Old Gaming on D-1521?

[tsegreto]

I know this seems like a silly question, but I am building a low powered NAS. I was never really a gamer but sometimes when I get nostalgic I like to play older games like Hitman Codename 47, Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption, American McGee's Alice, Starcraft I, Warcraft 3, Himan 2, Hitman Contracts, Hitman Blood Money, and Hitman Absolution (that being the newest one).

 

Do you guys think it would be possible to play these games at a decent frame rate at 1080p on a D-1521 NAS with 16GB of RAM? What video card would be recommended for this (low power is preferable)?

 

It would be super awesome if I could play 2016's Hitman (I never plaid it) on this, is there any way that would be possible?

[NelizMastr]

The D1521 is a Broadwell Xeon CPU, so it should handle some older games well enough, granted you won't run Windows 10 or server 2016 as old games won't run well if at all on those. 

 

Could you provide a full list of components? There is no such thing a as a D1521 NAS. If you're talking a prebuilt NAS with this chip like the QNAP TS1685 or 1885 then good luck, but you can't use that as a PC.

[tsegreto]

SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SDV-4C-TLN2F-O Intel Xeon D-1521 Mini ITX Server Motherboard - $450

Case: Lian Li PC-Q25 - $110

MEM-DR416L-CV02-ER24 - $225

Power Supply: CORSAIR RMi Series RM650i 650W 80 PLUS GOLD - $120

Fans: 1x Noctua NF-A14 iPPC-3000 PWM, 140mm PWM,AAO Frame Technology and SSO2 Bearing Fan - $28

1x Noctua NF-F12 iPPC-3000 PWM Fan with Focused Flow™ and SSO2 Bearing - $23

Supermicro Heat Sink with retention back plane (SNK-C0057A4L) - $35

 

Maybe add in a graphics card?

[Dark]

You'll almost certainly need to add a GPU, the Aspeed AST2400 BMC provides vga but won't handle much graphically.

 

The processor itself is fine.

[Jarsky]

this isn't "Server" related, you're essentially asking what low-spec, low powered hardware you can use for playing games. 

A NAS by the very definition of its name, doesn't utilise a GPU & Monitor, its network attached storage. 

 

Why not just use your desktop/laptop for playing old games? 

 

Pretty sure as far as "building" or availability, then you'd have to go for a SoC board with the CPU already attached like the one you mentioned. Theyre very expensive as well at $450.

You could get the likes of a E5-1620 with an ITX board for less which is 30% more performance

[tsegreto]

On 5/11/2018 at 3:59 PM, Jarsky said:

this isn't "Server" related, you're essentially asking what low-spec, low powered hardware you can use for playing games. 

A NAS by the very definition of its name, doesn't utilise a GPU & Monitor, its network attached storage. 

 

Why not just use your desktop/laptop for playing old games? 

 

Pretty sure as far as "building" or availability, then you'd have to go for a SoC board with the CPU already attached like the one you mentioned. Theyre very expensive as well at $450.

You could get the likes of a E5-1620 with an ITX board for less which is 30% more performance

My laptop is a 2017 MacBook i7. Y series processor and no active cooling. I am building a low powered NAS, that's the ultimate goal but once or twice a year I would like the ability to play those games, so I might pick up a graphics card to go do that.

[NelizMastr]

2 hours ago, tsegreto said:

My laptop is a 2017 MacBook i7. Y series processor and no active cooling. I am building a low powered NAS, that's the ultimate goal but once or twice a year I would like the ability to play those games, so I might pick up a graphics card to go do that.

Put a GT1030 in it or a GT730 GDDR5 and you should be good for older games while also keeping power consumption low.

[tsegreto]

3 hours ago, NelizMastr said:

Put a GT1030 in it or a GT730 GDDR5 and you should be good for older games while also keeping power consumption low.

Even with 2016 Hitman at max settings @ 1080?

[NelizMastr]

Nah you'll need a 1050Ti for that probably