NVIDIA
GeForce RTX 3060
Larger GPU if the chassis has the room
242mm2 slot170W
Longer dual-slot GPU with higher power needs
$289
GPUs
Buy on Amazon
No Discrete GPU
Use the CPU or onboard graphics only
Skip the GPU if the build does not need one
$0
LINKUP
PCIe 4.0 Riser
Needed for low-profile or rotated expansion layouts
Required if the chosen chassis cannot take the card directly
No Riser
Use direct motherboard expansion
Skip the riser if the chassis and board do not need it
$0
Supermicro
Universal Rack Rails
Sliding rails for standard rack chassis
2 compatible chassis
Useful for serviceability on 2U and 4U rack systems
No Rails
Skip rails for tower or shelf-mounted systems
No rail kit selected
$0
Jonsbo
Jonsbo N3
Longer NAS chassis for denser drive arrays and compact expansion
mini-itx8x 3.5-inch bays130mm cooler clearance
8x 3.5-inch bays, mini-ITX support, SFX PSU, 130mm cooler clearance
$229
Fractal Design
Fractal Define 7
Quiet ATX tower with flexible drive storage and clean industrial styling
mini-itx, micro-atx, atx, e-atx14x 3.5-inch bays185mm cooler clearance
ATX/E-ATX support, quiet panels, generous storage and 185mm cooler clearance
$179
Fractal Design
Fractal Define 7 XL
Full-size quiet chassis for oversized boards and long expansion runs
mini-itx, micro-atx, atx, e-atx, ssi-ceb, ssi-eeb18x 3.5-inch bays185mm cooler clearance
E-ATX and SSI support, 18 drive positions, 185mm cooler clearance
$249
Fractal Design
Fractal Meshify 2 XL
Oversized airflow tower for high-density homelab builds
mini-itx, micro-atx, atx, e-atx, ssi-ceb, ssi-eeb18x 3.5-inch bays185mm cooler clearance
E-ATX/SSI support, very high GPU room, large storage stack and 185mm cooler clearance
$229
Fractal Design
Fractal North XL
Larger North chassis with E-ATX headroom and more storage space
mini-itx, micro-atx, atx, e-atx, ssi-ceb, ssi-eeb4x 3.5-inch bays185mm cooler clearance
ATX/E-ATX support, better GPU clearance and a bigger storage layout
$229
SilverStone
SilverStone CS382
8-bay NAS-oriented mid-tower with hot-swap storage
mini-itx, micro-atx, atx8x 3.5-inch bays165mm cooler clearance
8x 3.5-inch hot-swap bays, ATX/mATX support, ATX PSU and wide expansion
$249
Supermicro
Supermicro SC825TQ-600WB
2U rack chassis with a mature eight-bay storage layout
micro-atx, atx8x 3.5-inch bays65mm cooler clearance
8x 3.5-inch hot-swap bays, low-profile expansion, 600W PSU and rails support
$599
Supermicro
Supermicro SC743TQ-903B-SQ
4U rack chassis with an 8-bay storage shelf and quiet PSU
micro-atx, atx, e-atx8x 3.5-inch bays148mm cooler clearance
8x 3.5-inch hot-swap bays, full-height expansion, ATX PSU and 4U cooling room
$549
Supermicro
Supermicro SC846BA-R920B
24-bay 4U storage chassis for dense archive or ZFS stacks
micro-atx, atx, e-atx24x 3.5-inch bays160mm cooler clearance
24x 3.5-inch hot-swap bays, full-height expansion and a redundant PSU layout
$1,099
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ASRock Rack
ASRock Rack W480D4U
Workstation board for Xeon W-1200 homelab systems
MICRO-ATXLGA1200DDR4-ECC
LGA1200, DDR4 ECC, 2x M.2, dual 1GbE
$349
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ASRock Rack
ASRock Rack X470D4U
Mature AM4 server board for flexible home labs
MICRO-ATXAM4DDR4-ECC
AM4, DDR4 ECC, IPMI, dual 1GbE
$329
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ASRock Rack
ASRock Rack E3C242D4U
Xeon E-series board with classic server I/O
MICRO-ATXLGA1151DDR4-ECC
LGA1151, DDR4 ECC UDIMM, IPMI, dual 1GbE
$269
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ASRock Rack
ASRock Rack E3C246D4U
Trusted Xeon E-series board for mixed storage and compute
MICRO-ATXLGA1151DDR4-ECC
LGA1151, DDR4 ECC UDIMM, 8 SATA, IPMI
$299
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ASRock Rack
ASRock Rack B650D4U
Modern AM5 board for DDR5 ECC homelab builds
MICRO-ATXAM5DDR5-ECC
AM5, DDR5 ECC, 2x M.2, 2.5GbE, IPMI
$429
Intel
Intel Core i3-14100
Entry Intel chip for light homelab and desktop workloads
LGA17004 cores60W TDP
4 cores, 8 threads, 65W, strong low-cost platform fit
$134
Intel
Intel Core i3-14100T
Ultra-efficient Intel desktop CPU for low-power builds
LGA17004 cores35W TDP
4 cores, 8 threads, 35W class, ideal for compact systems
$149
Intel
Intel Core i5-14400
Value Intel mid-tier CPU with good virtualization headroom
LGA170010 cores65W TDP
10 cores total, 65W, balanced entry-mid homelab choice
$199
Intel
Intel Core i5-14500T
Low-power Intel option for quiet always-on nodes
LGA170014 cores35W TDP
14 cores total with a 35W class envelope
$259