Looking for community advise on setting up a new Unriad + daily driver VM build


Recommended Posts

Hey there!

 

I'm a very long time Unraid user, and I've been watching and reading about using Unraid as a "do it all" platform:

  • Windows 10 Daily Driver
  • Occasionally some gaming (Civ 6, Cities Skyline, etc)
  • Media Server
  • Media Leech (nzb, radarr, sonarr, etc etc)
  • Unifi Controller for my Wifi
  • Scan to unraid share

... you get the picture, Unraid is at the center of everything I do.

 

I've been very content to have a laptop do my daily driving chores, and for Unraid do it's thing in a server rack.

 

But, two things have changed: I've moved into a condo, and I'm going "oooh... aaahhh..." over the upcoming Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 release.  The FS2020 is making me want to upgrade my hardware so I can play it at ideal settings.  That means a Radeon VII + Ryzen 7 Pro 2700X for an AMD solution, or a Intel i7-9800X + NVIDIA RTX 2080 for a Intel/Nvidia solution.

 

I'm not married to AMD or Intel, or Nvidia.  I'm also not made of gobs of money, so I'm kinda inclined towards AMD simply for bang : buck ratio.

 

I'd also like to keep my daily-driver fussing around to a minimum.  I like some fussing around, but lately I find I don't have as much time to dedicate to my hobby as I would like.  <sigh>

 

I also have a Supermicro 846 chassis, which I'd like to continue to use.  So my replacement motherboard I'd like to have IPMI, but it's just a like.  Since the server/workstation has a noise reducing server rack box that I stuff in right by my knees when I'm at the desk, I guess IPMI is not essential, but I sure do like not having to get down to the floor to see what's up with the server!!

 

I like to experiment (that is, fart around) with other VMs, so it'd be cool if I could do a Macinabox, but it's not mandatory.

 

So, apologies for the long wind-up, but here's my questions:

1) Would you recommend Unraid + Windows 10 VM as a daily driver?

2) Assuming yes, and wanting to have as much Gaming performance as I want for FS2020, and not so much fussing around, which Video card would you recommend? 

3) Which Motherboard (32 gigs minimum) + processor would you recommend?

 

I understand IOMMU (and SpaceInvader One really does a fantabulous job of explaining this subject!), so I'm cool with editing xml files and such, though I get slightly less comfortable messing about with extracting vbios.  Though, a well written tutorial I can follow.  (Ask my wife, I learn to follow instructions well!)

 

I'm leaning towards a an Ryzen 9 3900, and a Radeon RX 5700XT... and a nice X570-A Pro by MSI or perhaps an Asus Pro WS x 570-ACE motherboard.  But then I get "scared" by all the problems that people have with doing windows + unraid + gpu Passthroughs and the like. 

 

Does anyone have a daily driver that just works for them?

 

So, I bare my anguish to the internet, and I look forward to the community helping me with making decisions on my next build.

 

Thank you!  

Link to comment

I've said this in other threads, but the hardware in my Signature works pretty well for what I'm doing, which is the same thing. 👍

I'm using Unraid as my daily desktop driver for the last few months, and it's worked pretty well.

 

If you're set looking at Unraid for a daily driver setup, I'd recommend not doing anything too extreme in terms of configuration.

That's what I went for, and it's been 99% great so far.

 

There are so many variables with doing this that nothing (repeat: NOTHING) is going to work 100%, especially if you want to use very recent hardware, but you'll learn a lot getting there. However, on the flip side, very recent hardware will get you better performance and better future-proofing, but you'll have to deal with the inevitable bugs and incompatibilities. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Also, don't rely too much on getting community support for Unraid, it can be a bit hard to find help in this forum... but that's not to say people aren't out there helping. Consider that when buying potentially problematic hardware.

 

So I'd recommend researching the hardware you want to use before purchasing anything. Check hardware component compatibility and Linux kernel requirements, if any, but you should be fine with most setups. I recently switched my all-AMD setup to an AMD(CPU)-NV(Gfx) because a friend of mine was kind enough to sell me his old 1080ti for cheap, and I'm liking this setup.

 

This post is written using my virtualised, VR-gaming setup on unraid. 👍

 

Link to comment

Using hardware know working for someone else will be a big win for you.

 

Check out the build threads and peoples sigs and reach out to people with similar configs to what you propose.

 

Based on my experience, I'd stay well away from nVidia GPUs. I know people make them work, some without issue, but I've set up lots of VMs on AMD RX5n0 cards without issue, but getting anything from nVidia running has been a royal PITA. 

 

I run 2x daily driver workstations on my system. Albeit both MacOs - one for me, one for the family. We alos have Windows VMs we can switch into for gaming, mostly the games you mention, as it happens. As well as those 2x systems, my unRAID runs pretty much everything else in VMs or dockers; NAS (obviously!), whole house audio, whole house PVR, home security system, home automation and lots more.

 

The only real issue I have is that it's really difficult to schedule any maintenance or upgrades as there's always someone wanted to use something the system is doing!

 

Sounds like you have this sorted, but switching to unRAID as a daily driver, I would still strongly advise that you retain some kind of physical PC (laptop) for troubleshooting.

 

Good luck!

 

 

Link to comment

Just figured out how to turn on signatures.  :)  Thanks for the feedback, guys!

 

@meepCan I ask what issues you've had with Nvidia?  I'm seeing more problems with AMD (reset bug being the big one).  Since I don't want to powerdown my server very often, I'm kinda leaning towards Nvidia.  Note, I'm not doing any transcoding, or anything like that, which is what seems to be causing the most problem.

 

I like to keep it as simple as I can!

 

 

Link to comment
22 minutes ago, montery said:

Just figured out how to turn on signatures.  :) Thanks for the feedback, guys!

 

@meepCan I ask what issues you've had with Nvidia?  I'm seeing more problems with AMD (reset bug being the big one).  Since I don't want to powerdown my server very often, I'm kinda leaning towards Nvidia.  Note, I'm not doing any transcoding, or anything like that, which is what seems to be causing the most problem.

 

I like to keep it as simple as I can!

 

 

I think I've been fortunate with AMD and I don't see the reset bug. Likewise, I think you'll find people will have smooth sailing with nVidia.

 

My trouble for me was the -43 error. It seemed that no matter what I tried, I could not get nVidia drivers to install and in my most recent bout of attempts ended up installing Win10 about 10 times, trying different combos of machine type, bios etc. (nVidia drivers do not like to install if there's any hint that the OS is a VM)

 

I finally found the magic formula, but it was hard fought. YMMV, as they say. Batteries not included. Investments may fall as well as rise. 

 

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.