unRaid vs Windows
unRaid vs Windows
Right now I own a Synology 5-bay with an additional 5-bay addon. It holds around 20TB of files—documents, photos, and media. Most of the valuable documents are stored elsewhere, regularly backed up to a NAS at a family member’s home, Google Drive, and OneDrive. The Synology is beginning to show issues with Plex playback and handling temporary files like 4K videos or desktop backups. I have some used components nearby, so I considered moving media storage to another server. This would give me more space and faster 10GbE connectivity. I also want the server to function as a home theater gaming setup. I have several extra 1080 Ti systems that could handle this. The main concern is whether I need something like Unraid to separate the storage from the operating system, or if Windows 10 alone can support media streaming and gaming simultaneously. The server includes a 2700X processor with 32GB RAM, an NVMe SSD, WD Red 8TB drives, and a 1080 Ti system powered by a 1000W power supply.
Choose Windows for a gaming PC setup—it’s much easier than setting up VMs. Use storage solutions to organize your drives, and Windows 10 should handle it well.
You could avoid relying on unraid when the system isn't meant for virtualization. For Windows 10, running everything inside it might be more effective, allowing you to dedicate more resources to Windows and improving overall performance.
For my home setup I’m satisfied with Hyper-V. It’s already set up on a dedicated VM and meets all my requirements.