I have taken all of the feedback from my previous thread and assembled a new PC build candidate:
Already purchased,
logitech G710 +
Logitech G305 mouse
ViewSonic XG2401, 23.6", 1080p, 144 Hz freesync
Fractal Design Meshify C Dark, Glass Window
Fractal Design Dynamic X2 GP-12 black, 120mm (2), extra case fans
February purchase,
ASRock X470 Taichi (90-MXB7J0-A0UAYZ)
EVGA SuperNOVA G1 + 750W ATX 2.3 (120-GP-0750-X2)
Gigabyte GeForce GT 1030 2G Low Profile, 2GB GDDR5, DVI, HDMI (GV-N1030D5-2GL)
G.Skill Trident Z silver / white DIMM Kit 32GB, DDR4-3200, CL16-18-18-38 (F4-3200C16D-32GTZSW)
AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, 8x 3.70GHz, boxed (YD270XBGAFBOX)
HGST Travelstar 7K1000 1TB, SATA 6Gbps
ATEN US234-AT USB 3.0 Sharing Switch, 2-fold
I only have one monitor (small desktop space) so I plan to let the monitor switch between Unraid and gaming VM that should switch sound and video. I need the sharing switch just for the mouse and keyboard sharing. I may figure out a way to sandwich a 2nd monitor in this space in the future however for now money is also an issue.
March purchase,
Sapphire Nitro + Radeon RX 590 8GD5, 8GB GDDR5, DVI, 2x HDMI, 2x DP, (11289-01-20G)
HGST Travelstar 7K1000 1TB, SATA 6Gbps (3)
Samsung SSD 970 EVO 500GB, M.2 (MZ-V7E500BW) or MZ-V7E500E
The plan,
With the February purchase I’ll be able to stress test part of the system. After testing I’ll use Unraid to build two Linux VMs, one secure and likely encrypted (for online banking and private file storage). 2) one for general purpose usage (web browsing, videos, etc.). No pass through at this stage.
With the March purchase I will expand the Unraid to 4 TB and install a cache drive (M.2 drive). All backups will go to Unraid storage. I’ll also install two VMs with passthrough (RX 590), Linux and Windows. I already have two SSDs for these VMs. These VMs will both be for gaming and I’ll only run one at a time. They will both be able to boot to bare metal if needed however the goal is in a VM.
Questions:
1, Is the Asrock motherboard the best choice? I hear the BIOS isn’t very nice. It sounds like the IOMMU separation is good from Wendell’s review video.
2, Do I need to passthrough a drive to get good VM performance for gaming or just the video card? The M.2 slots may be the only slots that are in their own IOMMU group which could present a problem to my plan. There is an ASMedia SATA controller that maybe in it’s own IOMMU group. However the motherboard manual says booting will be slow off this controller. I would like to use the SSD drives for the passthrough VMs if needed and the M.2 slots for the Unraid cache drive.
- Do you spot anything obviously wrong with this build?