mak10

Awesome, thanks for the info Hoopster, much appreciated. I was thinking about a larger tower, I don't need something super small, and don't need a rack, I just want to make sure I have some room for expansion should I need it, I'd like to be able to hit at least 8-10 drives if necessary. Most of my video files are 720P with only a handful being 1080P, all of which I re-encoded and aren't raw dumps (needed to do that in order to save space on the current NAS setup), and then it's just a shit ton of videos I've taken with my drone and other cameras, but those just need a place to be backed up and won't be streamed most of the time. The Windows 10 VM won't be used all the time, honestly it'll probably be pretty rarely, I just wanted to make sure I had something that could handle it when I want to fire it up. Honestly, the most use it will probably get is when I want to play an Xbox One game for a few minutes at my desk, and in that case the Xbox One handles all the processing power, and the Windows 10 is just remotely streaming it over the network, so it should be alright.

Thanks bjp999 appreciate the suggestion, I'll look into it.

Hey guys, I'm completely at a loss when it comes to this build in regards to motherboard/CPU, I haven't built a PC in about 15 years, but am looking to upgrade my NAS/PLEX setup to better handle the server/transcoding. I think I've finally figured out a case, just need a little guidance on Motherboard/CPU and I should be good... the rest of it I'm fairly familiar with. Requirements: Run PLEX server able to handle 2-3 transcodes/streams at a time (1080P) and 1 Windows 10 VM for random day to day stuff (no heavy gaming, and won't be used as a daily driver) I'd just like to make sure I don't buy anything that's overkill for what I need, since I don't need to spend the money. I can probably get a hold of an old gaming video card from my buddy if it's required for the windows 10 VM. I was looking at the ASUS Z170-A motherboard with an Intel Core i7 6700K 4.00 GHz, but for some reason I think that might be overkill (although it could be future-proof for a bit longer). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

I know there are probably a million posts with questions about hardware, and I have done some searching here and on the unRaid Subreddit, but I haven't really found specific answers (or at least I don't think I am). I have been out of the PC building game for about 15 years, so all of this new stuff is greek to me at this point, so I could use a little guidance if you guys would be so kind. Please feel free to tell me to keep searching if this sort of thing has been beaten to death, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask. I'm currently running a Netgear NV+ NAS that is hooked up to a Late 2009 Model iMac for the Plex server. The iMac is struggling to keep up with the transcoding these days and the NAS is running out of space, so my goal here is to build a budget unRaid system that can handle the following: at least 8 drives VD-T pass through so I can run Windows 10 VM pretty functionally. I probably won't be playing games directly on it, but may use it to stream to Twitch using the Xbox One, and may use it to remote stream from the Xbox One. Plex Server As quiet as possible As cheap as possible Those are the basic requirements. I'm familiar with Hard Drives, so I don't need any advice on those, so they don't need to be considered with the budget as I have a bunch in the current NAS. And I can figure out RAM. I'm more concerned with the Motherboard/CPU/Video Card aspects of it and maybe a case... I've got my eye on the Fractal Design Define R5 Gaming Case Case, which has 8 bays, and seems decent, but it seems a little big. Not sure if I can compromise on case size due to my hard drive number requirement though (and heat concerns). And then when it comes to the Motherboard/CPU setup, I know I need VD-T passthrough to use with the Windows 10 VM, and probably on-board video to handle the unRaid GUI, but I'm not sure if this ASUS Z170-Deluxe is complete overkill for what I want to do.... which isn't gaming. And then in terms of CPU, I have zero clue as to what I can get away with and what would be overkill. But at the same time I don't want it to stop running smoothly in a year. Video cards are another source of confusion... I know there are some great video cards out there for gaming that run $300+, but I don't think I need that... but I'm not sure what I do need... Like I said, this is mainly going to be used for a NAS, but will occasionally be running a Windows 10 VM for messing around with, but probably never playing actual PC games. Or maybe, since I don't plan on playing games on it, I'll be ok with just the onboard video? I'm just not sure how that works with VM's and all that... So again, I apologize if I'm beating a dead horse with this post, and if I am, please feel free to either point me in the right direction to research some more, or tell me to figure it out on my own, just figured it couldn't hurt to ask since it seems like most people are extremely helpful throughout the other threads that I've read. Thanks guy.