Golden Builds
The true power of a DIY NAS or home server lies in selecting the right components for your specific use-case. This page presents the top three of most recommended builds — each engineered to be more versatile and powerful than proprietary solutions, regardless of the operating system you choose.
Storage NAS Build
Perfect for entry-level storage & backups
Cloudmaker Build
Designed for Plex, Nextcloud & Immich
AI Homeserver Build
For Local AI, VMs & advanced networking
Storage NAS Build
The Budget NAS Build is ideal for getting started with self‑hosting without overspending. It focuses on entry‑level storage and backups with low power consumption, so you can run it 24/7 for file sharing, Time Machine/Windows backups, and basic media storage without worrying about your electricity bill. If you just want reliable, quiet storage that can grow with additional drives later, this build is the perfect first step into the DIY NAS world.
Cloudmaker Build
The Cloudmaker Build is made for turning your home into a personal cloud, combining storage, media streaming, and productivity services in one machine. It is optimized for Plex, Nextcloud, Immich, and similar Docker apps, using an efficient Intel i3 with iGPU for smooth 4K media transcoding and responsive containers. With fast NVMe storage plus large HDD capacity and expandability, it is ideal if you want to replace commercial cloud services, host your own photo library, and centralize your documents on a single, energy‑efficient box.
AI Homeserver Build
The AI Homeserver Build is a powerful all‑in‑one machine that combines a high‑core‑count CPU, generous RAM, fast NVMe storage, and optional GPU passthrough to handle both classic homelab tasks and demanding local AI workloads. It gives you enough headroom to run LLMs as always‑on services for private chat, coding, and automation, while still hosting containers, VMs, and NAS services without slowdowns. At the same time, its storage layout and GPU support make it ideal for photo and video work: you get fast scratch space for editing, huge capacity for long‑term archives, and hardware‑accelerated encoding and AI tools (upscaling, denoising, tagging) that turn the server into a central media workstation accessible from any device on your network.