Server / NAS in one box

[Biskitman123]

My config:

 

Ryzen 5 2600

ASUS TUF B450M-Pro

16GB Corsair 3000Mhz RAM

HD 5670 GPU

Corsair CX750W PSU

2x 500GB Kingston SSDs

2x 4TB Seagate NAS HDDs

 

My Goal:

 

I am going to University soon, and I would like to have a single box which can 1. Be my main file storage and 2. Be a 'server' which I can use to run game servers and do a bit of AI training so my pc is free to game etc. I would prefer to do this in windows.

 

I would like to have 4TB of storage for my backups, photos, and Uni projects, obviously, I would like to use at least RAID 1, so one of my two hard drives can fail without me losing my data.

I would also like to use the terabyte of SSDs as a cache so I can dump large files onto the NAS without having to wait for ages with my phone connected, for example. I have no idea how to do this.

 

The problem I'm having is that I cannot find a good way in windows to do the NAS part, I was thinking of using unpaid and use a windows virtual machine for the server parts but then I think id lose most functionality of my motherboard (ports etc).

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[PSI]

Hi,

Basically, Unraid can already take over the Nas part.

After all, Unraid is a NAS operating system. Virtualization is only the cherry on top.

 

[Biskitman123]

So what would i do about the Server part? looking at linus' video on a gamingpc/nas, he said that none of the usbs on the motherboard would be hotswappable etc

[PSI]

Why would you need Hotswapable Storage on the Servers? 

Unraid will handle the NAS and VM management.

The gameserver VM does not need any hotswap storage...

For the AI VM, you can search for a motherboard with two USB controllers or use a USB add-in card to make things easier.

[Biskitman123]

I was hoping to use one windows vm for all gameserver stuff and ai training stuff, i would also want to be able to move files off my phone, and my mobo has a type c usb port i was hoping to make use of, but yeah unraid seems the way to go.

[Jarsky]

Why not just do this in Windows to remove the overhead of running the hypervisor and 2 different OS?

Why cant you do AI training & run game servers locally?