To the left, is the current most powerful server I've ever built.
Built around the AMD Ryzen Thripper 1950x, this server has 64GB's of ram, 18TB's of usable space on the main array, 256GB's of redundant SSD storage for VM's, and a separate 256GB SSD attached to one of the VM's for non-redundant game storage.
So, why does this exist? Because of an application called Moonlight, which utilizes Nvidia Gamestream, and the built in encoding and decoding hardware on the GPU's, to allow game streaming anywhere. Also, equally important, it allows a consolidation of devices.
When I moved back to Philadelphia in April 2018, I brought 3 servers with me, all of which were running on UnRaid.
That top Server was the Threadripper based system, built for the express purpose of converting upwards of 16TB's of my parents movies and TV Shows into H.246 and H.265. A project that wasn't cheap, but which allowed them to save hundreds by not needing to purchase more HDD's for the Plex server I built for them. The middle server, was the test box. It contained my I7-5820K, and a GPU. And the bottom server was my main NAS / Plex server. Powered by an I7-7700k, that box used it's internal GPU to massively speed up Plex transcoding.
And for a while, this was good. But then, It dawned on me that alot of it wasn't really needed. The test server was rarely used to test anything. So it largely remained off, until it was given away to my dad for Christmas. That left 2 servers. And once a coworker clued me into Moonlight, the wheels started to turn, and a plan to shift down to just one server was planned out. And then changed once my wallet said no.....
So, to prep for the new plan, the Threadripper based system had the motherboard bios updated, and the GTX-1070 SC was installed.
The test here, was whether or not GPU pass-through was working as seamlessly on Threadripper, as it had on my Intel based systems. And at first, that was a hard no. The aforementioned Bios being the key. Once it was upgraded, passthrough was working. And the next phase took place.
That of course was latency and general performance. The link between my current room and the basement is via a 5GHz wireless bridge. Lucky for me I upgraded the bedroom side of that a few months ago, so I could easily get 300Mbps+ down. And at times 100Mbps+ up. This test too was a pass. With the bandwidth available, Moonlight was able to provide a great experience.
With that final test passed, the final step was to install my mSata SSD and it's accompanying Raid card, and to swap the 32GB's of DDR4-2400 ram from each of my desktops to the server, giving it 64GB's (Sufficient for the memory heavy Cities Skylines) of RAM, and each of them 16GB's (Plenty for the gaming box, and the workstation).
Fast forward to today, and things are still working as planned. The new Gaming VM handles every single game that doesn't make use of an XBox One controller. And everything else is handled by my dedicated gaming box. For now. Once Moonlight supports vibration, the gaming box too will be sunset, and everything will be moving to that gaming VM. And once that's done, the latest step in my computing journey will be done.
