- Budget & Location: Would $800 be enough? And USA - What is your intended use for this build? The more details the better. *Able to pass a second GPU through to a virtual machine of Windows 7 (or Windows 8.1/10) to play Windows games on a Linux distro. And when I can/feel like it, playing games that are on Linux (steam/gog) or through WINE/Playonlinux . . . Folding@home, browsing the net, watch videos. If gaming, what kind of performance are you looking for? (Screen resolution, FPS, game settings) * Resolution: 1080p *perhaps* up to 4k (at some point?) * FPS - Up to or around 60, since I only have 60 hz monitors. * It'd be nice to play at (or near) the highest settings as if I was playing natively on Windows My current parts list: CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H-WB ATX LGA1155 Motherboard Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (x2) Storage: Sandisk Extreme 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card Case: Cooler Master HAF X ATX Full Tower Case Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer Optical Drive: LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Full (32/64-bit) Operating System: What ever Linux distro works . . . . . . . . Monitor: Asus PB278Q 60Hz 27.0" Monitor Monitor: LG 22MP55HQ-P 60Hz 22.0" Monitor Keyboard: Microsoft SIDEWINDER X4 Wired Gaming Keyboard No overclocking at all - I live in one of the hottest states (during summer) I don't need the extra heat, nor we exactly get cold winters (as Philip of PCPP could tell you)
I believe LimeTech Unraid OS has the ability to pass the GPU through to a VM. For 4K gaming 980Ti or R9 390 is required and it could be argued that they aren't enough. Rumours have a "GTX1080" and new AMD GPU's releasing at some point.
Yup. Linus tech Tips' "7 Gamers 1 CPU" build is a good overview of a VM host using Limetech Unraid to host multiple OS images for gaming, albeit a very extreme example.
I think I'd rather have a distro like mint, manjaro, arch, etc that could be used for other things as well - browse the net, folding@home, watch videos . . . .
If you're going virtualised, you really want to avoid running day-to-day tasks on the hypervisor OS. Run them in a VM and if (when) they crash it only takes out a single VM instance. If they are running in the hypervisor, a crash takes out everything. Otherwise it kind of defeats the point of virtualisation.
