Crod541

That's pretty surprising, so I'll probably run into network upload limitations before needing to worry about hardware I suppose. Yep, I'm pretty sure I've seen the 3200G struggle with a single 1080p stream when it was without the 1050 TI. Okay good, I believe I also saw that plex on unraid had recently added support so that works out. Back to the slots on the motherboard though -- Manual didn't have the answer but support came back surprisingly quick to confirm lower slot and upper picex1 slot are chipset. And seeing as they're additional it looks like I'm good to go with the 4i HBA and I get to use my current boot drive as a cache when I expand into all six slots -- the whole running on a USB part of unraid still really surprises me but I guess I'll have to make sure the systems backups are up to date. Ty everyone, now just to make sure the BIOS I have on that board still supports the 3200G lol

I currently run a pretty small Plex server off a single 10 TB drive and even playing locally I've been seeing the CPU usage hit +97%. I think it's because my monitor can't play H.265 natively so some files would need to go through encoding, which was apparently pretty hard for the CPU. I'm not sure if I remember trying hardware accelerated encoding on just the iGPU, but I thought there were issues with which codecs are supported on various hardware, no? Plus I'd like to reliably support 2 remote 1080p streams...maybe a 4K HDR stream eventually. Eventually my plan was to upgrade gaming rig's 3600X to a 5600X (or maybe even a 5800X3D ) then swap over my 3600X into the plex server build, so I'd certainly be keeping the 1050 TI around.

Hey y'all, I'm starting to put together my own media server with a spare secondary computer I have but I'm worried about the limitations of my hardware. CPU: Ryzen 3 3200G GPU: MSI Gaming 1050 TI Motherboard: ASRock B450M Pro4 Micro ATX or MSI B450I GAMING PLUS AC Mini ITX So I'd like to eventually fill up all six drive slots in the case I already have; but since mATX & mITX boards seem to all have an upper limit of 4 SATA ports, there's extra complications. Max PCIe lanes for the 3200G is 12. As I understand it, GPU would take 8 and an NVMe boot drive would take another 4. My question stems from around how chipset lanes come into play here -- do they get added on top of the 3200G's max of 12, or are they meant to be part of the 12? Option A: Learn/Install UnRaid and boot from USB on mITX, eventually install an M.2 to PCIe3.0x4 riser cable and 9211-4i HBA for more SATA ports Option B: Learn/Install UnRaid and boot from USB on mITX, eventually move drives/CPU/GPU to mATX where 4i or 8i HBA is installed directly into second PCIx16 slot So back to the question -- could a 3200G actually support a GPU, NVMe boot/cache drive, and an HBA in the mATX motherboard? I'm pretty sure if I just did GPU + HBA I'd be in the clear, but I'm still not sure how an NVMe drive fits into this, or if it's even necessary (lots of downloading/writing to drives expected, is that meant to write directly to HDD array or are you supposed to used an SSD in between programs and array?) Thanks!

I'm thinking there's a very good chance I still do that anyway, but's it's certainly nice to know it's possible to configure an extra port to do what I want. Plus, the switch would let me add more things once I inevitably decide to change how I have things configured. Here's hoping I can hide the switch somewhere in the case!

I'm assuming something similar can be done in Windows 10 for this switch functionality? Thanks fellas! Looks like from here I'll just follow some step-by-steps to learn how to use the "Network Bridge" functionality. Hopefully it works with a cheapo network adapter.

I left the main post pretty vague, but I'll actually only be running plex/F@H server which should be on 24/7 and a gaming computer. Would like to put switch into the server and run a line into gaming rig, as I'd definitely expect the server to be on at any time I'm also gaming. Would that require a motherboard with two (or more) ethernet ports like this x570 one? Or would you know if that "intel gigbit LAN" port is something else? Could I configure a port that's added via an expansion card (example) to do that?

Hey folks, so I've got plenty of hardware in one area of my place and I'd like to have as many wired connections as possible. So a simple switch is all I would need, no? I'm wondering if there's any switches that I can just slot into a pcie slot to do what's necessary. I figured that would be much nicer than hiding it in the rat's nest or a 5.25" bay. Was hoping perhaps someone knew if there was a special name for these as my google-fu ain't coming up with anything. Thanks!

PCPartPicker Part List Type Item Price CPU AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor $289.99 @ Amazon Motherboard MSI B450M PRO-M2 MAX Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard $97.03 @ Amazon Memory Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory $64.99 @ Newegg Storage Western Digital Blue SN550 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive $64.98 @ Amazon Video Card MSI GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8 GB VENTUS GP OC Video Card $384.99 @ Newegg Power Supply Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply $114.98 @ Newegg Custom HDD $200.00 Custom Case $80.00 Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts Total (before mail-in rebates) $1311.96 Mail-in rebates -$15.00 Total $1296.96 Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-21 08:56 EDT-0400 Doubt 6c/12t of a 3600 would be enough for gaming+streaming. mATX motherboard. They're generally cheaper, but make sure you know what limitation you're running into. Usually the main limitations are having less PCE-E slots or less SATA slots. Cheap but well reviewed DDR4-3000+ RAM It doesn't seem to me like the games you'll be playing will need much storage, but any video production will need LOTS (right? idk about this area). HDD left out as generic $200 value. WD Elements 8,10,12 TB external drives go (pretty frequently I would say, checkout /r/buildapcsales) for $130-$200 on sale. If you don't want to wait any of the other mass storage drives above will do fine. Nvidia encoder for better streaming. I really don't know anything about what those words mean, but I know it gets brought up a lot. Plus I had troubles with the 5700 XT in late 2019 which left a bad taste in my mouth. Case is left as generic $80 value. I don't really consider cases to make much of a difference, so I figure you should just get one you'll like to look at. In general, get the cheapest (but make sure the reviews are decent at least) 3700X + 2060S + 16GB DDR4-3000+ set you can find, back that up with a well reviewed smallish boot drive (it doesn't have to be nvme, but if you've got the slot I'd suggest using it), mobo that has what you need, and at least an 80+ Gold PSU. Even if you don't need it, I consider 650W Gold the minimum since most PSUs will last you 2 builds/upgrades or more. Lastly, you could check around your local Craigslist/FB Market/r/hardwareswap/etc. for used parts. Before the human malware situation I was able to snag a 5700 XT for $250 and a 10TB WD Elements for $100 off of Craiglist. I generally like to make sure the seller knows what they have, ask about any benchmarks, general care questions -- just to make sure it's working and whatnot. Please have a parent aid you if you decide to go that route. Gl!

Nope. For a problem like this, I would simply put the CPU into pcpartpicker, and then look at the compatible motherboard's chipset. It seems to me like that would be H77? From there I would just start looking around for one that's at a reasonable price from that chipset that has the features you need. Gl with that

First off, $1500 is a great budget for a gaming PC. If you're tight on money, don't be afraid to lower the budget. Secondly, piecing together a build with no details is very difficult. I'll throw some questions at you to get the ball rolling and seeing what type of system you'll need: What's the resolution/refresh rate of your monitor? You could easily fit a gaming monitor into your budget if you'd like to get a new one as well. How familiar are you with setting up and using storage on multiple drives? It may be helpful to invest in a single large boot SSD. RGB? yay or nay? or meh Savage's list is great for your expected needs, but perhaps we could figure out better uses for the budget if we better know what you'll need.

@Bombastinator Sorry, I think perhaps I did not make my post clear. Both of these builds are already up and running; I'm now trying to figure out the best way to put them both into this single case. And yes, the Noctua is ridiculous overkill, but it's the LTT edition one and goes very well with the color scheme lol Splitting the SSD boot drive into multiple partitions for caching sounds very interesting, I'll definitely have to look into that. Is that something you can do when you have multiple HDDs in a RAID? And I'll just share this here as well cuz y not: I actually managed to score a reference 5700 XT in late 2019 for $250 but ended up selling it after 2 months of poor driver support (plus my monitor only has G-sync, so it didn't really fit well anyway)

Is that budget $1000 USD? Depending on the age of your storage and PSU, I would say just up-cycle those parts. A 650W Corsair PSU should be reliable enough for a good build. What kind of settings/resolutions did you expect to play those new games at though? I just upgraded from an i5-6500 which I felt was holding me back on many games, so I would definitely suggest upgrading your CPU as well if you're planning a GPU upgrade. You could even keep your RAM, but I believe most people would recommend 16GB of at least 3000 MHz for Ryzen builds. With your budget and multiple still usable parts, you realy have a wide variety of choices. 3600+5700 XT is a good bet, though perhaps you could even get a 2070S. May even want to include a monitor in your budget depending on what your currently have.

Budget (including currency): Already have most parts, just going to buy what's needed Country: USA Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Plex (multiple 1080p streams, no 4k) + 1440p 140hz gaming Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): Yes it's a very weird build. Current plex Build: Current gaming build: (yes I know 980 TI isn't much for 1440p, planning on upgrading to 2070S after 3000 series launch) So the current plan is to get these two builds into a Phanteks Enthoo Mini XL with a Revolt X power supply powering both. I've got quite a few questions which I hope others can help me clear up. Do network switch expansion cards exist? I mean like the simple $30 switches just for getting 1 ethernet wire in, and another out to the second system. I would really hate to have one system on wifi; and I'm not sure if having a small switch just outside the case or in the rat's nest is any better. Storage fiasco. I don't really know anything about RAID and whatnot, I simply plug HDDs into SATA ports and fill them up. I figure when I get more storage down the line I'll look into it--would that require deleting everything I had amassed up to that point? Storage fiasco 2. Are SATA port expansion cards reliable? And I think I've seen you need to buy special, much more expensive ones in order to do RAID set-ups with them, no? Asking because I'm expecting to turn the plex build into the mITX system, but it seems to me like most mITX motherboards are limited to 4xSATA ports. I'm expecting to have a single SSD and another 4-6 HDDs for the plex side of things. Thoughts on turning gaming system into the mITX side instead? I don't expect I'll have anything other than the GPU to plug into pcie ports and I don't think I'll be generating too much heat in the system to choke mITX area. Thoughts on turning plex side into cheap AM4 alternative? I already need to buy a new motherboard, but I think I could probably get $200 for mobo/cpu/ram in current plex system, with which I could get close to making an AM4 build. It would probably have to be a 3000G though, if I got lucky on sale perhaps a 3100 would fit in budget (maybe a 1600 AF would be better? not sure what to look for in cpu for plex). Do you think doing so would have an improvement (#/quality of 1080p streams)? Plus I've still got the 95W cooler for 3600X which I could slap onto a 3100. Those are the current questions I have. Please feel free to share your input because everyone thinks I'm crazy for doing dual system and I love the ridiculousness of it hahahahahaha

So you only want a new MOBO & RAM? If you're happy with the current gaming performance you have, that shouldn't be much of an issue. The only snags I think you would run into are finding compatible parts since this is a few generations back.