Games Installed on Network drive anyone?

[Lord Flashheart]

Presently my games are installed on 4 x 1TB samsung QVO SSDs in windows striped drive.

I have 2 computers - one for gaming and another linux one for general use that used to be my gaming machine.

I am looking to have my main machine - MSI B450 tomahawk + 32GB memory + 3600X as a dual boot. Windows will be for gaming & linux for everything else both on the 256 GB NVMe SSD.

The second one - well I will get a low profile case & install ubuntu server. Also I have a sata card to put in extra drives. I will install the 4 x 1TB SSDs (RAID 0 initially) and some hard drives for games storage. Linux apparently has much more efficient software RAID & disk management. On windows the fake BIOS raid & windows storage spaces are not so good. It willl be running 24/7 and have various things running on it. Samba can be used for network shares. Oh and it is a Z77 motherboard + i7-3770K CPU + 32GB 1600 memory.

If I do this will wait until the 10 gigabit network cards come down in price to connect them. Two 10 gigbit cards will be used mainly for NAS and the onboard 1 gigabit NICs will be used for internet access via my switch & router.


Anyone doing anything similar?
Will it cause any issues with game loading times?

Useful & informed info appreciated.

[_I_]

dont, just dont

adds huge delays to game load and if the network/remote drive is not mapped correctly steam will not recognize the games on it

[Lord Flashheart]

_I_ eredeti hozzászólása:

dont, just dont

adds huge delays to game load and if the network/remote drive is not mapped correctly steam will not recognize the games on it

Then I need to make sure the network drive access is configured on the windows side?

Have you tried it with 10 gigabit networking. The 1 gigbit network share will of course be very very slow and have no intention of using it.

[_I_]

lan speed isnt the problem its the delays
host pc -> nic -> router/switch -> nic -> slave pc os -> drive -> slave pc os -> nic -> router/switch -> nic -> host pc
rather than the data being driectly on the host pc

with smb shares, the host needs to ask for permission credentials from the client for each file accessed

raid and ssd will be slightly faster, but not by enough

you can try it and see how it does

for media/movies its fine since its only accessing a few files at a time, but for games where it needs many more files at random times it can make a poor experience

[how bout i do anyway]

If you want to try it, I would say try it only so long as you're already committed to using the server for other typical purposes (e.g. local media sharing). You don't want to commit to the setup only to realize the performance leaves something to be desired. Performance is really going to depend on which games you're running. Obviously, the smaller the game, the better performance you're going to get.

Here's a video I found showing someone trying out a 10gbe NAS for their Steam library:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDqTl2FkugY

[Lord Flashheart]

how bout i do anyway eredeti hozzászólása:

If you want to try it, I would say try it only so long as you're already committed to using the server for other typical purposes (e.g. local media sharing). You don't want to commit to the setup only to realize the performance leaves something to be desired. Performance is really going to depend on which games you're running. Obviously, the smaller the game, the better performance you're going to get.

Here's a video I found showing someone trying out a 10gbe NAS for their Steam library:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDqTl2FkugY

The problem is I am unable to try it now until I buy 10 gigabit cards.

[Lord Flashheart]

_I_ eredeti hozzászólása:

lan speed isnt the problem its the delays
host pc -> nic -> router/switch -> nic -> slave pc os -> drive -> slave pc os -> nic -> router/switch -> nic -> host pc
rather than the data being driectly on the host pc

with smb shares, the host needs to ask for permission credentials from the client for each file accessed

raid and ssd will be slightly faster, but not by enough

you can try it and see how it does

for media/movies its fine since its only accessing a few files at a time, but for games where it needs many more files at random times it can make a poor experience

No router/switches will be involved. The NAS will be a direct connection between two machines.

[CursedPanther]

Other than to test out your network and hardware setup knowledge and skills, what's the benefit of jumping all the extra hoops exactly?

[_I_]

the router/switch add near 0 delay, its nic <-> os <-> drives that add the delays

[Lord Flashheart]

CursedPanther eredeti hozzászólása:

Other than to test out your network and hardware setup knowledge and skills, what's the benefit of jumping all the extra hoops exactly?

I want ease of backups. Also some virtualisation - pfsense router (freebsd based). Other virtual machines as I use/need them. Steam updates could be done overnight through a virtualised windows 10 (free version). Cable management now only an issue in the server which is low power/heat. The server will be used for various other tasks also with little CPU usage. I already know how to set eveything up. It is not a matter of technical knowledge. I need to know how it will perform before buying expensive 10 gigabit network cards.

[Lord Flashheart]

_I_ eredeti hozzászólása:

the router/switch add near 0 delay, its nic <-> os <-> drives that add the delays

The OS will be ubuntu server. It is a very efficient linux based server without any GUI. Running on an i7 I expect will run very well. If anything I expect any delays will be through the windows 10 networking.

[_I_]

it wont be able to max 1g nic using spinning hdds even in raid

[Lord Flashheart]

_I_ eredeti hozzászólása:

it wont be able to max 1g nic using spinning hdds even in raid

I will be using 4 x 1TB SSDs in RAID 0 for games. That is faster than a 10 gigbit NIC can handle.
As for other shares, a combination of hard drives in JBOD cached with SSDs. I have a couple old 60Gb spare. In raid 0 they be enough. Everyting will be backup up regularly of course.

[iceman1980]

Mamba Bajamba eredeti hozzászólása:

_I_ eredeti hozzászólása:

it wont be able to max 1g nic using spinning hdds even in raid

I will be using 4 x 1TB SSDs in RAID 0 for games. That is faster than a 10 gigbit NIC can handle.
As for other shares, a combination of hard drives in JBOD cached with SSDs. I have a couple old 60Gb spare. In raid 0 they be enough. Everyting will be backup up regularly of course.

I have the feeling you really don't understand how Ethernet works... But if you want to go down this route.. you'll have to look at InfiniBand.

Ethernet just can't do nanosecond responses or fast enough millisecond responses.
http://www.hpcadvisorycouncil.com/pdf/IB_and_10GigE_in_HPC.pdf but

IB yeah 10Gig compared to the cost of IB NICs and Switches doesn't even match in the slightest.

[Lord Flashheart]

Tarantula Hawk eredeti hozzászólása:

Mamba Bajamba eredeti hozzászólása:

I will be using 4 x 1TB SSDs in RAID 0 for games. That is faster than a 10 gigbit NIC can handle.
As for other shares, a combination of hard drives in JBOD cached with SSDs. I have a couple old 60Gb spare. In raid 0 they be enough. Everyting will be backup up regularly of course.

I have the feeling you really don't understand how Ethernet works... But if you want to go down this route.. you'll have to look at InfiniBand.

Ethernet just can't do nanosecond responses or fast enough millisecond responses.
http://www.hpcadvisorycouncil.com/pdf/IB_and_10GigE_in_HPC.pdf but

IB yeah 10Gig compared to the cost of IB NICs and Switches doesn't even match in the slightest.

I just need to know if it will cause game load time issues. The network will cause more delay but will it be noticable? That is what I need to know.

[iceman1980]

Mamba Bajamba eredeti hozzászólása:

Tarantula Hawk eredeti hozzászólása:

I have the feeling you really don't understand how Ethernet works... But if you want to go down this route.. you'll have to look at InfiniBand.

Ethernet just can't do nanosecond responses or fast enough millisecond responses.
http://www.hpcadvisorycouncil.com/pdf/IB_and_10GigE_in_HPC.pdf but

IB yeah 10Gig compared to the cost of IB NICs and Switches doesn't even match in the slightest.

I just need to know if it will cause game load time issues. The network will cause more delay but will it be noticable? That is what I need to know.

Yes it will. Some games asset stream in the background, which means it will "page" the drive for textures, models other data.