up a $250-300 board because "I wanted something middle of the pack!".  Not how mobos work.  Mine is literally the cheapest I could find for every build.  I personally believe it's the Asus ROG marketing on twitch and the like that's gotten people to pay these insane prices.  

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/fjPzK8/msi-z370-a-pro-atx-lga1151-motherboard-z370-a-pro

That's the recommended in the pcpartpicker too, so really I don't have a good explanation other than marketing.  That's the level of board I get though.  ~$100 . I'm not paying $250+ for no additional performance. Mobos can at most add negligible 1-5% performance and better OC performance as well.

I have not kept up with the latest Z370 boards and if any specific boards have issues.  You can post whatever deal you find here though and I can see if I find anything to worry about.  

 

As for Canadian prices, OOPS!!!! Lol.  Sorry, you guys get overcharged for everything, and seeing higher numbers in general no wonder it seems expensive.

 

It's still worth the $60 price difference for the CPU.  To give it in simplest terms, the 7700k is the equivalent of 4 people (with 2 hands each if you want to be accurate as the 7700k has 4 cores and 8 threads but we can get into that later), and the 8700k is the equivalent of 6 people working even faster than the 4 people of the 7700k.

Paying an extra $60 for 2 additional FASTER workers of the 7700k?  Ya, the 8th generation intel CPUs launched with the 8700k are insanely strong.

To put it bluntly, the 7th gen series for intel is dead.  Unless you are getting a massive discount, the 8th generation is the first decent upgrade from intel in a long time.

I don't know how to explain this anymore than in this manner. The 8700k is 50% more CPU for 15% more cost.  I'd be a bad person to not tell you to get the 8700k.

 

For M2 Sata, Realistically you only need to worry about the size of the drive(I'd stay away from SSDs that are clear duds by lower than 3.5 star ratings/terrible industry reviews of course).  So I'd get the "slower" (In real world it wouldn't be slower for you) drive, get double the storage, and still have an upgrade slot for later. 

Your prices are so insane though over there.  Use your equivalent of slickdeals.net for an M2 drive.  The extra $50 is worth it though for:https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/product/DgJtt6/western-digital-blue-1tb-m2-2280-solid-state-drive-wds100t2b0b

You could get a 500 GB drive... but I personally don't buy less than 1TB SSDs now that it's 2018 onwards.

Could drop down to the 500GB if you hvae to though

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/product/6j448d/western-digital-blue-500gb-m2-2280-solid-state-drive-wds500g2b0b

This drive is nothing to write home to performance wise but getse the job done. 5 star rating on newegg:https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820250082

 

 

Don't mean to come off as condescending, I just see a lot of people spend way more money on their builds than they need to and miss out on important parts. 

 

You have more than enough cost savings available to you to get the 8700k and still come out way ahead after applying those savings and you'l spend less than you are spending now with more performance.  Given this is a server forum, and we all eventually continually buy HDDs (unless your application needs a fixed amount of storage), cost savings are critical as that means you can buy more storage!!!!

 

The EVGA PSU at 650 is overkill, but WORTH IT (I just came from an UNRAID recovery of upgrading to too many HDDs and not having enough power though, so I could be a little biased :))\

 

Having fast RAM is important for extracting MAXIMUM performance out of the 8700k/7700k.  Not really important for a webbrowsing VM/Plex.  If you want to save some dollars to put towards other parts of the build if you really need to, do it.  

 

Edit: I did the conversion on the HDDs from CAD to USD.  You pay ~$155 USD for 6TB drives.  You should be able to get 8 TB for less/similar prices.  We get that in the US regularly with Seagate Expansion/Backup External drives that are on sale.  SOMETIMES, WD is onsale too. PICK THOSE UP if you can as they are less often run, and it's always good to diversify your drives to avoid getting drives from a potential bad batch (RARE!)

Edited by tential
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21 hours ago, tential said:

Any mobo will work.  Like if you do anything or learn anything at least learn that there is no reason to overspend on a mobo.  You're buying the features.  Sometimes there are price differences of $130 for an entry Z level board to $300+ and I'll see someone pick up a $250-300 board because "I wanted something middle of the pack!".  Not how mobos work.  Mine is literally the cheapest I could find for every build.  I personally believe it's the Asus ROG marketing on twitch and the like that's gotten people to pay these insane prices.  

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/fjPzK8/msi-z370-a-pro-atx-lga1151-motherboard-z370-a-pro

That's the recommended in the pcpartpicker too, so really I don't have a good explanation other than marketing.  That's the level of board I get though.  ~$100 . I'm not paying $250+ for no additional performance. Mobos can at most add negligible 1-5% performance and better OC performance as well.

I have not kept up with the latest Z370 boards and if any specific boards have issues.  You can post whatever deal you find here though and I can see if I find anything to worry about.  

 

Makes sense and will help in my decision.

 

21 hours ago, tential said:

It's still worth the $60 price difference for the CPU.  To give it in simplest terms, the 7700k is the equivalent of 4 people (with 2 hands each if you want to be accurate as the 7700k has 4 cores and 8 threads but we can get into that later), and the 8700k is the equivalent of 6 people working even faster than the 4 people of the 7700k.

Paying an extra $60 for 2 additional FASTER workers of the 7700k?  Ya, the 8th generation intel CPUs launched with the 8700k are insanely strong.

To put it bluntly, the 7th gen series for intel is dead.  Unless you are getting a massive discount, the 8th generation is the first decent upgrade from intel in a long time.

I don't know how to explain this anymore than in this manner. The 8700k is 50% more CPU for 15% more cost.  I'd be a bad person to not tell you to get the 8700k.

 

I agree 100% 8700k is the way to go.

 

21 hours ago, tential said:

For M2 Sata, Realistically you only need to worry about the size of the drive(I'd stay away from SSDs that are clear duds by lower than 3.5 star ratings/terrible industry reviews of course).  So I'd get the "slower" (In real world it wouldn't be slower for you) drive, get double the storage, and still have an upgrade slot for later. 

Your prices are so insane though over there.  Use your equivalent of slickdeals.net for an M2 drive.  The extra $50 is worth it though for:https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/product/DgJtt6/western-digital-blue-1tb-m2-2280-solid-state-drive-wds100t2b0b

You could get a 500 GB drive... but I personally don't buy less than 1TB SSDs now that it's 2018 onwards.

Could drop down to the 500GB if you hvae to though

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/product/6j448d/western-digital-blue-500gb-m2-2280-solid-state-drive-wds500g2b0b

This drive is nothing to write home to performance wise but getse the job done. 5 star rating on newegg:https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820250082

 

I am a bit confused here.  From the earlier posts I thought you meant go with a 2.5" SSD rather than an M.2. I think what your saying is go with a cheaper M.2, Is that correct? 

 

The WD 1TB M.2 just went on sale on Newegg.ca (Canada) today for $349 CAD which I believe is $269 US

 

21 hours ago, tential said:

Don't mean to come off as condescending, I just see a lot of people spend way more money on their builds than they need to and miss out on important parts. 

 

I don't find it condescending at all.  I really appreciate all the help and knowledge.  Definitely helping to make decisions.

 

21 hours ago, tential said:

You have more than enough cost savings available to you to get the 8700k and still come out way ahead after applying those savings and you'l spend less than you are spending now with more performance.  Given this is a server forum, and we all eventually continually buy HDDs (unless your application needs a fixed amount of storage), cost savings are critical as that means you can buy more storage!!!!

 

I agree

 

21 hours ago, tential said:

The EVGA PSU at 650 is overkill, but WORTH IT (I just came from an UNRAID recovery of upgrading to too many HDDs and not having enough power though, so I could be a little biased :))\

 

Yes I went a little high on this but it went on sale this weekend and I picked it up locally with $40 off

 

21 hours ago, tential said:

Having fast RAM is important for extracting MAXIMUM performance out of the 8700k/7700k.  Not really important for a webbrowsing VM/Plex.  If you want to save some dollars to put towards other parts of the build if you really need to, do it.  

 

I will likely go with the default mobo ram speed (not OC)

 

21 hours ago, tential said:

Edit: I did the conversion on the HDDs from CAD to USD.  You pay ~$155 USD for 6TB drives.  You should be able to get 8 TB for less/similar prices.  We get that in the US regularly with Seagate Expansion/Backup External drives that are on sale.  SOMETIMES, WD is onsale too. PICK THOSE UP if you can as they are less often run, and it's always good to diversify your drives to avoid getting drives from a potential bad batch (RARE!)

 

I'll be watching for sales.  I'm on PCpartpicker & Newegg daily with Price Alerts now set.

Edited by XtyX
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1 hour ago, XtyX said:

I am a bit confused here.  From the earlier posts I thought you meant go with a 2.5" SSD rather than an M.2. I think what your saying is go with a cheaper M.2, Is that correct? 

 

The WD 1TB M.2 just went on sale on Newegg.ca (Canada) today for $349 CAD which I believe is $269 US

Use the available M2 slot you've got. Just don't buy the premium drive (the "fast" drive).  Buy the biggest drive -> 1TB on sale FTW.

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Yup use your M.2 Slot just use a cheaper drive.  Alternatively, you could just use an SSD but since you have the M2 slots, I personally would pay the small premium just to keep my SATA slots free.  But I also have 15 drives and need every slot.  If you never intend to get that big (which I think is again, a bad thing to do.  We all had 1-3 drives at one point I imagine), you'll like having the freed slots.  Also, it just makes the overall build quicker to complete.  Just slot the M2 drive in, boom, you've installed your storage and are on to the next component.  

 

After the things I went through with my PSU, ya obviously you should make sure you have enough power on tap, but it's nice to have a RELIABLE PSU that you know has more than enough juice.  Evga is very highly rated on Amazon for what it's worth.

 

Good luck getting your build done/finding deals.  I just saw one for $130 USD M2 SSD that reminded me of this thread and you.

A 8700k is a stupidly fast processor.  Considering I use a 4770k, I'm sure you can set your system up to get a better daily experience than me, while still running everything you want in the background.  The power of using a server so you don't waste your computing power!

 

If you have a dedicated deal site like a slickdeals for canada or a reddit pcdeals for canada that'd help you too.

https://www.reddit.com/r/bapcsalescanada/

 

I don't think we missed anything 

How do you plan to structure the core priority for the VM?

 

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  • 3 months later...
On 3/4/2018 at 3:14 AM, tential said:

 

As for the M2 ssd, to be clear, you are not making any use of the 960 EVO drive.  It's like buying a porsche 911 to drive on roads going 40 miles an hour.  You can buy a large 1TB M2 SSD for the same price, or 2 500GB SSDs for each M2 slot on your board.

 

 

 

Can you please clarify this? Why isn't it taking advantage of a fast M2 ssd drive?  The VM is running on this fast drive, why wouldn't it be going full speed. What am I missing here, as I am new to researching unraid and its counter parts software. So far I really love what I see.

 

(I'm currently designing a beast unraid rig and I was planning on having a large M2 cache, because what's not to love about 3.5G/s read/write times. I'm just waiting for Threadripper 2 for the 32 cores).  Thanks in advance.

Edited by xxceler8
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