Due to my current issues with getting Unraid to even boot, I am seriously considering purchasing some new hardware to get around my problems.

 

Can someone give this a run over and see if this all looks suitable. My aims for using Unraid is to have it as a file server, a time machine backup destination, a Plex media server (pretty much solely a single stream, only me here) and quite possibly a Windows 10 VM. The VM, more for playing about with, I really don;t know what i'd be using it for just yet but it'd be nice to have it if I end up fidning a use for it at a later date.

 

I've just chosen a pretty much random motherboard so if anyone has any decent suggestions i'd be very happy to take a look at them.  I was considering at first an i5-7500 but someone suggested a boost to an i7. Is the one in the spec below suitable?

 

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/rctneil/saved/7wDRGX

 

I'd be happy with any and all suggestions.

 

Kind regards,

Neil

Looking at your list,  as long as you have a case and power supply along with drives,  you will be able to handle a vm and plex for 1-2-3 transcodes depending on how heavy you set the VM and other dockers.   The i7 is a way better choice than the i5!

Brill,

 

What other alternative motherboards would you recommend? My main requirement is an Intel nic.

Still looking into this build and someone recommended getting one of the new Coffee Lake chips. So I found the 8700 but as Coffee Lake is Hex-Core I thoughts i'd compare it to the 8500 i5. Looking at the comparison below it looks like it fares reasonably well.

 

Would the 8500 be suitable for my usecase above? What do you all think?

 

Anyone?

I can see no reason to think that it would not be up to doing what you are looking at.  Especially since you are looking at using the WIN10 VM from the standpoint of an evaluation tool.  That VM should be able to do most normal computing jobs without breaking a sweat.  It gets a bit more dicey when one is looking to play high end video games or heavy-duty video editing.  

 

While, I am not an expert in the use of VM's, you might be a little light on RAM.  32GB might be a better option point but only you know how serious you are about the using a VM.