My Synology NAS is almost at its capacity and I do not want to buy any of their products anymore. Same goes for QNAP. The UniFi UNAS Pro has no option for SSD caching. Since I always wanted a home lab server anyway I thought what the heck - let's try it. This will be my first build, so I do not have any spare parts laying around.

Requirements:

• Run Unraid - obviously.

• I want to start with at least 30TB storage and be able to extend this later.

• SSD caching storage.

• I want to run

  • Home Assistant (probably running HA OS as a VM and not in a Docker container),

  • Voice Assistant for Home Assistant locally (so Text-to-Speech model like Piper, a Speech-to-Text model like Whisper and a LLM for the conversation pipeline). At this point, I’m not sure whether this can be accomplished using only Docker containers or if a full Linux VM is required.

  • 1x Windows 11 Desktop VM and Linux VM (probably not running at the same time),

  • Docker containers for nginx, a web server and a git server,

• Time Machine Backups on multiple devices.

• Transcode video so I can stream from the NAS in the network (like once a month - so it would be ok if it takes a while).

• Run Stable Diffusion triggered by Home Assistant (at the moment I'm using the OpenAI integration).

• For the AI stuff I will need to add a graphics card sooner or later. I'd rather build it now without a GPU (mainly as a NAS) and add a powerful graphics card later than get a lower gpu now. So expandability for a graphics card is important.

• Mounted in server rack.

General Questions

• Are there any flaws in how I’ve translated my requirements into specific search criteria?

• Do the selected components — especially the motherboard, CPU, and GPU — make sense for my intended use case? Are they potentially overkill or not powerful enough?

• Are there better or more cost-effective alternatives I should be considering?

• Am I overlooking anything important, such as compatibility issues or missing features?

• Right now, I’m unsure whether it’s better to build a dedicated NAS and handle everything else — LLMs, Home Assistant, AI tasks, VMs — on a separate machine, or try to consolidate everything into a single build. Any thoughts?

This is what I came up with based on my requirements:

Mainboard

Supermicro X13SAE-F (530 €)

Search criteria

• ECC support

• 8+ SATA Ports

• Intel CPU compatible (I feel like there is less need of tinkering with Intel instead of AMD - maybe this is just imagination)

Questions

• The manual only mentions VT-d support. Is VT-x support from the board needed as well?

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CPU

Intel Core i5-14600K (210 €)

Search criteria

• ECC Support

• VT-x and VT-d Support

• Derived from chosen Mainboard:

  • Socket 1700

  • TDP up to 150 W

  • DDR 5

  • PCIe 5

Questions

• I could save 40 € (80 €) buying a new or (used) Core i5-12600K. Should I?

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Memory

Alternative 1 (used): Crucial 32GB DDR5-4800 UDIMM CT32G48C40U5 CL40 1.1V Desktop RAM (2x 70 €)

Alternative 2 (new): Mushkin Redline PRO DIMM 32GB, DDR5-4800, CL40-39-39, ECC (2x 125 €)

Search criteria

• ECC support

• Derived from chosen Mainboard:

  • DDR 5

  • Unbuffered Memory

  • 32 GB (so I can max out the boards memory in the future)

Questions

• How important is name brand RAM?

• Should I go for the used ones?

• Should I use an even number of memory sticks like it is recommended in the boards manual (the board also supports using just 1 memory stick)?

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Cach Drives

GIGABYTE AORUS Gen4 7300 SSD 2TB (2x 130 €)

Search criteria:

• M.2

• 2 TB

• 2 GB DRAM-Cache

• Derived from chosen Mainboard:

  • PCIe 4.0 x4

  • M.2 2280

Questions:

• Is 1 GB DRAM per TB size a good rule of thumb?

• Is the kind of DRAM important?

• Are the speeds (7.300 MB/s read and 6.850 MB/s write) enough/ good?

• Is TBW of 1.4PB (700TB per TB) enough/ good?

• One M.2 Slot directly connects to the CPU, the other 2 connect to the chipset. Does it matter which slots I use? Should I use the two connecting to the chipset?

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Parity Array

???

Search criteria:

• Seagate or WD (TrueNAS 'FreeNAS Quick Hardware Guide R2a' recommends those)

• NAS-Drives

• SATA 6GB/s

• 3.5''

• >16 TB

Questions:

• Should I go with one big (like Seagate Exos 24TB) parity drive and then maybe 2x Seagate Exos X X16 16TB (32 TB would be enough for starters)? This would be 810 €

• Or any other configuration?

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Graphics Card

some NVIDIA RTX 3090 (I'm trying to get one used for 500-600 € some day in the near future)

Search criteria:

• NVIDIA (because tools for Stable Diffusion and LLM stuff are most of the times optimized for NVIDIA CPUs)

• 24GB+ VRAM

Questions:

• Will I be even able to use this in Unraid and pass it to VMs?

• Is this enough for the use case?

---

Power Supply

Cooler Master MWE Gold V2 (150 €)

Search criteria (derived from Mainboard and CPU):

• 80 PLUS gold or higher

• ATX 2.02 or higher

• 20/24 PIN

• 8-Pin EPS12V

• 1.000W or more

• SATA 8x or more

• 3x 6/8 PIN PCIe

• 1 12 PIN PCIe

Questions:

• Most PSU calculators don't ask for the number of SATA devices, so I guessed the 1.000W. Is this enough/ too much?

• Will I be able to connect any RTX 3090 to these connectors?

---

Case

Fantec SG-4700

Search criteria:

• Server rack case

• Has to fit the fan

• ATX

• 8+ 3.5'' slots

• 1+ full height PCI slot(s)

Questions:

• Should I install extra fans on the back?

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CPU-Cooler

be quiet! Dark Rock Slim (55 €)

Search criteria derived from Mainboard and CPU:

• Socket 1700

• TDP 125-180W

• 4-PIN PWN

Questions:

• Is this overkill and a cooler for TDP 125W is enough?

• A cooler like the TOUGHAIR 110 CPU Cooler has a lower profile (45mm less height). Does this even make any sense in a server rack case?

• Will any of those fit when the RTX 3090 is plugged into the PCIe x16 slot (which is the one nearest to the CPU)?

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Closing remarks

• I know this is a lot, and I’ve tried to structure this post as clearly as possible while keeping my thought process concise. I hope some of you will still take the time to read it and help answer my questions.

• I don’t have a strict budget — mainly because I believe budgets are often used to justify a purchase rather than guide it. That said, the current build sits at around €2,900, which is a significant amount. I’d be comfortable going +/- €300 from that. As mentioned earlier, I’m planning to start with just the Unraid NAS setup and add a GPU later.

Edited June 18, 20251 yr by Pa7rickStar

You might look at options on https://www.theserverstore.com/. They have rack-mount 2u and 4u servers pre-built, or configurable as you buy. You can get them with HDDs or buy those separately. I did this. I got a 2u with 128 GB ram, Intel Xeon (2) with 32 cores, and a 12 bay drive unit. I bought my drives elsewhere, but it supports SSD and SATA no problem. Unraid itself is installed on a USB drive that is plugged into the back. I also only have onboard video, but there are bays to expand actual video cards with, or you can add it to your configuration.

I think you might find that's a cheaper option with more bang for the buck. But I did need to configure the fans manually to not go full speed all the time, that was very loud. They run around 2800rpm each now, and the sound isn't bad. The server has external cooling though as well, other than the fans. So no internal cooler like you are mentioning.