Concelor

Howdy all I recently finished my basement, it’s about time I started looking at my Unraid system for upgrades and expansions. The wife has given me carte blanche to bring my home office up to date so I can tackle the task anyway I see fit...a dangerous situation While I probably will have the standard “What about this part or that part” question we all have when it comes time to upgrade our servers. I have some more fundamental questions and hope, as always, that the experts and enthusiasts on the forums can shed some light on them. Background on my current server: Over the years I have tried to use my Unraid for a whole slew of purposes but have narrowed it down to a handful: Plex, Pi-Hole, Ubooquity, AirSonic Honestly, I always feel bad I don’t use it for more stuff but never needed any of the other amazing features for more than a project or two Since the beginning of VMs, I have also used this box as my sole system for general productivity/gaming ASRock X99 Extreme4/3.1 Intel® Core™ i7-6850K CPU @ 3.60GHz 48 GB DDR4 6TB Parity 19TB Disk Pool (1) Gaming VM 1060 GB Passed Through Questions: Gaming VM do people still find it good for that? I have had some oddities over the past few years but having one power supply and one case saved money and space, so I live with it. Heck, I can still play new games at 1080p with no issue (no real plans ever to head to 4k…20 inches from a screen I can never see the difference). I just find myself these days asking if it’s better to get a stand-alone gaming rig in parallel to the server. Is it worth taking my existing setup and transplanting it into a new rack-mounted case? With my basement remodel I have created a 600 sq. ft office for myself and plan on running all networking into it and eyeing a ceiling-mounted rack or floor rack though that does get tied into question one a bit. Can the old girl keep up? I know some of her parts are showing their age but not in performance…age, in this case, is just a number 😊 (Not Unraid Specifically) How does everyone feel about the Ubiquiti line of equipment? One piece of the network I do need to focus on is my Asus RT-AC88U, I try to run everything in my house as wired, and a 24 switch will help, but find myself asking if is it worth doing the network to uber levels or building a new Unraid and or gaming rig first. As always thanks for all the advice/support

Thanks! i'll try the link again (i did find that link when this journey began) Yeah I've been spending a good while in google world for this I've tried PSID reverting, tried ultimate boot cd, sedutil, magic magican It looks like it's ata locked and that's where things get a little tougher

I recently bought an old HP Gen 8 server from a mom and pop architecture firm going out of business The hardware itself is nothing special but inside i was shocked to find 8 2TB Samsung Pro 850 SSDs What a find for a 500 bucks But their previous IT guy for some reason locked each drive with a password I've tried a bunch of things to crack these dries open I don't want any of the data at all just hoping to utilize the drives for my home server I thought I would put the question to the experts who always help me in the past with server questions Anyone know a way to get into an 850 SSD that has a hard drive password on it? More than willing to part with one as payment if someone can assist

Also to expand on the network lab A wireless device on my network gets 74 MBS DL and 11.86 UL where as my VM gets 6 DL and 7 UL

Forgot to add the config file default /syslinux/menu.c32 menu title Lime Technology, Inc. prompt 0 timeout 50 label unRAID OS menu default kernel /bzimage append pcie_acs_override=downstream isolcpus=1,2,3,4,7,9,10 initrd=/bzroot label unRAID OS GUI Mode kernel /bzimage append pcie_acs_override=downstream initrd=/bzroot,/bzroot-gui label unRAID OS Safe Mode (no plugins, no GUI) kernel /bzimage append pcie_acs_override=downstream initrd=/bzroot unraidsafemode label unRAID OS GUI Safe Mode (no plugins) kernel /bzimage append pcie_acs_override=downstream initrd=/bzroot,/bzroot-gui unraidsafemode label Memtest86+ kernel /memtest

So I was having so much trouble with my older system, I decided to build a brand new one All I was looking for is the awesomeness of unRAID, and a decent gaming machine So I scoured the posts made a few threads and asked around and came up with what I throught should be an ideal machine Taking some new games like Doom, I';m getting 111+ FPS, Rise of Tomb Raider I'm getting ~35 Which are both playable numbers but then I run 3Dmark, I'm getting 3700, which is really lol And flash games are dragging their behinds in terms of FPS Another weird hiccup is the internet speed is slow, nothing access Server but my VM, and pages are loading like they do on dial up So somewhere the resources are dammed up somewhere, but after weeks of trying to find out where, I'm chasing my tail around Hopefully another few set of eyes can see something I don't Already looked at the main causes MSI interruption and the entire Video Card passed through even if I'm not suing the audio, as well as CPU isolation and pinning I'm thinking it's a weird hiccup in the unRAID config or on the board BIOS itself If any has run some of the hard ware below (and seeing how i got all the recommendations form here I know they do ) are there any tweaks needed? Or is it a simple mistake in the XML As always thanks every body for advice/solutions to try Model: Custom M/B: ASRock - X99 Extreme4/3.1 CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-6850K CPU @ 3.60GHz HVM: Enabled IOMMU: Enabled Cache: 384 kB, 1536 kB, 15360 kB Memory: 32 GB (max. installable capacity 512 GB) Network: bond0: fault-tolerance (active-backup), mtu 1500 eth0: 1000 Mb/s, full duplex, mtu 1500 Kernel: Linux 4.9.30-unRAID x86_64 OpenSSL: 1.0.2k VIdeo Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1060 DirectX 12 GeForce GTX 1060 GAMING 6G 6GB 192-Bit GDDR5 PCI <domain type='kvm' id='1'> <name>Windows 10</name> <uuid>0fa2aead-31c7-cb0e-7b79-f7fc1ddbc0e4</uuid> <metadata> <vmtemplate xmlns="unraid" name="Windows 10" icon="windows.png" os="windows10"/> </metadata> <memory unit='KiB'>16777216</memory> <currentMemory unit='KiB'>16777216</currentMemory> <memoryBacking> <nosharepages/> </memoryBacking> <vcpu placement='static'>7</vcpu> <cputune> <vcpupin vcpu='0' cpuset='1'/> <vcpupin vcpu='1' cpuset='2'/> <vcpupin vcpu='2' cpuset='3'/> <vcpupin vcpu='3' cpuset='4'/> <vcpupin vcpu='4' cpuset='7'/> <vcpupin vcpu='5' cpuset='9'/> <vcpupin vcpu='6' cpuset='10'/> <emulatorpin cpuset='0,6'/> </cputune> <resource> <partition>/machine</partition> </resource> <os> <type arch='x86_64' machine='pc-q35-2.7'>hvm</type> <loader readonly='yes' type='pflash'>/usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x64/OVMF_CODE-pure-efi.fd</loader> <nvram>/etc/libvirt/qemu/nvram/0fa2aead-31c7-cb0e-7b79-f7fc1ddbc0e4_VARS-pure-efi.fd</nvram> </os> <features> <acpi/> <apic/> <hyperv> <relaxed state='on'/> <vapic state='on'/> <spinlocks state='on' retries='8191'/> <vendor_id state='on' value='none'/> </hyperv> </features> <cpu mode='host-passthrough'> <topology sockets='1' cores='7' threads='1'/> </cpu> <clock offset='localtime'> <timer name='hypervclock' present='yes'/> <timer name='hpet' present='no'/> </clock> <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff> <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot> <on_crash>restart</on_crash> <devices> <emulator>/usr/local/sbin/qemu</emulator> <disk type='file' device='disk'> <driver name='qemu' type='raw' cache='writeback'/> <source file='/mnt/cache/VMs/vdisk1.img'/> <backingStore/> <target dev='hdc' bus='virtio'/> <boot order='1'/> <alias name='virtio-disk2'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x02' slot='0x03' function='0x0'/> </disk> <disk type='file' device='disk'> <driver name='qemu' type='raw' cache='writeback'/> <source file='/mnt/disks/Samsung_SSD_840_EVO_250GB_S1DBNSCFA14644X/Windows 10/vdisk4.img'/> <backingStore/> <target dev='hdd' bus='virtio'/> <alias name='virtio-disk3'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x02' slot='0x04' function='0x0'/> </disk> <disk type='file' device='disk'> <driver name='qemu' type='raw' cache='writeback'/> <source file='/mnt/disks/Samsung_SSD_850_EVO_250GB_S21NNSAG729222N/Windows 10/vdisk5.img'/> <backingStore/> <target dev='hde' bus='virtio'/> <alias name='virtio-disk4'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x02' slot='0x05' function='0x0'/> </disk> <disk type='file' device='disk'> <driver name='qemu' type='raw' cache='writeback'/> <source file='/mnt/disks/WDC_WD10EACS_07D6B0_WD_WCAU43599175/Main/vdisk2.img'/> <backingStore/> <target dev='hdf' bus='virtio'/> <alias name='virtio-disk5'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x02' slot='0x06' function='0x0'/> </disk> <disk type='file' device='disk'> <driver name='qemu' type='raw' cache='writeback'/> <source file='/mnt/disks/WDC_WD10EACS_07D6B0_WD_WCAU43599175/Main/vdisk3.img'/> <backingStore/> <target dev='hdg' bus='virtio'/> <alias name='virtio-disk6'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x02' slot='0x07' function='0x0'/> </disk> <controller type='usb' index='0' model='nec-xhci'> <alias name='usb'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x07' function='0x0'/> </controller> <controller type='sata' index='0'> <alias name='ide'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x1f' function='0x2'/> </controller> <controller type='pci' index='0' model='pcie-root'> <alias name='pcie.0'/> </controller> <controller type='pci' index='1' model='dmi-to-pci-bridge'> <model name='i82801b11-bridge'/> <alias name='pci.1'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x1e' function='0x0'/> </controller> <controller type='pci' index='2' model='pci-bridge'> <model name='pci-bridge'/> <target chassisNr='2'/> <alias name='pci.2'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x01' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/> </controller> <controller type='virtio-serial' index='0'> <alias name='virtio-serial0'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x02' slot='0x02' function='0x0'/> </controller> <interface type='bridge'> <mac address='52:54:00:4d:53:51'/> <source bridge='br0'/> <target dev='vnet0'/> <model type='virtio'/> <alias name='net0'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x02' slot='0x01' function='0x0'/> </interface> <serial type='pty'> <source path='/dev/pts/0'/> <target port='0'/> <alias name='serial0'/> </serial> <console type='pty' tty='/dev/pts/0'> <source path='/dev/pts/0'/> <target type='serial' port='0'/> <alias name='serial0'/> </console> <channel type='unix'> <source mode='bind' path='/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/channel/target/domain-1-Windows 10/org.qemu.guest_agent.0'/> <target type='virtio' name='org.qemu.guest_agent.0' state='disconnected'/> <alias name='channel0'/> <address type='virtio-serial' controller='0' bus='0' port='1'/> </channel> <input type='mouse' bus='ps2'> <alias name='input0'/> </input> <input type='keyboard' bus='ps2'> <alias name='input1'/> </input> <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='pci' managed='yes'> <driver name='vfio'/> <source> <address domain='0x0000' bus='0x02' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/> </source> <alias name='hostdev0'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x02' slot='0x08' function='0x0'/> </hostdev> <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='pci' managed='yes'> <driver name='vfio'/> <source> <address domain='0x0000' bus='0x02' slot='0x00' function='0x1'/> </source> <alias name='hostdev1'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x02' slot='0x09' function='0x0'/> </hostdev> <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='pci' managed='yes'> <driver name='vfio'/> <source> <address domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x1b' function='0x0'/> </source> <alias name='hostdev2'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x02' slot='0x0a' function='0x0'/> </hostdev> <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='pci' managed='yes'> <driver name='vfio'/> <source> <address domain='0x0000' bus='0x01' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/> </source> <alias name='hostdev3'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x02' slot='0x0b' function='0x0'/> </hostdev> <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='usb' managed='no'> <source> <vendor id='0x045e'/> <product id='0x0719'/> <address bus='1' device='2'/> </source> <alias name='hostdev4'/> <address type='usb' bus='0' port='1'/> </hostdev> <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='usb' managed='no'> <source> <vendor id='0x04d9'/> <product id='0x0167'/> <address bus='1' device='3'/> </source> <alias name='hostdev5'/> <address type='usb' bus='0' port='2'/> </hostdev> <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='usb' managed='no'> <source> <vendor id='0x1532'/> <product id='0x0037'/> <address bus='1' device='4'/> </source> <alias name='hostdev6'/> <address type='usb' bus='0' port='3'/> </hostdev> <memballoon model='virtio'> <alias name='balloon0'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x02' slot='0x0c' function='0x0'/> </memballoon> </devices> <seclabel type='none' model='none'/> <seclabel type='dynamic' model='dac' relabel='yes'> <label>+0:+100</label> <imagelabel>+0:+100</imagelabel> </seclabel> </domain>

So I've tried all sorts of BIOS and UNRAID configs and have gotten no better performance out of the system, if anyone has any ideas where to tweak it be appreciated Then it hit me I upgraded everything but the GPU (thinking it would save money) Could an old or dying GPU cause such a low in 3Dmark and gaming performance If so, and I know it may be opening pandora's box, should I be eyeing ATI or NVIDA for a replacement; any recommendations on a solid gaming VM GPU

Sorry about that, I didn't know the MSI could affect performance I forgot to mention that, I did do the MSI fixes, even though I'm not using HDMI audio

So after weeks of trying to figure out why my old gaming VM wouldn't work I decided to just build a new UNRAID system But this new one is still have some hiccups with 3Dmark Looking through the posts I know this build should be getting at least a score of 12000, yet I'm getting 2000 So there must be something wrong with the set up I can see, either on the Unraid side or the BIOS side I'm hoping a few more sets of eyes can help find the problem Given Fixes Already taken: I pinned the CPUs and isolated Unraid's Pass-through the GPU and GPU sound card I didn't over allocated resources to teh VM Build: M/B: ASRock - X99 Extreme4/3.1 CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-6850K CPU @ 3.60GHz HVM: Enabled IOMMU: Enabled Cache: 384 kB, 1536 kB, 15360 kB Memory: 32 GB (max. installable capacity 512 GB) Network: bond0: fault-tolerance (active-backup), mtu 1500 eth0: 1000 Mb/s, full duplex, mtu 1500 Video: EVGA GTX 960 4GB VM: <domain type='kvm' id='1'> <name>Windows 10</name> <uuid>0fa2aead-31c7-cb0e-7b79-f7fc1ddbc0e4</uuid> <metadata> <vmtemplate xmlns="unraid" name="Windows 10" icon="windows.png" os="windows10"/> </metadata> <memory unit='KiB'>16777216</memory> <currentMemory unit='KiB'>16777216</currentMemory> <memoryBacking> <nosharepages/> </memoryBacking> <vcpu placement='static'>7</vcpu> <cputune> <vcpupin vcpu='0' cpuset='1'/> <vcpupin vcpu='1' cpuset='2'/> <vcpupin vcpu='2' cpuset='3'/> <vcpupin vcpu='3' cpuset='4'/> <vcpupin vcpu='4' cpuset='7'/> <vcpupin vcpu='5' cpuset='9'/> <vcpupin vcpu='6' cpuset='10'/> <emulatorpin cpuset='0,6'/> </cputune> <resource> <partition>/machine</partition> </resource> <os> <type arch='x86_64' machine='pc-i440fx-2.3'>hvm</type> <loader readonly='yes' type='pflash'>/usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x64/OVMF_CODE-pure-efi.fd</loader> <nvram>/etc/libvirt/qemu/nvram/0fa2aead-31c7-cb0e-7b79-f7fc1ddbc0e4_VARS-pure-efi.fd</nvram> </os> <features> <acpi/> <apic/> <hyperv> <relaxed state='on'/> <vapic state='on'/> <spinlocks state='on' retries='8191'/> <vendor_id state='on' value='none'/> </hyperv> </features> <cpu mode='host-passthrough'> <topology sockets='1' cores='7' threads='1'/> </cpu> <clock offset='localtime'> <timer name='hypervclock' present='yes'/> <timer name='hpet' present='no'/> </clock> <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff> <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot> <on_crash>restart</on_crash> <devices> <emulator>/usr/local/sbin/qemu</emulator> <disk type='file' device='disk'> <driver name='qemu' type='raw' cache='writeback'/> <source file='/mnt/cache/VMs/vdisk1.img'/> <backingStore/> <target dev='hdc' bus='virtio'/> <boot order='1'/> <alias name='virtio-disk2'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x04' function='0x0'/> </disk> <disk type='file' device='disk'> <driver name='qemu' type='raw' cache='writeback'/> <source file='/mnt/disks/Samsung_SSD_840_EVO_250GB_S1DBNSCFA14644X/Windows 10/vdisk4.img'/> <backingStore/> <target dev='hdd' bus='virtio'/> <alias name='virtio-disk3'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x05' function='0x0'/> </disk> <disk type='file' device='disk'> <driver name='qemu' type='raw' cache='writeback'/> <source file='/mnt/disks/Samsung_SSD_850_EVO_250GB_S21NNSAG729222N/Windows 10/vdisk5.img'/> <backingStore/> <target dev='hde' bus='virtio'/> <alias name='virtio-disk4'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x06' function='0x0'/> </disk> <disk type='file' device='disk'> <driver name='qemu' type='raw' cache='writeback'/> <source file='/mnt/disks/WDC_WD10EACS_07D6B0_WD_WCAU43599175/Main/vdisk2.img'/> <backingStore/> <target dev='hdf' bus='virtio'/> <alias name='virtio-disk5'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x08' function='0x0'/> </disk> <disk type='file' device='disk'> <driver name='qemu' type='raw' cache='writeback'/> <source file='/mnt/disks/WDC_WD10EACS_07D6B0_WD_WCAU43599175/Main/vdisk3.img'/> <backingStore/> <target dev='hdg' bus='virtio'/> <alias name='virtio-disk6'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x09' function='0x0'/> </disk> <controller type='usb' index='0' model='nec-xhci'> <alias name='usb'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x07' function='0x0'/> </controller> <controller type='pci' index='0' model='pci-root'> <alias name='pci.0'/> </controller> <controller type='virtio-serial' index='0'> <alias name='virtio-serial0'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x0'/> </controller> <interface type='bridge'> <mac address='52:54:00:4d:53:51'/> <source bridge='br0'/> <target dev='vnet0'/> <model type='virtio'/> <alias name='net0'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x02' function='0x0'/> </interface> <serial type='pty'> <source path='/dev/pts/0'/> <target port='0'/> <alias name='serial0'/> </serial> <console type='pty' tty='/dev/pts/0'> <source path='/dev/pts/0'/> <target type='serial' port='0'/> <alias name='serial0'/> </console> <channel type='unix'> <source mode='bind' path='/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/channel/target/domain-1-Windows 10/org.qemu.guest_agent.0'/> <target type='virtio' name='org.qemu.guest_agent.0' state='disconnected'/> <alias name='channel0'/> <address type='virtio-serial' controller='0' bus='0' port='1'/> </channel> <input type='mouse' bus='ps2'> <alias name='input0'/> </input> <input type='keyboard' bus='ps2'> <alias name='input1'/> </input> <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='pci' managed='yes'> <driver name='vfio'/> <source> <address domain='0x0000' bus='0x02' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/> </source> <alias name='hostdev0'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x0a' function='0x0'/> </hostdev> <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='pci' managed='yes'> <driver name='vfio'/> <source> <address domain='0x0000' bus='0x02' slot='0x00' function='0x1'/> </source> <alias name='hostdev1'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x0b' function='0x0'/> </hostdev> <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='pci' managed='yes'> <driver name='vfio'/> <source> <address domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x1b' function='0x0'/> </source> <alias name='hostdev2'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x0c' function='0x0'/> </hostdev> <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='pci' managed='yes'> <driver name='vfio'/> <source> <address domain='0x0000' bus='0x01' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/> </source> <alias name='hostdev3'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x0d' function='0x0'/> </hostdev> <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='usb' managed='no'> <source> <vendor id='0x04d9'/> <product id='0x0167'/> <address bus='3' device='2'/> </source> <alias name='hostdev4'/> <address type='usb' bus='0' port='1'/> </hostdev> <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='usb' managed='no'> <source> <vendor id='0x1532'/> <product id='0x0037'/> <address bus='3' device='3'/> </source> <alias name='hostdev5'/> <address type='usb' bus='0' port='2'/> </hostdev> <memballoon model='virtio'> <alias name='balloon0'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x0e' function='0x0'/> </memballoon> </devices> <seclabel type='none' model='none'/> <seclabel type='dynamic' model='dac' relabel='yes'> <label>+0:+100</label> <imagelabel>+0:+100</imagelabel> </seclabel> </domain>

4 cores pinned and unraid CPU isolated 16 GB of RAM High Power Hibernation Disabled not sure about LSI

So i pulled the trigger Monday this week and through Fate got a great deal at microcenter for the following M/B: ASRock - X99 Extreme4/3.1 CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-6850K CPU @ 3.60GHz Memory: 32 GB (max. installable capacity 512 GB) EVGA GTX960 However no matter what I try I still get 3dmarks in the 2000s What info do I need to gather before I post a question over in the KVM support thread or is there some super simple fix that I forgot

If 32 is recommended, 32 is what it shall be But to save money I noticed Microcenter has a pretty good deal for that motherboard CPU combo But they don't have GSkill RAM is Gskill the best of the best or is there a speed I'm looking for in general

1151 vs a 2011 in terms of virtual vs bare metal makes sense So looking at it This motherboard (ASRock X99 Extreme4 LGA 2011-v3) @ 159.99 An i7 6800K at 329.99 An 16Gb of RAM (G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series DDR4 3000) @ 143.99 Comes a little over 600 bucks which is fine Would that be a rock solid build? Suggestions to any of those components would be fine Though I have decided to stay with a 2011-V3 chipset as DZMM pointed out it'll help a virtual system more than a physical one

Ryzen sounds good but a lot of the threads here, especially the Ryzen one sounds like it's still to new The i7 builds on there look great too Considering the hiccups with Ryzen But a trend I see on here is a lot of people advocate 2011-V3 the builds on that site are 1151 Is there really a huge difference? It seems to come down to Bus Speed, but for one or two VMs is that a deal breaker?

That is an awesome guide line to have! So most games are 8GB minimum so 16 would be ideal As for CPU each game seems little different and no real commonality as some relay on CPU more than others But from an Unraid performance/ease perspective is an i5 or i7 the way to go Some people see the i7 as the best of the best while others see a high end i5 the idle middle ground between cost and performance vs a low end i7