HELP - Unraid VM & Thunderbolt 3 Card Passthrough

[morry9345]

Hi everyone and thanks in advance to anyone that can help!

I'd like to ask if anyone has experience with what i'm planning to do.

I'm planning to upgrade my current UNRAID server that also host my virtualized desktop.

My intention was to take a Z490 VISION G from Gigabyte and pair it with a I9-10900K.

The idea behind the Vision G was because has compatibility with Gigabyte Titan-Ridge Thunderbolt 3 add-in card. (i want to connect the virtualized gaming pc to my livingroom TV with small thunderbolt3  dock)

 

My problem is that i have zero experience with this whole Thunderbolt 3 add-in card world and I'm not sure that i'll be able to passthrough it to my vm without any problem, especially because it requires that strange TH connector.

 

So my question is: is there anyone with experience in this?

Any suggestion?

 

Thanks!

 

P.S. Sorry for any mistakes, I'm not a native English speaker. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Id really suggest just using a seperate pc for t htpc use. Normally cheaper, and much easier to setup.

 

What are the specs on the server?

 

Thunderbolt deivces work like pcie splitters, so you don't just passthough the card, you passthough the deice behind it.

[morry9345]

14 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id really suggest just using a seperate pc for t htpc use. Normally cheaper, and much easier to setup.

 

What are the specs on the server?

 

Thunderbolt deivces work like pcie splitters, so you don't just passthough the card, you passthough the deice behind it.

Specs will be:

i9-10900k

Gtx 1070 (will be upgraded to a rtx3060/3070 as soon as price and availability allow me to do it)

32gb ram

Sabrend 1tb nvme ssd

12+4 tb hdd

1tb sata ssd for unraid cache
 

So you are saying that i’ll lose hotswap from the thunderbolt card because i’ll just be able to passthrough the devide connected to it

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, morry9345 said:

Specs will be:

i9-10900k

Gtx 1070 (will be upgraded to a rtx3060/3070 as soon as price and availability allow me to do it)

32gb ram

Sabrend 1tb nvme ssd

12+4 tb hdd

1tb sata ssd for unraid cache
 

So you are saying that i’ll lose hotswap from the thunderbolt card because i’ll just be able to passthrough the devide connected to it

Yea hotswap probably won't work.

 

Id really suggest just getting a second system here, instead of using thunderbolt.

 

Or is the unraid system doing any other vms? You could just run windows on the host and use windows for the nas too.

[morry9345]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Yea hotswap probably won't work.

 

Id really suggest just getting a second system here, instead of using thunderbolt.

 

Or is the unraid system doing any other vms? You could just run windows on the host and use windows for the nas too.

Well, that’s pretty annoying.
My whole idea behind that pc was “one system to rule them all” in which i’ll throw all my paychecks for the next years to come. LOL

 

Anyway if that is the case i’ll simply not connect it to the livingroom. Mine was just a whim because sometimes i’d like to play some games on the couch with friends.

[Kilrah]

These complicated "one system to rule them all" tend to turn into "one system where nothing works" and when it's down you've got nothing left.

 

Have multiple VMs to provide services yes, but as desktops... not really. LTT have made multiple videos about that but also said it was for the fun of it but they'd never use that for real, too many problems.