Looking for feedback on this parts list. Did I miss anything or make any big mistakes? RAM is ridiculous right now, but I don't want to wait.

Goals for this build are reliable / set and forget, low power draw (without limiting things I expect to do), quiet if not silent, and enough horsepower to last a while now that I'm doing a real build. It's in a basement office that is used sometimes, so it doesn't have to be silent but I want to avoid loud fans or whining disks.

Outgrew my first Unraid build that is well over 5 years old. It started with really old HDDs and spare parts. Loved it, got hooked. Once you have a reliable server that easily runs containers, it can kinda snowball. Upgraded over time with compatible parts from e-Bay, but have outgrown those too.

Current "old" server:

Intel Core i5-7600 CPU @ 3.50GHz, 24GB RAM
Running Unraid 6.12.11 / plan to stay there for a while (unless something in this new build requires upgrading)
5 HDD disks in the array, 1 is parity, 23 TB total

This was hanging-in strong until I wanted to stream UHD 4K on my local LAN to LG TV or FireTV stick clients, it just can't transcode to them, pegs CPU. It runs months or years at a time without any issue, that's definitely a feature I need in the next build. I never though I'd be interested in UHD, but today's big 4K TVs changed my mind.

Old and New system run -

Home Assistant as a VM
Containers - Plex, InfluxDB, and Grafana, PiHole, and a few others. If there's head room, I'll probably experiment / add more

New system will have 6 disks in the array (2 of them parity disks), 2 NVME disks for mirrored cache. Target array size 34TB, maybe more later.

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/dw7Pt3

• CPU: Intel Core i7-12700 2.1 GHz 12-Core Processor ($318.99 @ Amazon)

• CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12A chromax.black 60.09 CFM CPU Cooler ($139)

• Motherboard: MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($237.89 @ Amazon)

• Memory: G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory ($699.99 @ Newegg) [ Decided this was overkill ]

• G.Skill Ripjaws S5 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory ($350)

• Storage: Western Digital WD_Black SN850X 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($219.99 @ iBUYPOWER)

• Storage: Western Digital WD_Black SN850X 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($219.99 @ iBUYPOWER)

• Case: Fractal Design Define 7 XL ATX Full Tower Case ($239.99 @ B&H)

• Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS GX 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($150.43 @ Amazon)

1) PC Part Picker said the Noctua cooler is compatible but there's a note that some adapter parts may be needed, not sure how to figure out exactly what's needed?

2) I could forgo the case and rebuild in my old case server case, but I want to minimize downtime, so I'd really like to build it and at least make sure everything starts up okay before moving the array disks over and restoring the dockers and VM from backup.

3) Speaking of testing the new build, is there a 7 day free trial or some other way to boot Unraid on the new system to make sure it's fine before moving the USB key with the license over to it?

Thank's for any thoughts!

Edited December 12, 2025Dec 12 by bmcent1
Increased cooler to quieter version

For the final system, I decided to lower the NVME mirror to 1TB each. Current system has spare room on 250 GB, decided 1TB is big upgrade by comparison.

Intel i5-12700, MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK WIFI ATX Motherboard, 32GB DDR5, 2x 1TB mirrored NVME. Full build, all new parts ... $1563
https://pcpartpicker.com/user/bmcent1/saved/#view=xsvDkL

Alternate: Intel i5-12500, MSI PRO B760-P WIFI DDR4 ATX Motherboard, 32GB DDR4, 2x 1TB mirrored NVME, 9207-8i SAS HBA plus forward breakout cables needed since the mobo has 4 sata ports and I need 6 hdd support. Full build, all new parts ... $1255
https://pcpartpicker.com/user/bmcent1/saved/#view=VwCZzy

Still on the fence about the Fractal Design Define 7 XL ATX Full Tower Case. It seems to be a clear favorite but $240 for a case seems high.