New Ryzen Build July 2019

[Rajkumar]

Hi,

 

Have started setting up a unraid box a few days ago. Looks promising. Almost final about purchasing a license. But have a few question. Hope someone can answer the same.

1. Hardware Setup (Will this work properly)??? Compatibiliy

a) RYZEN CPU currently a 1500x, Will upgrade to either a 3600 or a 2700x depending upon the no of VM and Speed.

b) ASUS X370 Prime Pro

c) 16GB DDR4@2400 RAM (2x8GB)

d) AMD Wraith Prism Cooler (which comes with the 2700x)

e) 480GB x 6 Drives SSD Kingston A400 (Why are SSD not recommended? Freenas is quite happy with it) Of of my main issues!!!

f) Cache Drive ---- Looking for your suggestions, Mobo has NVME Support.

g) Upgraded to the Latest BIOS though.

h) CX 450 watt SMPS Corsair!!! (Do I need something Better?

i) Display - 5450 just for install etc. No GPY pass thorugh required at the moment, but planning to buy a 2080 super or as 2080 Ti

j) Intel Original i350T4 LAN card.

 

WILL 16GB Suffice of should I go with 32 or 64 GB???

 

WILL the RYZEN prcoessors work well!!!

 

Any suggestions/change for the above. (Cannot do a XEON build though. never liked them)

 

2. Purpose

a) Need to install pfSense. have a 100mbps unlimited (no FUP) plan for routing to about 10 machines...

b) WIndows 10 for an accounts Package that need to validate LIC. (the Windows 10 is the Pro version 1903 - Licenced) {{{ Any activation Issues???}}}

c) Unraid will be used to server about 10 nodes with Not a very heavy load. Just Office docs and Accounts Database, database size about 1GB.

d) Later on with CPU upgrade, Windows 10 Daily computing, Internet along with some AAA Games....

 

3. Will unraid bootup properly, start the pfsense box and get the GATEWAY. Currently not happening as I have read that for unraid to boot without a proper lic key, Internet connection is required.

 

4. USB Stick.

Have had Very bad experiences with the USB stick, especially on freenas.

Incase the Stick Malfunctions, how to I get the system up and running again. Can I use a 120GB SSD? Can I use a 120GB SSD connect wia USB???

What happens to the LIC. have read its hard coded with the UUID.

a Little sceptical about this particular point.

 

Sorry for so many questions and a long email.

 

Appreciate a reply answering all/part of the above.

 

Thank you and regards.

 

Rajkumar.

[trurl]

19 minutes ago, Rajkumar said:

e) 480GB x 6 Drives SSD Kingston A400 (Why are SSD not recommended? Freenas is quite happy with it) Of of my main issues!!!

SSDs in the parity array cannot be trimmed, because that could invalidate parity. You can have multiple SSDs in the cache pool.

 

22 minutes ago, Rajkumar said:

4. USB Stick.

Have had Very bad experiences with the USB stick, especially on freenas.

Incase the Stick Malfunctions, how to I get the system up and running again. Can I use a 120GB SSD? Can I use a 120GB SSD connect wia USB???

What happens to the LIC. have read its hard coded with the UUID.

a Little sceptical about this particular point.

Unraid boots from flash, but that flash is actually accessed very little. The OS is unpacked fresh from the archives on flash into RAM at each boot, and the OS runs completely in RAM. Flash also contains your license, and any configuration changes you make are stored there to be reapplied at boot. There are methods for backing up flash, so your configuration isn't lost if the flash malfunctions. The license is associated with the flash GUID, but if you have to replace flash, getting a replacement license is fairly simple.

[Rajkumar]

t u trurl for your reply. So can I use the SSD or not?

[JonathanM]

22 minutes ago, Rajkumar said:

So can I use the SSD or not?

 

1 hour ago, trurl said:

You can have multiple SSDs in the cache pool.

 

[Rajkumar]

Would appreciate if other questions are also answered. thanks.

[JonathanM]

1 hour ago, Rajkumar said:

Would appreciate if other questions are also answered. thanks.

Could you restate the questions where you couldn't find the answers? Your first post is rather jumbled, perhaps asking one question at a time and possibly doing some searching here on the forum would yield quicker results.

 

There are a series of very informative videos on youtube published by spaceinvader one that may help you get a grasp on what all unraid needs and can do with those resources.

[Rajkumar]

Question 1.

Given Below is my hardware setup. Besides the SSD drives will the setup mentioned below work well with unraid? Any compatibility or driver issues if any?

Question 2.

WILL 16GB Suffice of should I go with 32 or 64 GB???

Question 3.

WILL the RYZEN prcoessors work well with unraid (((Gen 1, 2, 3)))!!!

 

1. Hardware Setup (Will this work properly)??? Compatibiliy

a) RYZEN CPU currently a 1500x, Will upgrade to either a 3600 or a 2700x depending upon the no of VM and Speed.

b) ASUS X370 Prime Pro

c) 16GB DDR4@2400 RAM (2x8GB)

d) AMD Wraith Prism Cooler (which comes with the 2700x)

e) 480GB x 6 Drives SSD Kingston A400 (Why are SSD not recommended? Freenas is quite happy with it) Of of my main issues!!!

f) Cache Drive ---- Looking for your suggestions, Mobo has NVME Support.

g) Upgraded to the Latest BIOS though.

h) CX 450 watt SMPS Corsair!!! (Do I need something Better?

i) Display - 5450 just for install etc. No GPY pass thorugh required at the moment, but planning to buy a 2080 super or as 2080 Ti

j) Intel Original i350T4 LAN card.

[Rajkumar]

Question 4.

The Purpose of the Machine is as follows:

a) Need to install pfSense. have a 100mbps unlimited (no FUP) plan for routing to about 10 machines...

b) WIndows 10 for an accounts Package that need to validate LIC. (the Windows 10 is the Pro version 1903 - Licenced) {{{ Any activation Issues???}}}

c) Unraid will be used to server about 10 nodes with Not a very heavy load. Just Office docs and Accounts Database, database size about 1GB.

d) Later on with CPU upgrade, Windows 10 Daily computing, Internet along with some AAA Games....

 

 

Will the Hardware Setup Mentioned Above function adequately/ Fast???

[Rajkumar]

Question 5.

Wish to Run pfsense as my primary router in a VM within unraid.

Currently I have a Trial version on. do the Array does not start as there is no internet and pfsense is not loaded.

Once I purchase a License, Will pf sense and unraid work?

[JonathanM]

5 minutes ago, Rajkumar said:

Question 5.

Wish to Run pfsense as my primary router in a VM within unraid.

Currently I have a Trial version on. do the Array does not start as there is no internet and pfsense is not loaded.

Once I purchase a License, Will pf sense and unraid work?

I am currently doing exactly this. I have a motherboard with dual gigabit onboard, and pass both those to the pfsense VM. I have a PCIE 10GB card for unraid to use. Either automatically starting the array and VM at boot or interacting via IPMI to manually start the array and VM works fine. Obviously everything in this context is using static IP's.

[Rajkumar]

Thanks Jonathanm, for your kind reply for question No.5.

 

Appreciate it.

[Rajkumar]

Eager to receive reply for questions 1 through 4!

[Clay Smith]

56 minutes ago, Rajkumar said:

Question 1.

Given Below is my hardware setup. Besides the SSD drives will the setup mentioned below work well with unraid? Any compatibility or driver issues if any?

 

There were a couple of issues in the beginning that I'm not sure if they are still issues (once I changed my settings I never reverted them back to test) like disabling c-states but I ran a 1700x for a year and a 2700x for a little over that and just swapped in a 3900x and stability has been fine.  I usually run 2-3 months between reboots without issue, and the reboots are generally for other reasons, not due to issues.

 

That being said I don't run GPU passthrough (Got it to work on the 1700x as a neat thing I could do but since I wasn't using it I took out the gpu to lower my power consumption) and I've read alot about the newer AM4 BIOS' preventing passthrough so I'd hold of on the 3600 or stick with the 2700x

 

56 minutes ago, Rajkumar said:

Question 2.

WILL 16GB Suffice of should I go with 32 or 64 GB???

 

This is dependent on your needs.  Based on your Question 4 I'd say 32 but if you already have the 16 it's a fine starting point.  Once you start trying to use windows as a daily driver and gaming machine though I'd move to 32 so that 16 can go to that VM.

 

57 minutes ago, Rajkumar said:

Question 3.

WILL the RYZEN prcoessors work well with unraid (((Gen 1, 2, 3)))!!!

 

As I mentioned above I've used 3 chips across 3 generations of cpu on 2 motherboards (B350 and B450) and haven't had issues beyond the early-adopter things back in the day with 1st gen ryzen.

 

57 minutes ago, Rajkumar said:

e) 480GB x 6 Drives SSD Kingston A400 (Why are SSD not recommended? Freenas is quite happy with it) Of of my main issues!!!

 

I don't believe I am knowledgeable enough to answer this but I think I remember reading something about unraid having it's own overhead that causes lower than desired write speeds on HDDs in the array so if it's a hard limit and not a % of total write capacity it could be a huge bummer.  Could be completely wrong though so don't quote me.

57 minutes ago, Rajkumar said:

h) CX 450 watt SMPS Corsair!!! (Do I need something Better?

 

It'll work.  Lots of things will work though.  For now.  You'll definitely see a cost benefit over time going with 80+ Gold (or higher) efficiency since you'll be running 24/7 and you'll need a lot higher wattage once you start using the daily driver VM, especially with a high end GPU like the 2080.

 

57 minutes ago, Rajkumar said:

Question 4.

The Purpose of the Machine is as follows:

a) Need to install pfSense. have a 100mbps unlimited (no FUP) plan for routing to about 10 machines...

b) WIndows 10 for an accounts Package that need to validate LIC. (the Windows 10 is the Pro version 1903 - Licenced) {{{ Any activation Issues???}}}

c) Unraid will be used to server about 10 nodes with Not a very heavy load. Just Office docs and Accounts Database, database size about 1GB.

d) Later on with CPU upgrade, Windows 10 Daily computing, Internet along with some AAA Games....

 

 

Will the Hardware Setup Mentioned Above function adequately/ Fast???

 

As given your spec will be adequate for the above until you start trying to use the daily driver VM.  I don't know enough about the requirements of pfSense or your Win10 VM listed for "b)" so I can't weigh in on which chip you should use for the upgrade.  If you need more cores go for the 2700x.  If your core count seems good then the 3600 should perform better in gaming once they can fix the GPU passthrough.

 

1 hour ago, Rajkumar said:

(the Windows 10 is the Pro version 1903 - Licenced) {{{ Any activation Issues???}}}

I didn't have any issues activating my Win10 VM

 

Hopefully this helps and hopefully others can give you some second opinions and fill in some of the blanks I couldn't.

[Rajkumar]

thank u all 4 your replies.

 

Appreciate it.

[Rajkumar]

Thank you all 4 your kind replies.

 

With this kind of help, I am sold on unraid.

 

The system so far is working super. No issues so far.

 

Space invaders videos are very good, informative, to the point, clean, etc etc (just super)

 

So with all that has been said, (lol, paid through my nose for the i350T4 directly from intelm due to fakes available in the market, which apparently die.)

will keep the RAM,MOBO,CPU and all.

 

Have just upgrade to the 2700x Prism cooler on my 1500x as my 2700x is a open loop LC.

RAM prices have shotup by 25% in India in the past 7 days or so. will hold on the RAM.

 

Most of all will not install the GPU on this machine as it is being discouraged by all.

 

Will probably wait for the either the 3950x or the 9900KS for my Gaming/prodn rig.

 

Thank you all once again.

 

Once I have a proper USB stick will be making the purchase.

 

Have another question. Will post Separately to avoid any confusion.

 

Thx again. This forum ROCKS.

[Rajkumar]

Question 6.

 

Wanting to install a Cache drive.

Want to go with an M.2 Form Factor.

question is NVME or SATA.

 

Also incase there is some data on the cache, and if (for whatever reason the machine goes off), what happens to the data in the cache drive.

Can I make sure somehow that its written to disk? Can we have some system as in  (sorry) freenas that there is "cop", hope term is (correct)?

 

Also for the first 3-6 months can I backup to a normal external USB drive every night for the whole system (data) No music No videos, just pure data, Say aboout 500GB MAX MAX zipped. The files can be zipped and copied off. Once all is well then okay.  Even Incremental will do.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Rajkumar]

I would like to also mention that UNRAID was a 1 day affair.

Freenas was over a week.

 

for a newbie for a particular system/OS/Enviorment, unraid felt like a breeze. i Day includes other activities. LOL.

 

So far UNRAID is KEWL.