Help with weekend VM pc split

[Sorj]

Ok so brief specs

 

• 8700k
• 32gb 3200mz ram
• Aorus Z370 Gaming 7 Motherboard
• 2x 1080ti Aorus waterforce
• 4tb nvme over 3 drives
• 2x6 tb wd black
• 500gb SSD for VM
• All packed up in a View71

 

So the goal is to do the 2 gamers 1 cpu thing but only have it running in that config on the weekends when my sons come by so the 4 of us can play ark, overwatch or what have you.

I've been doing some research and all answers or posts I've seen are answer adjacent but not on point per say.

1. I would like to use the onboard graphics for unraid if that is going to be the best method of attack for my purposes so I don't have to break the aesthetic of my perdy TG rig with a tiny and ugly air cooled gpu, so that's 1 requirement.
2. It would need to be that its easily swapped between dual system and then back to original config rig. (by simply I mean just booting the VM's not having to reinstall windows or other software every time nor having to do more than remove the SLI HB bridge)
3. Does having both an intel nic and a killer nic on the motherboard mean I can give each VM its own ethernet connection. (My guess is yes but if I was to just guess and go blindly I'd not be here asking for help.)
4. Is a external USB hub essential or can I split the VM inputs between onboard rear and front header connectors respectively.

Any help would be greatly appreciated and I'll buy you a beer when in my neck of the woods  :)

 

[Master Disaster]

1) I see no reason why you couldn't use onboard GPU for unraid. It would mean swapping the monitor between ports but should work fine.

2) Simple, run unraid from a USB drive, when you want to go back to normal shut down, remove the USB and boot from a SSD instead.

3) It should but it depends on how the NICs are traced, if they share a bus then it's possible unraid won't be able to split them without additional steps which I'll cover in point 4.

4) Yes and no. Technically that should work but it doesn't always due to devices sharing buses and IOMMU groups. Some boards have the ability to split devices into seperate groups, the BIOS will have an IOMMU option if that's the case but even then it's really not trivial and will require much learning and patience. I'm gonna be honest, I understand the concept of IOMMU grouping but I'm no expert and certainly have never played around with it so I couldn't give you any help on how to do it.