Hi All - Checking to see if my HTPC build is practical

[Raven Ridge]

I've been mulling over an unraid build for about 6 months now as I save up for the parts. My goal is to have all my media in a secure & stable raid solution while doubling as a "gaming" PC - emphasis on the quotes.

 

I want to run an i7 7700T which has integrated graphics. With that iGPU I want to use unraid's IGD solution to use the integrated graphics in a Windows VM. Here's where things get tricky: I want to use Steam In Home Streaming in the Windows 10 VM so I can leave the PC on (~25w idle, power bill won't suffer) 24/7 & just turn on the controller when I want to play. All the i7 will need to do is decode the h.264 stream that Steam is sending so theoretically it should be doable, but I don't want to drop around $3k on the build without making sure it'd work first.

 

I did some digging & it appears that AMD's APUs don't have any issues pushing their graphics in a Windows VM, so if the i7 isn't feasible then I'll wait for AMD's Ryzen APU lineup dubbed "Raven Ridge." It'll come at a pretty big performance penalty though so I hope the first option works.

 

I also have a question about the cache drive. I'll be using a Jackett docker with Plex, so whatever I'm downloading should be cached as well as the VM. I'm not entirely sure how frequently I'll be caching things simultaneously so to be on the safe side I went with a 1tb 960 Pro (wiki says to get the fastest SSD possible - this is it). I don't need a huge size for the VM because the only thing it'll be doing is hosting Steam Big Picture mode, so would you say that 1tb is over kill?

[ashman70]

In some cases 'more is better' and I think you should be fine with 1TB, that being said I have no experience doing what you want to do with this system. Unless you can find someone else who has done what you want to do, you may be the first to do it with unRAID. Can you list all the parts in your system so we can get a big picture understanding of it?

[Raven Ridge]

On 3/8/2017 at 6:21 PM, ashman70 said:

In some cases 'more is better' and I think you should be fine with 1TB, that being said I have no experience doing what you want to do with this system. Unless you can find someone else who has done what you want to do, you may be the first to do it with unRAID. Can you list all the parts in your system so we can get a big picture understanding of it?

Ah finally someone bit, thank you! I've searched the forums & I found people who are sort of doing the same thing however they have dGPUs for their VMs. I may well be a guinea pig for this situation & a pretty expensive one at that. Here's a rough list (still deciding on a chassis; yes I know dominators are overkill but I'm superficial & I like aesthetics :P):

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-7700T 2.9GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($319.99 @ B&H) 
Motherboard: ASRock H270M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($106.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($159.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Samsung 960 Pro 1.0TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  ($629.95 @ B&H) 
Storage: Western Digital Red 8TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($299.99 @ B&H) 
Storage: Western Digital Red 8TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($299.99 @ B&H) 
Storage: Western Digital Red 8TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($299.99 @ B&H) 
Storage: Western Digital Red 8TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($299.99 @ B&H) 
Total: $2416.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-03-12 23:51 EDT-0400

 | Generated by [PCPartPicker](http://pcpartpicker.com) 2017-03-12 23:51 EDT-0400 |

 

[Raven Ridge]

I think this plan has bit the dust unfortunately. One of the biggest reasons I went with the 7700T rather than 6700T was because Kaby Lake supports 4k@60hz natively in its iGPU. This is great; the only problem however is that none of the ITX motherboards have an HDMI 2.0a/b port included, only 1.4 as far as I can tell. Therefore I won't get full 4k support without getting a discrete GPU anyway. That sucks

 

My only option outside of building a dedicated gaming pc for the living room (thinking about it, it may be the same price altogether - but then I won't have a nas for all my stuff) is buying an Nvidia Shield TV & streaming the games that way.

 

I'll leave this thread up because this idea appears to be new & if someone finds it you can pick up where I left off. If all you want is 1080p streaming my plan is still (seemingly) doable, but I don't think I'll try it at this point. Good luck!

[huntjules]

Can you just stream the 4k content from plex via the network to the Plex app on your 4k smart tv? Plus i heard not all tv HDMI port support 4k... sorry just read and see you are a gamer... so you'll want the HDMI!

 

Btw-  another point, be interested in how the 960 M2 drivers work and the write and read performance with UnRaid shares are please?

Edited March 22, 2017 by huntjules

[Raven Ridge]

On 3/22/2017 at 6:25 PM, huntjules said:

Can you just stream the 4k content from plex via the network to the Plex app on your 4k smart tv? Plus i heard not all tv HDMI port support 4k... sorry just read and see you are a gamer... so you'll want the HDMI!

 

Btw-  another point, be interested in how the 960 M2 drivers work and the write and read performance with UnRaid shares are please?

I could do that, but the gaming aspect is what I'm after. If I can use Steam Game Stream @4k60 that's ideal. When HDR gaming is added down the road it'll be even better. But the good news is that I actually did find a Z270 motherboard that has an HDMI 2.0 port on it. The plan is back on \o/

 

The speeds on the 960 pro are blistering & if / when I do make this build I'll be sure to create both a build log with speed tests included.

[huntjules]

On 3/24/2017 at 1:37 PM, Raven Ridge said:

I could do that, but the gaming aspect is what I'm after. If I can use Steam Game Stream @4k60 that's ideal. When HDR gaming is added down the road it'll be even better. But the good news is that I actually did find a Z270 motherboard that has an HDMI 2.0 port on it. The plan is back on \o/

 

The speeds on the 960 pro are blistering & if / when I do make this build I'll be sure to create both a build log with speed tests included.

Good to hear, appreciate the update. whats the write speed for the 960's typically please?

[Raven Ridge]

On 4/1/2017 at 5:18 PM, huntjules said:

Good to hear, appreciate the update. whats the write speed for the 960's typically please?

3500 mb/s read, 2100 mb/s write, at least on the 1tb & up.

[huntjules]

47 minutes ago, Raven Ridge said:

3500 mb/s read, 2100 mb/s write, at least on the 1tb & up.

WooHoo! nice work!

[huntjules]

I've bought 2 x Samsung 960 evo's for £190 each (couldn't justify 2 x 500Gb pro's at £250 each.. you're obviously richer than me) will install write cache next weekend :-)