Network Booting Windows: A Gaming Rig Experiment

Gaming rigs can now boot from a NAS, centralizing storage while offering redundancy and improved management.

### Innovative Network Booting for Gaming PCs: A Unique Experiment
* 💻 A catastrophic failure of the boot SSD led to an exciting opportunity to **rebuild multiple gaming rigs** and utilize a **unique network booting method**.
* 🌐 With the help of Kokia's CD8 Enterprise SSDs, the gaming setup runs entirely off a NAS, showcasing the **feasibility of booting Windows from network-attached storage**.
* 🔄 This approach centralizes storage, allowing for **more economical redundancy and easier management of backups**, which is particularly beneficial for households with children who frequently need **system restores**.
* ⚙ The experiment utilized a powerful dual 144-core Intel reference server, connected to a **high-speed network infrastructure**, highlighting the **significance of network speed** in supporting multiple gaming systems.
* 📊 Although the setup demonstrated potential, it also revealed performance limitations, with the network infrastructure causing **lag during game launches and installations**, which was unexpected given the capabilities of the **CD8 drives**.
* ⚠ The experiment ultimately pointed out significant disadvantages, such as **creating a single point of failure** and **potential slowdowns for all connected systems**, raising questions about **practicality for home users**.
* 💡 While the network booting method is innovative, the recommendation is to **stick with traditional local storage solutions** for most users, despite the impressive performance of Kokia's SSDs in other applications.
* 🎮 The project concluded with a call to **explore more efficient setups**, like building a **dedicated NAS for better performance and management**, emphasizing the balance between **innovation and practicality** in tech setups.

I wanted to try this for years, but no one would let me

Linus Tech Tips is a passionate team of "professionally curious" experts in consumer technology and video production who aim to educate and entertain.


Linus Tech Tips

Rebuilding a Gaming Rig with Network Booting

The author's computer's SSD failure led to a complete system rebuild, using Kokia's CD8 Enterprise SSDs for storage.

Network booting from a NAS is being used for the gaming setup, offering centralized storage and redundancy.

The setup allows for efficient management of backups and system restores, while also providing deduplication and compression with ZFS for added storage efficiency.

Setting Up a High-Performance Server for Gaming

The server features dual 144-core processors and a dual-port 100 GB per second NIC, aiming to provide fast network access for multiple client PCs.

A Microt switch with two 100 Gig ports and 16 25 Gig ports is used for networking, while CD8 Gen 4 drives offer reliable storage with power loss protection and high capacities.

The setup includes 10 TB for a shared game drive and 1 TB for boot drives, creating a powerful system for gaming and high-performance applications.

The goal is to merge two loud NASes into one quiet unit by replacing hard drive mounts with NVMe mounts.

The software stack will use Starwind vSAN for high availability and easier setup, while also utilizing Proxmox for virtualization.

A ZFS pool will be created for storage, offering RAM caching and the ability to lose one drive without system downtime.

The trass interface is improved for better responsiveness, with a focus on creating a standalone iSCSI setup.

iSCSI offers block storage like an SSD, while SMB provides file storage for shared access.

Starwind can handle both, making it suitable for game installations and save data.

Setting Up a Home Lab with Unique Hardware

The consumer board has a second-gen 4x4 link to the CPU, offering a maximum of 4 GB per second.

The setup involves a Thunderbolt card and a ConnectX 6 card, with the latter providing 2 GB per second.

The boot process is configured through a router's DHCP server, using a web server to assign different disks to multiple computers based on their MAC addresses.

Installing Windows via Network: A Step-by-Step Guide

Network installation of Windows involves modifying the image to add network drivers, such as Melanox drivers.

The boot script needs to be adjusted for the correct MAC address and media presence.

After booting into WinPE, the process includes mounting a network drive for the Windows installer and injecting the proper drivers, with a registry edit to disable the page file to prevent potential blue screens.

Experimental Computer Setup and Its Challenges

The experimental computer setup is causing more stability problems than it solves, with the boot drive's active time at 100% and occasional response times reaching half a second.

The network infrastructure and implementation limitations are contributing to the slow performance, despite using fast drives.

The setup has created a single point of failure, making all computers dependent on the server, and adding unnecessary complexity and management headaches.

Optimizing Computer Management with Network Solutions

The setup discussed is effective for managing a large install base of computers, using folder redirection and network shares to optimize storage.

Booting Windows over iSCSI is not recommended, but Kokia's PCIe Gen 4 drives with NVMe 1.

4 support offer a fast and reliable alternative.

The drives can be used to build a new NAS, providing a practical solution for storage needs.