First build and a lof of questions

[thetom88]

Hello everyone! So far I've tried a lot of builds and software configurations using ubuntu server, Windows server, Windows 10 but I've never been satisfied, and now I think Unraid with the conjunction of virtualization and containerization can finally satisfy my needs and give me the opportunity to learn a lot of new things.

Right now my current build is:

• Asrock j4205 
• 8GB DDR3 ram
• 2 500GB hard drives
• 1 3TB WD Red hard drive
• 1 120 GB SSD
• Case Cooler Master Silencio 452
• 500W PSU

I'm now running Windows 10, but I'm facing a lot of problems starting from performance and ending to the crappy dp to hdmi internal converter of the board. So I'm planning to sell the Asrock board and RAM and keep the rest.

My goal is to build a deadly silent NAS/HTPC with some sort of gaming capabilities that can handle a main Windows 10 VM for htpc/office/light_gaming use, nextcloud, home assistant, and come other docker instances. Please consider that gaming is the least important thing at the moment.

My budget is not limited, I'd like to spend the least possible to have a system that I won't hate in the near future and that maybe can be upgraded.

Here's a list of components I'm considering to buy:

• CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor 
• CPU Cooler: Noctua - NH-U12S SE-AM4 CPU Cooler 
• Motherboard: MSI - B450-A PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard 
• Memory: G.Skill - Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory 
• Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GT 1030 2 GB Silent Low Profile Video Card
• 1 3TB WD Red hard drive

 

My guess for the unraid configuration is to assign 4 cores to the main Windows VM and the remaining to unraid, docker and other light VMs. The GPU should be passed through to the main windows VM and will be attached to my main monitor. The new 3TB HD should become the parity drive for the 2 500GB drives and other drives I'd may buy later on and all will be part of an array. The 120 GB drive will become a cache drive. My current 3TB drive should be stand alone as will hold my movies collection and I can afford to losing it someday.

 

Now the question part, I apologize in advance for the possibly stupid ones:

• What do you think of the hardware I'm considering? Do you have any suggestions?
• Can I create an array of disks of different sizes? 1 3TB and 2 500GB and possibly add later other drives to the same array?
• Can I use just one SSD as cache drive?
• Can I run desktop environments in other VMs if the GPU is passed through to the main Windows VM?

 

I sincerely  thank you in advance for any tip and advice you'll provide.

[trurl]

2 hours ago, thetom88 said:

Can I create an array of disks of different sizes? 1 3TB and 2 500GB and possibly add later other drives to the same array?

Yes. You must let Unraid format any disk it will use in the array or cache, so if you are planning to use disks that already have data on them then you will have to consider what to do with that data.

 

Those 500G disks are smaller than often used here, but that is OK for starters assuming they are reliable. Parity by itself cannot recover any data. Every bit of Parity PLUS every bit of all other disks in the array must be reliably read to reliably recover the data for a failed disk.

 

And parity is no substitute for backups. You must always have another copy of anything important and irreplaceable.

 

2 hours ago, thetom88 said:

Can I use just one SSD as cache drive?

Yes. You can make a pool and add another later for redundancy if you format it as btrfs.

 

2 hours ago, thetom88 said:

Can I run desktop environments in other VMs if the GPU is passed through to the main Windows VM?

You can RDP / VNC to other VMs.

 

2 hours ago, thetom88 said:

My current 3TB drive should be stand alone as will hold my movies collection and I can afford to losing it someday.

You can access disks from other systems with the Unassigned Devices plugin

[thetom88]

Thank trurl for your answer! I totally agree with what you said in the first part. I have some other questions..

18 hours ago, trurl said:

21 hours ago, thetom88 said:

Can I run desktop environments in other VMs if the GPU is passed through to the main Windows VM?

You can RDP / VNC to other VMs.

Ok, I got that, when I create other virtual machines I specify VNC as Graphics card. But to correctly pass through a video card I should not specify it as primary graphics adapter of the system in the board BIOS. But since the Ryzen CPU I'm considering doesn't have an integrated graphics card, how will I be able to boot UnRaid? Can it boot "headless"?

Do you have any concerns or advice about the hardware I've selected?

thank you!

 

[pappaq]

On 3/24/2019 at 10:56 AM, thetom88 said:

Thank trurl for your answer! I totally agree with what you said in the first part. I have some other questions..

Ok, I got that, when I create other virtual machines I specify VNC as Graphics card. But to correctly pass through a video card I should not specify it as primary graphics adapter of the system in the board BIOS. But since the Ryzen CPU I'm considering doesn't have an integrated graphics card, how will I be able to boot UnRaid? Can it boot "headless"?

Do you have any concerns or advice about the hardware I've selected?

thank you!

 

unRAID is able to run headless and you do not have to change any options in the BIOS for the primary graphics card, it will just take it away from unRAID as soon as you start a VM in which the graphics card is set to be passed through. But that is just from my experience, so take it with a grain of salt.

[thetom88]

On ‎4‎/‎1‎/‎2019 at 4:08 PM, pappaq said:

unRAID is able to run headless and you do not have to change any options in the BIOS for the primary graphics card, it will just take it away from unRAID as soon as you start a VM in which the graphics card is set to be passed through. But that is just from my experience, so take it with a grain of salt.

Thank you pappaq for you answer and I'm sorry for my late answer. That's great, I can do some savings on the GPUs side by buying just one GPU. I still have to choose which one to buy considering the new boards Nvidia is throwing to the market.

 

I'm trying to study as much as I can to figure out the best build for the money I can spend. Right now I'm thinking about waiting a little to let the new generation of Ryzen CPUs get to the market and so save a little money on the second generation. I'm also considering switching the Ryzen 2600 to the Ryzen 2700 to get the extra 2 cores/4 threads.

I've still a lot of doubts about the motherboard. I can't find a lot of infos on most compatible motherboards and chipsets. Do any of you have any advice on this side?

[rollieindc]

I'm going to confirm everything that pappaq said, and offer that the nVidia 1030 card should be a good one to use in your build as a pass-through graphics card for a VM. (I'm looking at that one too!) And I use VNC to get into multiple VMs. It works pretty well. And using unRAID makes that set up pretty easy. I have 16GB of RAM, but sometimes think that I'd be better off with 32GB for some of the photo and video work I do. Most of my VMs are around 6GB of RAM, and they work well.

 

And you might like TeamViewer - if you want to remote into your VMs from outside your own network. Otherwise, you might want to review some of SpaceInvaderOne's YouTube videos, as he does a really good step-by-step process in building VMs, remote access and doing graphic card pass-through.

 

You can read about my build, and see some of the things I have gone through. I do boot mine headless, but I used the internal graphics card for initial system build. And you can use any basic video card for the initial build/headless config - it doesn't need to be an onboard video card for unRAID. For me, I didn't need a lot of CPU power. In fact, since most of my work is more as a NAS type file service, I am happier with my parity build disk system (Yes, you can mix different size and make disks in the array, but the Parity Disk needs to be the largest drive in the system.) If you want to add extra disks (like your 3TB movie drive) outside of their disk array - you can. You just won't get the value of any disks used for "cache" or parity protection that unRAID offers. 

 

Oh, and I currently use just one SSD as my cache drive. But for most things, I don't use the cache drive at all. But I'd recommend a 250-500GB SSD if you can get one. The docker apps and VMs by default get installed on the cache drive. So a second cache drive will improve performance, but isn't totally necessary. And it's good to plan two additional CPUs for unRAID to what you need for your daily driver. I have 4core/8thread xeon CPU in mine, and I keep 2 cores (2 threads) reserved for the OS/unRAID to chew on things. One thing to note, if you do run parity, you should look at when the parity check runs - because for my system (~16TB), it takes 6-8 hours to complete the parity check, and I do it weekly.

 

I do recommend considering another 3TB drive (2 for drive space, 1 for parity) - if you plan to continue to expand your library. But the good news is that if you want to, later on, you can add the parity drive later, or rebuild the parity of the system with adding a larger drive later. You can even move files from one drive to another without taking up too much CPU/RAM resources. My current parity drive is 4TB, and at some point, I might go up to a 6 or 8TB set of drives - which is really easy to do - you just plug them in, format, assign as you want to and move files - if needed. If you're just adding to the array, it's basically just a one click to add storage. For me, if my array gets up to more than 5 drives, I'll likely add a second parity drive for additional protection.