Help Choosing RAM Kit for UNRAID Server + 2 Gaming VMs

Ljackhg on 11/03/2021 - 10:58

Hey OzB people,

First post so feel free to beat me up at the train station of your choice if I've done something wrong.

Trying to decide on a ram kit for a build I'm planning which will be an unraid server with 2 windows gaming/workstation vms.

I already bought 32GB (4x8GB) of the Patriot Viper 4400Mhz ram from this deal, but realised that 32gb wont cut it if I want to do more than running the 2 vms.

Tossing up between the following:
* 64GB (2x32gb) @ 3200 C16 here
* 64GB (4x16GB) @ 3200 C16 here
* Something else? I understand the above wont be B-Die like the Viper kit. Looking to spend around the $300 mark & not bothered by losing a few % performance

Your help would be really appreciated!

Current specs for reference:
Ryzen 7 2700X (Intending on upgrading to Ryzen 3000/5000 12c/16c whenever a decent deal comes up)
16GB 2133MHz RAM
Asus X570-E Gaming Motherboard
1 x RTX3090
1 x GTX1080
Various storage drives incl. 2 x 480gb ssds, 1 x 980 Pro 1TB, 3 x 2TB HDDs.

Computing

Comments

  • rldowling03 on 11/03/2021 - 11:33
    +1

    Surely the 2x32gb kit would be better for you since your motherboard is only dual channel anyway? Best to check the QVL list as well to make sure it's on the list and what the motherboard manufacturer has tested it as overclocked to. I've been burned in the past by not checking that list and getting ram sticks that just didn't overclock well unless I manually messed with the timings and voltages.

    Also unraid is great. I've been using it for about 5 years now, previously as a mix of NAS and gaming pc with passthrough, but now as just a NAS box and it's great :)

    • jackhg on 11/03/2021 - 14:08

      Thanks for the tip on checking the QVL, I had just assumed it was people online being pedantic over minor performance differences. I’ll check the list.

      Re. the dual channel mobo, I was kinda thinking the 4 stick kit would allow for dual channel ram for each vm? I’m not totally sure if that’s even something an unraid vm can or would want to control

      Good to hear about your success with unraid, it’s my first time so it’s all quite new to me at this stage

      • rldowling03 on 11/03/2021 - 14:18

        Nah, so unraid is essentially the host, and when you spin up VM's within unraid, you're giving it a pool of ram, you don't give them say certain memory slots or channels, it's just shared with the unraid OS itself and any other things you have running such as Docker images and applications. The motherboard will still only run dual channel. You'd need a quad channel board for 4 sticks, probably wouldn't be worth the change honestly

        You can lock away CPU cores for the VM's so that they're truly dedicated, but AFAIK not possible for ram.

        I always thought the same about the QVL as well. It's fine if you're not enabling XMP, ram is just ram usually, but it's when it comes to XMP and getting the rated speeds then I think the QVL is fairly important unless you're comfortable spending a large amount of time messing with timings, latencies, voltages etc of the ram sticks.

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join