Desktop upgrade. Some advice needed. (QEMU/KVM + Gaming)

Hardware Build a PC
1

Hi Everyone,

I trying figure out how to upgrade my PC and don’t spent crazy amount of money for it. My idea was at first buy Ryzen 5 2600 but it seem to be as fast as my current i5-4690K and yet a little to expensive, so next choice I think of is used hardware, on older Intel platform. Intel 1151 socket Mainboards/CPUs are relatively cheaper than those for 1150.

The goal is to get modern enough architecture so I can run QEMU/KVM with pass-through PCIex 3.0 card at x16 in first PCIex port for maximum performance while NOT using ACS patch. Best if iGPU would be used for host OS and PCIex card for both Linux and Windows games.

I would like to use an PCIex to USB card for pass-through, PCIex WLAN and perhaps PCIex Sound Card. So flew PCIex 1x ports would be nice and 2 or more PCIex 3.0 x16.

I do have two PCIex cars (2 slot each) however I would prefer use iGPU or aGPU instead the slower card.

My current mainboard (ASUS H97M-Plus) doesn’t even work properly with ACS patched kernel, basically system don’t boot to display manger.

Currently I’m using second PCIex card (GT1030, 2GB) but PCIex slot works at x4 and it’s 2.0, so every game instead working at full details without any problem barely runs at low detail with lag, specially when looking-glass is in use.

So my question is are Skylake CPUs (6th generation?) and Mainboards based on Z170 any good option or should I look for something even never? Would you suggest different Chipset or CPU?

Current build is fast enough but it bottle necks on second PCIex card and I can’t do anything 3D graphics intensive on it (QEMU/KVM) besides I can’t get to work one of two EHCI USB controllers for pass-through to get one set of keyboard with electronic switch working. Sound is as well questionable at best.

I’m looking on replacing/upgrading Mainboard (full sized ATX), CPU, Memory - 16GB DDR4 (and chassis – as per upgrade to full ATX).

If Intel what would be better choice high i5 or lower i7 (eg i5-6600 vs i7-6700)?

Can you advice what would be good choice here?

Many thanks for any suggestions.

Tomasz

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You would need to move to a larger socket(LGA 2066, TR4, LGA 2011-v3) to have 2xPCIe 16x slots.

Z170, and socket LGA 1151 in general only have PCIe x20-24 lanes total for everything, and x4 to x8 are take up by USB, Ethernet, M.2, sata, etc. So normally you only get 16 lanes for your PCIe slots, and so if you put 2x PCIe cards in you only get x8 PCIe lanes for each(even if the slot is x16).

Both AMD TR4 socket and intel high end sockets(2066, and 2011) have a lot more lanes like 40+ so you can have 2x16 PCIe cards.

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Thank you for your replay.

Let say I use iGPU or aGPU instead second PCIex card and just ignore second PCIex x16.

What would a good choice with low budget?

Kind regards

4

I would suggest getting a CPU with 6 or more cores. That way, the Windows VM can have 4 dedicated cores when it is on, and the Linux host can use the remaining two.

A quad core is ok, but do try to get one with hyperthreading, so an i7 not a i5.

Really, when buying used if you do not need to buy quickly, keep your options open with what you are looking at so if you find a deal you can buy it.

5

Thank you again,

Les say if I chose lower i7-6700 would be that still better that higher i5-6600?
Is 6th generation good enough or shall I go for 7th or 8th?
And there is chipset dilemma. Will Z170 allowed me to passtrough PCIex without ACS patch? I can’t find such as information anywhere. Can anyone confirm it works?

Good night everyone.

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The i7 6700 will be better. The i7 has hyper threading, the i5 does not. The i7 6700 is also 3.4 to 4.0 ghz instead of the i5 6600 3.3 to 3.9ghz.

You have to check on a per motherboard basis. So google the model + iommu to see if anyone has tried that particular motherboard.

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Unless you have a super high end GPU, PCIe x16 is not required.

PCIe x8 is fine in 99% of cases, so i wouldn’t be too focused on “I MUST HAVE PCIE x16 FOR BOTH CARDS!”

You will however need a Z series chipset to get IOMMU because intel like segmenting their product line up with artificial restrictions.

As above, make sure the board you are looking at has the feature (also requires BIOS support), but you can pretty much immediately rule out ANY H series board as the chipset does not include it.