Is this possible?

[bobbybdennis]

I basically want to build a PC that I'd use in a workgroup at home. I want to point all steam games to that,  would I be able to use my Gaming PC to play those games? the "host" computer would have m.2 and SSD drives and be used to store everything and serve as a physical backup. Is this possible to do ? or would a server or nas be a better option ? 

[Windows7ge]

Are you asking for this network machine to act as a Steam cache or are you looking to run your Steam games directly off it?

[bobbybdennis]

23 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Are you asking for this network machine to act as a Steam cache or are you looking to run your Steam games directly off it?

The game would be stored on them but id be playing them on another machine on the same network (they would be like 10 feet apart) just might be a fun little project I had while sitting here at work .

[Windows7ge]

2 minutes ago, bobbybdennis said:

The game would be stored on them but id be playing them on another machine on the same network (they would be like 10 feet apart) just might be a fun little project I had while sitting here at work .

So you're thinking of trying to run the games when the files are located on another machine on the network?

[DejaVoodoo]

Try this... https://store.steampowered.com/streaming/ 

 

[bobbybdennis]

1 hour ago, Windows7ge said:

So you're thinking of trying to run the games when the files are located on another machine on the network?

yes, That way my computer never gets full of storage and i have to figure out whati wanna delete to play . i can just put it on the network

 

1 hour ago, DejaVoodoo said:

Try this... https://store.steampowered.com/streaming/ 

 

Interesting, my only question for this is it using my gaming computer hardware to run the game? becuase i have 2080ti, i7- 7820x  so i wanna make sure i don't have anything bogging it down from the server side.

[Windows7ge]

21 minutes ago, bobbybdennis said:

yes, That way my computer never gets full of storage and i have to figure out whati wanna delete to play . i can just put it on the network

This would result in quite a bit of additional delay/latency especially if this is to be setup over SMB on a 1Gig connection. Then there are the unknown issues to deal with including unexpected disconnections from the network share among a plethora of other potential errors. It's not a good idea IMO.

 

But if you're very intent on trying it I would use a network protocol other than SMB. Something such as iSCSI. It has less overhead, allows the client to see the share like a locally connected disk, and I find it's less prone to random connection issues. If you can also use a 10Gbit connection between the machines. Otherwise your games will load slower than a 5400RPM HDD.

 

You would also be better off using a server OS than trying to use another Windows machine to act as a game file hosting server.

[bobbybdennis]

Just now, Windows7ge said:

This would result in quite a bit of additional delay/latency especially if this is to be setup over SMB on a 1Gig connection. Then there are the unknown issues to deal with including unexpected disconnections from the network share among a plethora of other potential errors. It's not a good idea IMO.

 

But if you're very intent on trying it I would use a network protocol other than SMB. Something such as iSCSI. It has less overhead, allows the client to see the share like a locally connected disk, and I find it's less prone to random connection issues. If you can also use a 10Gbit connection between the machines. Otherwise your games will load slower than a 5400RPM HDD.

 

You would also be better off using a server OS than trying to use another Windows machine to act as a game file hosting server.

 you're ruining my dream, i wouldn't want too much latency. Maybe ill just buy some huge SSD and big M.2's so i never have to worry about space forever lol . Thank you for your information very eye opening. Thought i had a good idea here. 

[Windows7ge]

2 minutes ago, bobbybdennis said:

 you're ruining my dream, i wouldn't want too much latency. Maybe ill just buy some huge SSD and big M.2's so i never have to worry about space forever lol . Thank you for your information very eye opening. Thought i had a good idea here. 

Generally it's best to keep all your games local on fast storage then takes all your pictures/music/videos/documents/etc and put them on a network storage or local HDD storage.

 

I heard of one instance when someone did something vaguely similar to what you want to do and they implemented it in a game center. Seemed to work for them but they definitely didn't use a desktop windows machine as a server and I didn't catch what protocol they used to connect the computers to the game file server.

 

You can give it a try though. I have to admit I've not tested this myself. I'm basing my information off educated guesses.

[Nick7]

Set up NAS with iSCSI.

I tried it at home, and it works quite well.

 

For my setup:

NAS server: 3x3TB HDD with 256GB SSD used as cache running on Linux. Used bcache to setup disk caching, and SCST to setup iSCSI server.

Client: Windows 10

 

While some will say doing this over 1Gbit LAN will be slow, or slower than simple local HDD - it's not. Especially because of SSD cache on server side. Games still load somewhat randomly from data files, so running this way over 1Gbit connection is still fast enough. Not as fast as local SSD, but this was definitely faster than local HDD.

 

I did though upgrade this later by using Fibe Channel (4Gbit - cheap adapters) connection between those two server   Why not.. if I can