Build refresh on zero budget

[EvoGamer]

OK, so my current rig is as follows:

 

ROG Crosshair V Formula-Z

Phenom II X6

16GB DDR3 RAM

MSI 560Ti Twin Frozr II

Antec P180 (1st gen) 

Corsair AX860i

Around 4.5 TB storage across multiple HDDs

2x Samsung Syncmaster 22" monitors

 

As spare parts (ie not yet fitted) I have:

FX-9790

Another MSI 560Ti (original plan was for SLi, but it couldn't make it work, so I took it out)

Vaskey V800 640GB SSD

 

I currently dual boot Win10 and Gentoo Linux, but I'm looking to rebuild with a VM solution so I can run both side-by-side instead of rebooting.

 

My question to everyone here is what host should I use? I want something that is easy to setup and manage, and can pass through a graphics card to each VM. I also want a slimline a host as possible, even if it means a little more complexity. 

 

I'm leaving towards UnRaid based on Linus's adventures, but I'm worried it might be overkill for my preference. The trouble is the only alternative I can think of is to roll my own KVM solution with Gentoo (or Arch). Are there any other choices with considering for a workstation setup (with gaming, ofc) running 2 primary VMs (and occasionally other Linux distros when I want to experiment)?

 

Sorry, if this is the wrong section for this kind of question. 

[Radium_Angel]

15 minutes ago, EvoGamer said:

pass through

Performance is highly dependent on specs of both the cpu/mobo and the gpu. Your system is old enough it might not support this option.

https://medium.com/@dubistkomisch/gaming-on-arch-linux-and-windows-10-with-vfio-iommu-gpu-passthrough-7c395dde5c2

https://davidyat.es/2016/09/08/gpu-passthrough/

 

[Wh0_Am_1]

30 minutes ago, EvoGamer said:

 

MSI 560Ti Twin Frozr II

 

Another MSI 560Ti (original plan was for SLi, but it couldn't make it work, so I took it out)

 

Why did the SLI not work? You have the power, the MOBO, the chip, the cards, all that I don't see is an SLI Bridge.

[EvoGamer]

I have several SLi bridges, but when I tried, the system wouldn't boot. I may have reached the limits of my knowledge at the time, and SLi wasn't a priority for me, so I couldn't be bothered to investigate. The cards were second hand from a friend who was upgrading and had used them in SLi, and I got them as a bundle. 

 

I'm know my system has AMD's virtualisation extensions, and I'm pretty sure it can handle PCI passthrough, but the last time I tried the only option was an experimental feature on the Xen hypervisor. Now it's in nearly every system, including bare-bones KVM.