New To NAS - Seeking Build Advice

[Calvinball96]

Up until about a month ago I pretty much knew nothing about NAS save for the ease of use Synology products.  I wanted to create something from scratch though as it would be more of an adventure, and the ability to expand / build something more powerful was a definite plus.  Plus after reading about unRAIDs ease of use, the UI, and super helpful videos (Space Invader One is great), this seemed to me the best route.  

 

• What is your budget?
  • Minus the drives, I wanted to be in the ballpark of $800USD for the system, but am open to tweaks where needed / recommended
• How many drives do you want your server to be able to support and how much capacity do you need?
  • 4 to start, capacity wise 20TB?
• Is expandability important to you?  If so, what's your long term goal?
  • I'd like to be able to expand when the time comes.  Long term (years down the road) would be 8 drives once all is said and done housing plex media / sports photos.
• Are you interested in running any unRAID Add Ons (see here)?  If so, which ones?  Be specific.
  • For the add ons, I hope this means plugin / dockers.  The few plugins mentioned by Space Invader Ones video I'll probably be going with.  As for Dockers.. The only one I can think of currently is Plex, but i'm sure others will arise.  Again, completely new to this...
• Do you want to run green/low power drives or faster 7200 rpm drives?  If you don't have a specific need for 7200 rpm drives, then choose green drives.
  • The HDDs I'm pondering for parity / data based will probably be 5400rpm based.  Would I need a 7200 for streaming?
• What do you plan to run for hard drives?
  • 1 Parity (that's all that's needed if you don't have a lot of drives correct?) Was thinking of using a 14tb shucked EasyStore
  • 3-4 Data :: Either shucking the 8tb EasyStores I have laying around or just purchasing 8tb WD Reds
  • 1 Cache :: 2.5" 1TB SSD
• Do you have any spare parts laying around that you would like to apply towards your build?  This includes drives.
  • Have 3x 8TB Easy Stores unshucked + 1x 14TB unshucked as well
• If you already have parts in mind, please oh pretty please post links to them so that we don't have to look them up.
  • I don't have any particular part in mind, but here is the build I made based off reading other users builds and trying to align with what I'm seeking to accomplish:
    • PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/LXK2Bc
      • CPU: Intel Core i3-8100 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($139.99 @ B&H) 
      • CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U9S chromax.black 46.4 CFM CPU Cooler  ($64.90 @ Amazon) 
      • Motherboard: Asus Prime H370M-Plus/CSM Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($105.99 @ B&H) 
      • Memory: Crucial Ballistix 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($137.99 @ Newegg) 
      • Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($139.99 @ Amazon) 
      • Case: Fractal Design Define R5 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($123.99 @ Amazon) 
      • Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.10 @ Amazon) 
      • Custom: SanDisk Cruzer Fit 16GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive  ($6.99 @ Amazon) 
      • Total: $818.94

 

Thank you everyone in advance for this.  Looking forward to learning more and building something awesome.  All I've read up to this point has been extremely helpful though confusing in some areas (but more digging to be done.)