2 Gamers, 1 CPU - Virtualized Gaming Build Log

[Godlygamer23]

Can't eSATA actually supply power to the device, too?

No. It connects to an internal SATA port.

[PlayStation 2]

No. It connects to an internal SATA port.

ah

kinda figured that it didn't supply native power

[michrech]

A year ago this month, I actually built a system similar to what's in the video that spawned this forum thread (though with hardware no where near as powerful) because I had too many project PC's sitting around the house, all doing one or two things, using no where near all the horsepower of the rigs in which they were housed, while sucking up a bunch of power and creating a bunch of noise.  In the end, I reclaimed a bit of storage space, my electric bill noticeably lowered, and I sold off some of the parts from the individual systems to off-set the bits I picked up to build for the VM host (which runs ESXi 6 instead of UNraid).

A side benefit was lowering the noise level in the house.  All the individual machines I had running were, I thought, pretty quiet.  I didn't realize how much noise there was until they were all powered down... lol  Having noise in the house isn't an issue for me, since I live alone, but for anyone with a significant other / kids, this could be a good thing.  

 

This inspires me to finally build myself one! so many projects piling up.

[LordZekester]

I'm looking at doing a build similar to this so my wife and I can play games side by side from the same machine. The only question I have is if the number of cores available for the virtual machines will be double the physical cores like shown in the video if I use an AMD processor, such as the AMD FX-8350. If someone here knows the answer that would help me decide whether or not to pull the trigger on this build.

Link to the CPU- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113284

[bigceej]

I think the next step in this evolution is using 2 cases for 1 PC! Not even sure if this is possible, but having 4 GPU's in 1 case for optimal cooling and then using the other case for CPU and a pseudo server would be pretty sick!

[PianoPlayer88Key]

So would a concept like this work to share my 4790K, 32 GB RAM, etc. with my parents?  I do have another thread active on having them build their own PC, but maybe this could be an option?  And porting my existing Windows 10 install (upgraded from 7 Pro OEM) to a VM would probably be a bit tricky as well.  Also their monitor, keyboard, mouse would be like 15-20 feet across the room and I may even move my PC to another room in the house sometime.  (And when I move out when I hope to do someday, they'll need a PC then anyway.)

[PermaChill]

LinusTechTips? I would love to add a few drives to boot to when I want to use unraid to split my 970s and play with a friend, but also keep a main os on another drive separate from unraid with my 970's in sli when i want all the horse power for myself. Is this possible or will unraid detect and format all drives for itself?

[leadeater]

ah

kinda figured that it didn't supply native power

 

Some boards have powered eSATA. Not having powered ports from the start basically killed all eSATA support.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESATAp

[Maodun_Kross]

It has been mentioned in this thread that running 3 VM's on a setup like this would be very easy to do...Obviously I would need a third card and more ram. However looking at the motherboard 3 vid cards, I am going to use three GTX 970's, would not fit on the board. What other board would be recommended for a build like this that would support three vid cards plus one for the unRaid software?

 

Thanks

[michrech]

If you don't have physical space for the third card, but have the PCIe lanes / slot, you could always add the third card via PCIe riser...

 

 

It has been mentioned in this thread that running 3 VM's on a setup like this would be very easy to do...Obviously I would need a third card and more ram. However looking at the motherboard 3 vid cards, I am going to use three GTX 970's, would not fit on the board. What other board would be recommended for a build like this that would support three vid cards plus one for the unRaid software?

 

Thanks

[Maodun_Kross]

If you don't have physical space for the third card, but have the PCIe lanes / slot, you could always add the third card via PCIe riser...

 

I had considered that but looking at the physical hardware I dont think a riser is going to work. However after further research (and poking around on the forums) I was able to find this build http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/419726-the-compensator-build-log/ which refers to this https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/X99E_WS/overview/ motherboard, and it looks like it will fit the bill just fine.

 

This is really starting to look like a 4k+ build, however the space I have in the office and the need for the 3 heads ... well it will be more than worth it.

 

Thanks

[Maodun_Kross]

All,

 

A couple of questions about a build like this. Besides a couple minor tweaks in the hardware list the biggest change will be wanting to run three VM's instead of two.

 

The first "station" will be next to the computer so cables are not such a big issue. The other two stations can be up to 16' (roughly 6 meters) away from the case. What would be the best/simplest way to run the video for something like this; long HDMI cable/Ethernet/USB/wireless/smoke signals/magic?

 

I will need to run a separate USB hub just to support 6 transceivers for the keyboard/mouse. I would also like to give each "station" its own USB hub. Is something like that possible?

 

As they say the devil is in the details, I am just trying to work out the details before I pull the trigger on something like this.

 

Thanks

[michrech]

For your cabling question, I don't know about the USB cables, the a 16' (probably 20', as I don't know if a 16' cable exists) HDMI cable should be fine.  

 

As for the USB support -- if your mainboard doesn't present its pairs of USB ports to the host OS separately (like my HP Z800 mainboard does), you'll need a PCIe card for each VM, which you'll use 'pcipassthrough' to attach to each VM just as you'd do with the video cards.  Regardless of how you get a USB port to each VM, once you do, you can attach a USB hub to provide enough ports for keyboard, mouse, USB sticks, etc...  

 

 

All,

 

A couple of questions about a build like this. Besides a couple minor tweaks in the hardware list the biggest change will be wanting to run three VM's instead of two.

 

The first "station" will be next to the computer so cables are not such a big issue. The other two stations can be up to 16' (roughly 6 meters) away from the case. What would be the best/simplest way to run the video for something like this; long HDMI cable/Ethernet/USB/wireless/smoke signals/magic?

 

I will need to run a separate USB hub just to support 6 transceivers for the keyboard/mouse. I would also like to give each "station" its own USB hub. Is something like that possible?

 

As they say the devil is in the details, I am just trying to work out the details before I pull the trigger on something like this.

 

Thanks

[Spaceman9000]

There is a program called Aster multiseat for windows that you can use for this. It is much simpler but what i wonder is the performance between Aster and Linus method.

[Brissinger6]

Hey guys, 

I'm interested in building a rig with some VM's but I have a few questions, hope you guys can answer!

 

How do you switch between VM's? Or how do I turn on a VM when the NAS part is already running? (I know I can let a VM start when the system is powered on, but I want my NAS to be powered on all the time.)

 

Can I assign a GPU to multiple VM's? For instance I would tie a GPU to an OpenElec VM, as well as a Windows VM and a Steam OS VM, of course none of them would be running together. I saw it on a video of Jon in a schematic but is it as simple as just assigning them to three VM's? 

 

Thanks!

[xnamkcor]

If I want to do LAN multiplayer, can I use two Gb LAN cards and a crossover cable? Or is there a virtual LAN device that can be set up that can communicate by emulating a speed it can talk to itself at(1-10Gb?)?

[limetechjon]

If I want to do LAN multiplayer, can I use two Gb LAN cards and a crossover cable? Or is there a virtual LAN device that can be set up that can communicate by emulating a speed it can talk to itself at(1-10Gb?)?

No need to do anything special. We take care of all of that for you. Even with only one NIC and two VMs, you can both play online and against each other.

[DominicNikon]

is there a way to do this with a quad core and 16gb ram? like play star wars battlefront on 2 screens of the same system? so me any my friend can play at the same time?

[The Official Czex]

Do you have two GPU' s? 

 

It'll be pretty bad, but it'll work.

[007agentHP]

yeah but you would split into dual cores with 8 GB ram and whatever gpus

[AlwaysFSX]

Of course, it's the same exact process you just have to do the CPU&RAM settings slightly differently than Linus has.

[DominicNikon]

yeah but you would split into dual cores with 8 GB ram and whatever gpus

is dual core fine?

[DominicNikon]

Do you have two GPU' s? 

 

It'll be pretty bad, but it'll work.

my 980 for my side and my 760 for his side 

[iNoa97]

Or you can use the CM HAF Stacker

[jnmbhj]

Technically it is ok but, its going to bottleneck the GPUs.