So here's my goal: Currently i have a FX 8350 in my desktop dual booted to Windows 7 and Ubuntu 16.04. I'm working on relocating my desktop into the same rack my server sits in in the other room about 30 feet away. This is mostly so i can have my desk in the same room that i use my HTC Vive. Anyways, here's my question:
What kind of solutions do you guys think would work to have 4 monitors plus the HTC Vive hooked up to the same desktop. My thinking was using a KVM akin to UnRAID (but not UnRaid, i'm not paying for it) so that i could pass through my main R9 290X to the HTC Vive and my 2560x1440 monitor (the 290x has two separate video streams, i'm 90% sure it can support this) and isolate 4 cores to a Windows 7 VM for gaming with the Vive. Then create either 1 or 3 separate Linux based VMs to utilize a second graphics card installed in my desktop (it uses a XFX 850 gold PSU) to push 3 1920x1080 linked to the Windows 7 VM using Synergy as a KVM.
Do you guys think this could at all possibly work? Any problems you can foresee or similar experiences you could share? Any and all feedback is appreciated.
KVM in unRAID is "Kernel-based Virtual Machine" (i think?)
Synergy as KVM suggest "Keyboard Video Mouse"
I don't know how a Vive co-exists with a full display, but you can probably get at least 3 HDMIs from your 290
If your running Linux on the metal, then your other 3 screens would be sharing a single graphical session (or not lots of ways this can end up) but I'd be a little cautious about how fast this will run for your intended purposes.
Right about unRaid, i was referring to how Linus used it in their 8 gamers 1 cpu video to create 8 separate windows VMs and pass through a single AMD video card to each VM and they saw very little performance degradation versus using windows on the bare metal.
I would pass my 290x through to a Windows VM that utilizes 4 of the 8 cores available, and only have the Vive hooked up via HDMI and the 2560 monitor via DVI-D. If i tried to hook up any more monitors to the 290x it wouldn't work, i ran into problems trying this when i got my 2560 monitor and tried to connect the three 1920 monitors on the other outputs on the 290x. I overcame that limitation by using a displayport hub.
I'm thinking of using a separate lower power video card in the system to pass through to a single LInux VM to drive the other three 1920 screens. Then use Synergy so i can use a single mouse and keyboard, using the Windows VM as the server and linux VM as the client. Hopefully it would come out:
Linux Windows Linux
1920 2560 1920
Linux Windows
1920 (Vive)
Would Xenserver support this configuration like unRaid? I have no experience attempting this but it seems like it would be a fun project.
