Help with new proxmox setup

[wachu13]

Hello

Im proxmox/linux noob who watched few Youtube vids, so keep that in mind

So I have old computer Alienware Alpha which I was using with Win10 on it:
- Intel Core i3-4130T @ 2.90 GHz (2 cores, 4 threads)
- 12 GB RAM DDR3
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 860M 2GB with 4k TV connected to it
- Samsun SSD 2.5 SATA III 840 EVO 250GB
- 2x USB 3.0 and 3x USB 2.0 ports

and I have few HDs (everyone in own USB 3.0 enclosure ) which can be connected through USB ports:
- Toshiba SSD 256GB M.2 2280 NVMe
- Toshiba HDD 750 GB SATA II 5400 rpm
- WD Blue HDD 500 GB SATA III 5400 rpm
- WD Scorpio Blue HDD 500 GB SATA II 5400 rpm
- WD Scorpio Blue HDD 320 GB SATA II 5400 rpm

I already did install Proxmox once to see whats going on but I had problem with instalation which after long resaerch finally steps from this website (https://robertoviola.cloud/2020/04/16/proxmox-no-screen-during-installation/) did help. BTW is there a way to include those steps on Proxmox usb install stick so I dont have to do those steps everytime I do install?

After plaing with Proxmox I did install Turnkey MediaServer with Jellyfin so I can watch media files on home network and Turnkey Fileserver for NAS. I did attached two HDDs one for media second for files sharing. Did this watching some Youtube vids so Im not sure if this is done correct way but looks like its working and I like it.
So now after seeing what can be done with Proxmox I wanna do fresh install with correct setup. And here I need your help with. From the specs above and all the hard drives I have what is the best setup for:
- media server so I can watch stuff over my home network (laptops with windows on it)
- NAS or something similar so I can have all files except media in one place with access over home network, but VM with Win10 will need access too
- VM with Win10 but setup the way so I can use TV connected to that computer to work on that VM. dosnt have to run all the time only when I need to use it. I will like that way so I can use my laptop for work and use VM at the same time.

Thats for now, maybe later I can install webserver for wordpress, VMs for linux or Windows for testing, was thinking about docker too.
For now I dont want to buy more stuff for that computer so I willl like to use whatever I have right now. This is just for my needs at home so I dont need anything heavy super fancy

Sorry for long text but was tring explaing everyting which I hope I did clear enough

Any help will be much appreciated, I know most of that stuff was already talk so many time but sometimes its not easy to find correct topics especially for noob when Im not sure about correct wording or terminology.

 

[Dunuin]

12GB RAM and just a dualcore CPU really isn't great if you want to run a Win10 VM. Keep in mind that PVE itself needs around 2GB of RAM, then you want some RAM for the LXCs (maybe 2-4 GB if you just want a NAS and media server), some free RAM as a buffer so you don't run out of RAM on workload spikes and for caching (maybe 2GB?) and 6 or 8 GB RAM for the Win10 VM. And you also get some virtualization overhead, so a 8GB RAM win VM might actually need something like 9GB. So atleast something like 13 to 17 GB RAM would be good to have. And a dualcore isn't great to run just a Win10 bare metal. Running PVE with Win10 as VM + services in LXCs of cause needs even more CPU power.

You might want to invest some money to buy more RAM and replace the CPU with a i5 or i7 with more cores. But first I would try if GPU passthrough is working at all with that machine. Might be cheaper to just get a more powerful and more enegy efficient second hand workstaton or SFF client.

To use a GPU in a VM you need to passthrough your GPU using PCI passthrough into that VM. But then your PVE host itself wouldn't be able to use it anymore. If passthrough will work depends on your GPU, your CPU, your Mainboard and your BIOS.
See here for a tutorial: https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Pci_passthrough

 

[wachu13]

ok, so lets say I will drop the VM with Win10 for now, how the best setup everything for media server and nas? should I connect all 4 hard drives before Proxmox install or start with one inside the computer, install Proxmox and then connect 4 hard drives? And second question which drives connect to which usb port for best performance? because I have only 12 GB of memory the best will be to choose ext4? right?

 

[Dunuin]

Dont use ZFS as ZFS is a memory hog. And I wouldn't use HDDs as a VM/LXC storage because the HDDs will become quickly the bottleneck with its terrible IOPS performance. So I would used the internal SSD for PVE + VM/LXC storage using LVM-Thin. Then I would mount all the HDDs to your PVE host and then bind-mount them into your NAS LXC and mediaserver LXC.

And for the HDDs I would stick with ext4 or xfs without any raid.

Also think about a backup strategy. You might want to use most of your USB disks just for backups