Threadripper dual-system unraid workstation

[AngryAnt]

OHAI!

 

I am working out a design for a dual-gpu, dual-system, unraid- & threadripper-based workstation for an office environment. I don't have experience with a lot of the components involved, so I am concerned about thermals, noise (office), and power drain.

 

The base components I have specced out are as follows:

• Asus - ROG ZENITH EXTREME ALPHA EATX TR4 Motherboard
• Corsair - 1000 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
• AMD - Threadripper 2950X 3.5 GHz 16-Core Processor
• Cooler Master - Wraith Ripper 76.4 CFM CPU Cooler
• G.Skill - Trident Z 64 GB (4 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory
• 3x Samsung - 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (two in software raid-0 as I understand hardware raid would not be supported on this configuration)
• Asus - GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB ROG Strix Gaming OC Video Card
• Asus - Radeon VII 16 GB Video Card

 

Software-wise I will be using unraid to run Ubuntu and Win10 side by side, each with a dedicated GPU and a subset of cores & memory - keeping in mind local connectivity of memory interfaces and cores. The load on both systems are a mix of graphics and intense parallelized tasks.

 

I have no plans for overclocking, relying entirely on PB2, XFR2, and PBO, but am still worried that in max load scenarios of CPU and both GPUs, power drain and heat generation might not be sufficiently addressed. Is that just paranoia or are there additional measures I ought to consider? Is this thing going to be office-uncomfortably loud and what could I do to address that? Parts not registered here include a raid-0 pair of SATA drives for heavier storage.

 

Basically the goal is for the rig to just sit silently and unassumingly next to my desk.

[NunoLava1998]

Thermals should be okay. Your PSU can handle the power draw.

It can be a bit loud as you have two very beefy GPUs and a beefy CPU, however it will DEFINITELY not be as loud as i.e. a computer from the very late 90s

[jj9987]

Do take note, that RAID 0 increases risk for data loss if you happen to lose a drive.

 

Also, Unraid doesn't support RAID levels directly, you can't choose it. If you aren't going to run an actual array, then Unraid might not be the best choice. It is just using KVM for virtualization, which you can achieve on pretty much any Linux distro.

 

Finally, you might need one more GPU to just run the OS, unless you are willing to do some hacks.

[AngryAnt]

So just the combined total of fans will result in a time-relative loud experience? Or do you expect that the power supply might get loud?

 

Regardless, any tips on possible remedies in case choice, cooling, and installation?

[AngryAnt]

1 minute ago, jj9987 said:

Do take note, that RAID 0 increases risk for data loss if you happen to lose a drive.

 

Also, Unraid doesn't support RAID levels directly, you can't choose it. If you aren't going to run an actual array, then Unraid might not be the best choice. It is just using KVM for virtualization, which you can achieve on pretty much any Linux distro.

 

Finally, you might need one more GPU to just run the OS, unless you are willing to do some hacks.

Oh for sure - very important reminder. Thanks

 

For this build, that is not too much of a worry as we have a decent offline-cycled NAS on our 1gbit LAN which all workstations do frequent automated backups to. Larger internal storage in any of our workstations is only used for working with heavy base data sets - restored onto workstations when necessary.

 

My choice of unraid was based on support and seamlessness of hardware dedication/forwarding. We do not have the bandwidth to run much maintenance ourselves.

 

Choosing only a GPU per VM was based on my impression that unraid is able to run headless, with a web interface for any necessary management. Am I missing or misunderstanding something there?

[AngryAnt]

Assuming I don't actually have noise or thermal issues to address, the case I had in mind is the DeepCool Matrexx55. To me it seems sufficiently roomy and ventilated.

 

Less useful front panel IO, but with the IO out the back of this motherboard and the intention to have the cabinet on the floor rather than hanging under the rising desk, the plan is to extend the rear IO up to display- and desk-mounted hubs.

 

Not sure if I am overlooking something critical though. I literally have not built a machine from scratch in this century.

[AngryAnt]

On cooling those graphics cards:

We have a massive 200mm noctua fan sitting around in the office and I was thinking it might be nice to have that as a side panel air intake - right next to the graphics cards.

It would be matched with exhaust fans at the top and back of the cabinet, probably with additional front intakes - with a goal of running all fans at minimum RPM and optimally never have the graphics card integrated fans spin up very much.

 

Is that a pipe dream / overkill or do you think it would make sense? Also my impression is that side panel fans basically means you're doing your own cutting of some regular side panel plate - or are there specific cases for this?