Looking to Upgrade my Network

[DanCue04]

Budget (including currency): N/A

Country: US

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Increased network speeds to hopefully increase file transfer speeds

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

 

Hello All. First time poster here. I've managed a Plex media server for over a decade now. I started with a PC I built and then migrated to a Synology NAS and ended with what I have now... a rackmount PC with 24-bays running UnraidOS. (As I'm sure many others have done haha) I love the set up but I had a few questions about file transfer speeds between computers. I also have another rackmount PC connected through ethernet. This is the PC I use for remote gaming and to display my IP camera feeds on a local monitor. I find myself doing a lot of my downloading and then transferring of files to my Unraid from this PC.

 

Here are my questions.

• I currently have a Dell PowerConnect 2848 switch. It is a 48-port switch with gigabit speed. I know this is not a bottleneck for my gigabit internet from my ISP, but would I stand to gain on file sharing speeds if I upgraded this switch? All of my drives in the Unraid setup are WD Red Pros. They are anywhere from 6TB-20TB drives. 
• I save all of my games on the Unraid OS, both emulation and PC games. My Gaming PC accesses the Unraid share through SMB. Should I try something other than SMB? I don't think having more than gigabit would impact read speeds when it comes to playing games on the PC accessing the game files from Unraid share, right? 

Please let me know if you need any other information, but IF I stand to gain in terms of file transfer speeds I would like to replace the 2848 switch for one that offers those faster speeds and possibly POE to consolidate my IP camera POE switch. I don't really have a budget for this as I really want to know what the best case scenario would be. If I had to put a dollar figure I'd say less than $1K. 

 

[tkitch]

wait, you PLAY the games over the network?

Like, the actual game files aren't on your local PC?  0.o
At that point the network doesn't matter, as you're adding a TON of latency compared to having it on your local machine, regardless of network speed.

[Blue4130]

19 minutes ago, DanCue04 said:

Budget (including currency): N/A

Country: US

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Increased network speeds to hopefully increase file transfer speeds

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

 

Hello All. First time poster here. I've managed a Plex media server for over a decade now. I started with a PC I built and then migrated to a Synology NAS and ended with what I have now... a rackmount PC with 24-bays running UnraidOS. (As I'm sure many others have done haha) I love the set up but I had a few questions about file transfer speeds between computers. I also have another rackmount PC connected through ethernet. This is the PC I use for remote gaming and to display my IP camera feeds on a local monitor. I find myself doing a lot of my downloading and then transferring of files to my Unraid from this PC.

 

Here are my questions.

• I currently have a Dell PowerConnect 2848 switch. It is a 48-port switch with gigabit speed. I know this is not a bottleneck for my gigabit internet from my ISP, but would I stand to gain on file sharing speeds if I upgraded this switch? All of my drives in the Unraid setup are WD Red Pros. They are anywhere from 6TB-20TB drives. 
• I save all of my games on the Unraid OS, both emulation and PC games. My Gaming PC accesses the Unraid share through SMB. Should I try something other than SMB? I don't think having more than gigabit would impact read speeds when it comes to playing games on the PC accessing the game files from Unraid share, right? 

Please let me know if you need any other information, but IF I stand to gain in terms of file transfer speeds I would like to replace the 2848 switch for one that offers those faster speeds and possibly POE to consolidate my IP camera POE switch. I don't really have a budget for this as I really want to know what the best case scenario would be. If I had to put a dollar figure I'd say less than $1K. 

 

iSCSI would benefit you over smb if you are playing games over the network. Should have much less protocol overhead. 

[DanCue04]

9 hours ago, tkitch said:

wait, you PLAY the games over the network?

Like, the actual game files aren't on your local PC?  0.o
At that point the network doesn't matter, as you're adding a TON of latency compared to having it on your local machine, regardless of network speed.

I do that currently with Emulation and it works well. I haven't actually played PC games yet using that method but I'd like to. Sorry if that wasn't clear. That is the goal. I'm not opposed to connecting a cable between the two systems, but is that possible with Unraid? 

[DanCue04]

10 hours ago, Blue4130 said:

iSCSI would benefit you over smb if you are playing games over the network. Should have much less protocol overhead. 

Can you explain a little more what this entails? I'm fairly new to networking but I did a few searches after reading this to try and understand. I read that the ideal setup, one that would rival fibre, would be to have a 10 GbE infrastructure. What would I need for that? A switch and then cards for each of the PCs, but which would you recommend?

 

As far as setup in Unraid I saw there is an iSCSI initiator plugin available. Do you have experience with this? Any words of advice?

 

I must say... After reading tkitch's response I'm a little down on this idea now. Am I crazy for attempting to do this? Would iSCSI be a solution? I'm trying to create a setup where all of my data is stored on the Unraid NAS and it serves all of my needs. 

[tkitch]

7 hours ago, DanCue04 said:

I do that currently with Emulation and it works well. I haven't actually played PC games yet using that method but I'd like to. Sorry if that wasn't clear. That is the goal. I'm not opposed to connecting a cable between the two systems, but is that possible with Unraid? 

That makes more sense:
Most emulated titles don't have the overhead of PC Games.  (Copy it over once and it's sitting in your RAM)

 

I wouldn't want to try networked playing of 100+GB titles on PC, tho.