New User, planning build


strykn

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I'm looking to decommission my WHS hp Ex485 and would like to have an UnRaid NAS + 2 light-duty gamers for the kids (Windows 10 VMs).

 

Items i have > 

MB: Asus x470 Crosshair VII Hero (Wifi)

RAM: 4x8 (32Gb) Corsair RGB 3600 (non-ECC)

PSU: 650W Seasonic Titanium Prime (is this enough?)

Case: ThermalTake View 37 ARGB (room for 7+ 3.5" HDD)

HDD: Various HDD 2-4Tb

 

Looking to add

CPU: Ryzen 3900x (12-cores)

GPU: 2x GTX 1060 6G

HDD: 8+Tb parity drive

SSD: Cache, ~1Tb NVMe

 

Configuration plans (bare in mind i have zero experience in UnRaid, yet)

4 cores > NAS (w/ Plex eventually)

4 core per Windows10 VM, x2. With GPU pass-through 

RAM > i was thinking >> 12Gb per VM (24gb) then remaining 8Gb for NAS

 

Questions >

1. Can the NAS/Plex operate headless? i.e. No GPU. Maybe after initial setup?

 

2. Thoughts on components?

a) Do i need 2x USB cards to assign to each VM for peripherals (what about Audio > does it NEED to be USB), or is onboard sufficient?

b) non-ECC RAM, is this really very risky?

c) Cache SSD > help me understand choices here. Sure, bigger is better as is faster; Does this help with streaming? or only with write speed? Does this apply to VMs as well as NAS operation? 

 

3. Can u reassign cores easily, and restart system?

a) If i was running a game server (ARK), and wanted to assign 4-cores. Could i modify things without too much trouble?

 

4. Any Ryzen tutorials would be helpful! Especially with gaming VM set up!

 

5. Can i have a single GAME install location on NAS (i.e. Steam install folder), and reference it from multiple PCs (VM or LAN-assoc. PC)

For example, if i have 3 Steam accounts, with ARK available, can i point them all to the NAS. 

Or could Fortnite run well on both VMs, with a single 'install' location??

 

6. How should i start? Begin with NAS or Set up 1 or 2 VMs to start? 

 

7. Alternatively, i have an 8700k (main system) that i could use. Is this better for VMs, or does AMD have effective options for GPU pass-through, IOMMU etc... (is everything supported on my Asus x470 Hero?) No onboard graphics for 3900x vs yes on 8700k. 

 

8. Parity Drive > My thinking here is get 1 or 2 8Tb drives and assign them as Parity then let UnRaid manage the remaining storage & data security. Is there a calculator to see how much usable space i'll have. (I have 1x 4Tb, 3x 3Tb, 1x 2Tb, 2x 1Tb drives available currently; ~17Tb total)

 

this is just a start, and i know i'm already over my head. So appreciative of any input!!

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