Unraid Upgrade: Need advice on cooling

[Syskko]

Good afternoon to all.

I am planning on upgrading my current Unraid server with a new Asus LGA 1700 motherboard with an Intel 14900K CPU. My question is: What is the best way to cool the CPU? The Unraid server will be running 24/7. How hot will the CPU run streaming 4K video to one or two devices at a time? This will not be every day but on occasion. Normally, the server will see more use on the weekends than on weekdays. In my current set up, I am running several VM's and would like to be able to run a virtualized Windows 11 as my gaming machine. This will be later in the near future since I need to get a decent GPU first for gaming. I am debating between https://a.co/d/4jAC1Gi and https://a.co/d/g9Nqw3T to keep the CPU as cool as possible. Please advice on what my best option for cooling the Intel 14900K would be taking into consideration that it will be running 24/7 as an Unraid server, several virtualization machines but not running all the time, and ultimately a virtualized Windows 11 gaming machine. Thank you for your advice in advance.

[Needfuldoer]

That's one hell of an overkill processor for a NAS.

 

You really, really don't want to virtualize a gaming machine. For one thing, some anti-cheat systems will flag you if they detect they're running in a VM. Keep your gaming machine separate from your NAS.

[LIGISTX]

1 minute ago, Needfuldoer said:

That's one hell of an overkill processor for a NAS.

 

You really, really don't want to virtualize a gaming machine. For one thing, some anti-cheat systems will flag you if they detect they're running in a VM. Keep your gaming machine separate from your NAS.

This.

 

4 minutes ago, Syskko said:

Good afternoon to all.

I am planning on upgrading my current Unraid server with a new Asus LGA 1700 motherboard with an Intel 14900K CPU. My question is: What is the best way to cool the CPU? The Unraid server will be running 24/7. How hot will the CPU run streaming 4K video to one or two devices at a time? This will not be every day but on occasion. Normally, the server will see more use on the weekends than on weekdays. In my current set up, I am running several VM's and would like to be able to run a virtualized Windows 11 as my gaming machine. This will be later in the near future since I need to get a decent GPU first for gaming. I am debating between https://a.co/d/4jAC1Gi and https://a.co/d/g9Nqw3T to keep the CPU as cool as possible. Please advice on what my best option for cooling the Intel 14900K would be taking into consideration that it will be running 24/7 as an Unraid server, several virtualization machines but not running all the time, and ultimately a virtualized Windows 11 gaming machine. Thank you for your advice in advance.

Don't do this. Build a low power unraid box, and then build a gaming PC.

 

Are you streaming 4k content to 4k capable devices..? If so, it takes 0 CPU power, its just moving data from a harddrive over a network connection to a client device, at a relatively low speed when condiering a normal network is gigabit and has been the standard for about 20 years. A full bluray 4k HDR movie is about 80mbps, thats is not even 1/10th the speed of gigabit which is 1000 mbps... and if the client device is playing the content in 4k, you dont need to transcode anything, so the plex server is not doing anything except simply serving data up over a network connection. 

 

Don't virutalize a gaming PC, it will just cause endless headaches. Build 2 machines. 

[Syskko]

That's a good point @Needfuldoer. I had not thought about the anti-cheat systems in place. 

[Syskko]

@LIGISTX Thank you for your recommendations. I really appreciate it. Most of the devices at the home are 4K except for two which are 1080. I will probably go with a low powered i5 or i7 so I can run my linux virtualization and build a separate gaming machine. Thank you for your advice. 

[LIGISTX]

3 minutes ago, Syskko said:

@LIGISTX Thank you for your recommendations. I really appreciate it. Most of the devices at the home are 4K except for two which are 1080. I will probably go with a low powered i5 or i7 so I can run my linux virtualization and build a separate gaming machine. Thank you for your advice. 

If you need to transcode down from 4k to 1080p, the best option is a GPU. But... I bet a current gen i3 would be sufficient to transcode 4k to 1080p. I can do it on 6 threads of my Xeon which is way, way, WAY slower than a current gen intel chip (I only give my plex VM 6 cores of the 28 my server actually has, but those 28 are very slow compared to what modern chips can do).