Ryzen HTPC with Gaming VM


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Hi guys,

 

Haven't been here for a couple years but now I'm, back and eager to try unRaid once again. So the idea is to build a silent, yet powerful HTPC with more than enough horsepower for daily entertainment and enough storage for my use. I just started building the server and wanted to see what you guys think before I go too far. This all started when my neighbour wanted a new mid range gaming pc so I'll sell him most of my old stuff and build a new pc for myself. I'm using both, old and new parts in the upcoming server.

 

What I've gathered so far is this:

Case - Silverstone Temjin TJ08 (A bit large for my livingroom taste but I'll probably paint it and make it less intrusive somehow)

Psu - Corsair SF600 + Silverstone SFX to ATX bracket (Picture included underneath. This makes more room for maybe a passive cooler or such when I install a second gpu for the HTPC distro and also should improve the temperatures)

silverstone.jpg

Cache Disk - Samsung 850 SSD 500Gb

Controls and main audio - I've got wireless Logitech keyboard and a mouse that I've been using on my HTPC thus far and they work great. I also mostly use a wireless headset (Astro A50 3rd edition so it only needs a USB connection so no hastle with opticals)

HTPC/Oldschool Gaming VM audio - Asus Xonar U3 (USB) 

 

On my shoppin list:

Mobo - Gigabyte GA-AB350M-Gaming 3 (mATX)

-This one has 6 sata ports which I think I'll need at some point and VRMs are better than on Asrock board.

CPU - Ryzen 7 1700

-With stock cooler by starters and with some 140mm AIO when I need to start overclocking

DDR4 - Now... Should I go ECC route or not?

-I know it's not officially supported but... Does it work anyway? If not, I'll start with 2x16Gb 3200MHz kit

M.2 SSD - Samsung 500GB 960 EVO SSD NVME

-I'll probably passthrough this to the Windows 10 gaming VM

HTPC GPU - GT 1030/1050/1050 Ti or RX 460 etc. (Got to be a single slot or be possible to mod to be one as I only have 4 slots in my case but the SFX psu should make more room for a cooler)

-Connected to the 4X slot. Might also use this Gpu to sometimes run a secondary gaming VM(Windows 7) for old school lans with my friends, mainly Red Alert 2 Yuri's Revenge etc.

Main OS GPU - GTX 1060 6GB and upgrade to GTX 1080 Ti or better when I have a good 4K TV. *Drooling for LG B7V 65"*

GTX-line working OK with Unraid, right??? No funny business...? Or should I go AMD route?

HDDs - Random 2X 2TB HDDs that I'm going to rip out from my Buffalo Linkstation 4TB USB 3.0 enclosure. At least the HDDs have been pretty fast and quiet even when used via USB 3.0 only. When I have more money, I'll start buying some real HDDs like 4-6TB Reds. I just want those HDDs to be silent and pretty snappy.

 

Possible Improvements that might need some modding:

 

The case has a 3.5" slot in the bottom right corner and I'm want to add a seperate DVI, HDMI 2.0 and 2 X USB 3.0. I also need button for a switch so I can easily change the outputs and inputs for my secondary HTPC/OldSchool Gaming VM. Going to need some cable routing but it's ok. xD I'm also going to need a pci-e x1 card for extra USB connections that I can passthrough there. Some PCI cards even have a couple sata ports while adding a 19/20-pin USB connector. This would allow me to passthrough SSDs for both VM options. 120Gb should be enough.

 

Also thinking about modding a touchscreen and maybe a Raspberry Pi or better on 2 X 5.25" bays that I can use to control the rest of the unraid server when the TV is off. Any tips on this? Would be nice to have a possibility to do some basic functions and maybe control lights and fan speeds from it. I would love to be able to start and stop different VMs just by using the touch screen. I'm going to make a window(tempered glass) for the case as it's got a small bump on one of the case doors.

 

tj08 case.jpg

Edited by Stalkkaaja
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I  upgraded my unRaid HTPC box from an i7 2600k with 8GB RAM to a Ryzen 7 1700 less than a month ago.  The only things I kept were my drives and an old GeForce 8400 GS. Below are my specs:

Silverstone GD08

GA-AX370 Mobo

Ryzen 7 1700, stock cooler

4 x 8GB Vengeance DDR4 3000 - CMK16GX4M2B3000C15

Parity - WD Red 3TB

Data - WD Red 3TB, WD Green 2TB

Cache - EVO 750 500GB

Video Cards EVGA 1050 Ti, GeForce 8400 GS

VMs - (Mild Gaming, music, movies) Windows 10 w/ 1050 Ti passthrough connected to my living room TV, (Work) Windows 10 - * both running off of the SSD

 

Pros - Very impressed with the Ryzen processors.  Plenty of power, loving all of the cores, and runs much cooler than my old 2600.  I was pleasantly surprised by the power of the 1050 Ti as well.  I don't game as much as I used to which made it hard to justify a 1080.  The 1050 plays Doom at 6

 

Cons - Since upgrading my system I was experiencing total system lockups about every 10-12 hours.  It was pretty much useless.  it's been frustrating to say the least.  Been scouring the forums but couldn't resolve the problem.  Finally I came across the post below.  I disabled the "Global C-State Control" in the BIOS settings last night.  Fingers crossed buy my system lasted through the night and is still going this morning, 17 hours.  it hasn't ran continuously for that long in a month.  Thank you Pauven for the post.

 

I will eventually install another 1050 or 1070 card so my sons and I can play multi-player games together through RDP using thin clients.

 

Good luck with the build. 

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  • 2 months later...

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