2 Gamers 1 CPU

[AlasPoorYorick]

Similar to my last thread, I was thinking of Linus's 7 gamers one cpu video, and was wondering if it was possible on a smaller scale. My idea is to use something such as the amd FX8370, which has 8 physical cores and virtualization support, to run 2 video cards (such as an r9 380 or 480, something along those lines) as 2 desktops. My ultimate goal with this build would to extract as much performance out of a motherboard/ processor as possible. I'm thinking that for 7 or 8 hundred, this computer should be able to run many games on high or ultra. Any thoughts on this?

[manikyath]

the thing you're forgetting is the cost of the software, unraid isnt stupid, they're pretty much the only software that has figured out gpu -> VM support this well, they'd be absolute knobheads to give that away for free.

 

on top of that, its stupidly, hilareously impractical, and you're honestly better off with something like a haf stacker and some clever cable management.

 

EDIT: also, you're forgetting the GPU for unraid, which -for reasons- needs to be the first one thats initialised, meaning you'll need either a cpu with iGPU, or some stupid low end junker in the first slot, basicly limiting your options to a 3-way CF board, and have the actually functional cards run off of pcie 4x.

[manikyath]

something like this.

[Ramaddil]

3 minutes ago, manikyath said:

the thing you're forgetting is the cost of the software, unraid isnt stupid, they're pretty much the only software that has figured out gpu -> VM support this well, they'd be absolute knobheads to give that away for free.

 

on top of that, its stupidly, hilareously impractical, and you're honestly better off with something like a haf stacker and some clever cable management.

Agreed, not only this ^^^^ but there is no way you are getting what you described for  700-800 dollars.. 

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, Ramaddil said:

Agreed, not only this ^^^^ but there is no way you are getting what you described for  700-800 dollars.. 

you could, but it'd be something along these lines:

[AlasPoorYorick]

1 minute ago, manikyath said:

you could, but it'd be something along these lines:

I'm not asking for you to be a tool. I was thinking along the lines of an 150$ motherboard, plus a 200$ FX8370, two graphics cards for a total of 400, and a power supply. I have a few hard drives around that make that a non-cost. Ultimately, what I described would only cost me about 850 dollars, and would be a lot more than the picture you so generously posted. It just won't do the job I described.

[manikyath]

3 minutes ago, AlasPoorYorick said:

I'm not asking for you to be a tool. I was thinking along the lines of an 150$ motherboard, plus a 200$ FX8370, two graphics cards for a total of 400, and a power supply. I have a few hard drives around that make that a non-cost. Ultimately, what I described would only cost me about 850 dollars, and would be a lot more than the picture you so generously posted. It just won't do the job I described.

https://lime-technology.com/buy-it/

 

make that a $90 motherboard

[MightyMic]

If you're serious considering doing this, look into 5600 series xeons. You'd need to go used, but you can have about FX single core performance for a lot less and more threads. Like the X5650 has six cores 12 threads and you can get a matched pair for about $100 on ebay. You'll need to get a dual socket lga 1366 motherboard, but I see this being much more cost effective than going with anything modern. One of the problems going this route is the motherboards are almost always the server form factor... eeb ssci I think is what it is... and almost no towers support that. Another thing is your power supply needs two have support for multiple cpu 8 pin connectors. I know the EVGA G2 series has that (fyi)

 

CPUs $100

Mobo $100

GPUs $400

RAM $100 (recommend 16GB for each cpu)

PSU $100

HDD $50

unraid $???

Windows $200 (unless you already have a copy?)

 

Total: $1000+

[AlasPoorYorick]

2 minutes ago, manikyath said:

https://lime-technology.com/buy-it/

 

make that a $90 motherboard

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/2z0evz/gpu_passthrough_or_how_to_play_any_game_at_near/

OR I could use KVM. I never said anything in my original post about unRAID, only that I drew inspiration from Linus's videos. But keep tooling bruh, it makes you cool.

[MightyMic]

4 minutes ago, manikyath said:

https://lime-technology.com/buy-it/

$60 is pretty reasonable if you think about it.

[AlasPoorYorick]

5 minutes ago, MightyMic said:

If you're serious considering doing this, look into 5600 series xeons. You'd need to go used, but you can have about FX single core performance for a lot less and more threads. Like the X5650 has six cores 12 threads and you can get a matched pair for about $100 on ebay. You'll need to get a dual socket lga 1366 motherboard, but I see this being much more cost effective than going with anything modern. One of the problems going this route is the motherboards are almost always the server form factor... eeb ssci I think is what it is... and almost no towers support that. Another thing is your power supply needs two have support for multiple cpu 8 pin connectors. I know the EVGA G2 series has that (fyi)

 

CPUs $100

Mobo $100

GPUs $400

RAM $100 (recommend 16GB for each cpu)

PSU $100

HDD $50

unraid $???

Windows $200 (unless you already have a copy?)

 

Total: $1000+

I don't need to worry about window's keys, I have a ton of laptops with keys and old desktop shells with keys. I have thought about using a server board, but my question at this point is more along the lines of "Would a FX8370 be able to functionally run two virtual machines" Because if it can, the cost for me cuts out a motherboard, RAM, and a graphics card I already have.

[g12601]

Seriously, wouldn't it be easier to have a couple of haf stackers and run two machines at once. I believe this was mentioned above.

[AlasPoorYorick]

3 minutes ago, MightyMic said:

$60 is pretty reasonable if you think about it.

It is, but it's beside the point. The guy's nitpicking price, which isn't helping move any closer to answering whether or not the specified build could handle decent gaming performance. Ultimately, I'd think that IF the 8370 COULD handle the load, it would allow for a decent 2 desktop box for around 800-1000 dollars.

[AlasPoorYorick]

1 minute ago, g12601 said:

Seriously, wouldn't it be easier to have a couple of haf stackers and run two machines at once. I believe this was mentioned above.

Easy wasn't the question

[manikyath]

3 minutes ago, AlasPoorYorick said:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/2z0evz/gpu_passthrough_or_how_to_play_any_game_at_near/

OR I could use KVM. I never said anything in my original post about unRAID, only that I drew inspiration from Linus's videos. But keep tooling bruh, it makes you cool.

you know, i've seen that guide before, wendell actually messed with this stuff quite a while back, if i recall his conclusions were that it's very iffy, but once you get it figured out it works.

 

also, i'm not picking on you, thats a fabrication of your mind, i'm being just the necessary amount of harsh to let you know you wont be having a satisfying experience out of $800, not to mention other vital issues you'll be facing based on the hardware you'd be picking.

 

2 minutes ago, MightyMic said:

$60 is pretty reasonable if you think about it.

its actually very cheap considering the features you get, and the hassle it saves you.

[g12601]

2 minutes ago, AlasPoorYorick said:

Easy wasn't the question

Then what was the point of this?

[AlasPoorYorick]

4 minutes ago, manikyath said:

you know, i've seen that guide before, wendell actually messed with this stuff quite a while back, if i recall his conclusions were that it's very iffy, but once you get it figured out it works.

 

also, i'm not picking on you, thats a fabrication of your mind, i'm being just the necessary amount of harsh to let you know you wont be having a satisfying experience out of $800, not to mention other vital issues you'll be facing based on the hardware you'd be picking.

 

its actually very cheap considering the features you get, and the hassle it saves you.

There's more constructive ways than posting an empty motherboard and implying it cost 800 dollars. Like mentioning issues that it would run into. I.e. Would it simply not run?, would it be impossibly slow? How slow would it ACTUALLY be, and would that make it unusable?

And also, @your first comment, I thought you can use an integrated graphics card as a initialization card. 

[manikyath]

3 minutes ago, g12601 said:

Seriously, wouldn't it be easier to have a couple of haf stackers and run two machines at once. I believe this was mentioned above.

not just easier, its most likely also the more sensible solution, there's just too much quirks with gpu passtrough right now to have it be a sensible solution for anything else than "just a quirky experiment".

 

besides, i'd dare to argue even for a quirky experiment it'd be more interesting and fun to see two seperate haf stacker machines run off of a single PSU, which actually isnt that hard to wire up yourself with 20 bucks in parts and some electronics knowledge.

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, AlasPoorYorick said:

There's more constructive ways than posting an empty motherboard and implying it cost 800 dollars. Like mentioning issues that it would run into. I.e. Would it simply not run?, would it be impossibly slow? How slow would it ACTUALLY be, and would that make it unusable?

And also, @your first comment, I thought you can use an integrated graphics card as a initialization card. 

well, it was more so a picture implying the machine would look like a junker, because you'd be cutting corners on pretty much every part to come to budget.

 

also, FX chips dont quite have an iGPU do they?

in fact, there's not a single 8-core part with igpu on the market, let alone have it be sensible within a $800 budget.

[g12601]

3 minutes ago, manikyath said:

...experiment it'd be more interesting and fun to see two seperate haf stacker machines run off of a single PSU...

It would but, I would rather have it safe and use 2 PSUs

[AlasPoorYorick]

3 minutes ago, manikyath said:

not just easier, its most likely also the more sensible solution, there's just too much quirks with gpu passtrough right now to have it be a sensible solution for anything else than "just a quirky experiment".

 

besides, i'd dare to argue even for a quirky experiment it'd be more interesting and fun to see two seperate haf stacker machines run off of a single PSU, which actually isnt that hard to wire up yourself with 20 bucks in parts and some electronics knowledge.

Wouldn't that be the cost of 2 motherboards? 2x100+2x200+(processors)+2x200(fx cards)=1000+, given the components I specified.

[AlasPoorYorick]

1 minute ago, g12601 said:

It would but, I would rather have it safe and use 2 PSUs

Agreed

 

[AlasPoorYorick]

2 minutes ago, manikyath said:

well, it was more so a picture implying the machine would look like a junker, because you'd be cutting corners on pretty much every part to come to budget.

 

also, FX chips dont quite have an iGPU do they?

in fact, there's not a single 8-core part with igpu on the market, let alone have it be sensible within a $800 budget.

The board I meant, not the CPU, bad terminology on my part.

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, g12601 said:

It would but, I would rather have it safe and use 2 PSUs

 

2 minutes ago, AlasPoorYorick said:

Wouldn't that be the cost of 2 motherboards? 2x100+2x200+(processors)+2x200(fx cards)=1000+, given the components I specified.

 

but you wouldnt need to buy high end mobo's and processors, and denser ram sticks (two 2x4 kits are cheaper than one 2x8 kit, for example, not calculating in you need to allocate memory to the top OS as well.)

 

as for the power supply, if you're decent with wiring it up and get a quality unit, it shouldnt be an issue.

phanteks even has an out of the box solution for it

[manikyath]

4 minutes ago, AlasPoorYorick said:

The board I meant, not the CPU, bad terminology on my part.

pretty sure you'd be hard pressed to find a mobo with two pcie slots *and* an on-board gpu.

 

it's possible sure, but once again you'd be going for crappy parts, solely for fitting a price point.