Building Windows 11 Server

With my 10-year-old Windows 10 Intel Core i7-4790 K server on its last legs, I decided to build a new Windows 11 Server for media storage and occasional gaming.

I purchased the large Fractal Design Define R7 case to accommodate 4 hard drives from B&H Photo (since it was unavailable from Amazon).

• Fractal Design Define R7

There was a special AMD bundle available at my local Micro Center in Santa Clara, where I selected the following AMD bundle: 

• AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
• MSI Pro X870E-P Wifi motherboard
• Corsair 64GB 2x32GB DDR5-6000 CL30

My plan was to use 4 x 20TB Toshiba MG10 Hard Drives in a parity-protected volume with an SSD as a write cache (instead of using a RAID controller card). 

• 4 x Toshiba MG10 20TB Hard Drives (Platinum Micro)

The Samsung NVMe SSD drives are to be arranged as follows:

• Windows 11 drive
• Scratch (Lightroom Cache) drive
• Writeback cache for Parity-protected volume

For sound, I plan to use B&W S7 headphones (which connect using USB-C)

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 4.7 GHz 8-Core Processor	Purchased For $430.29
CPU Cooler	Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler	Purchased For $34.49
Thermal Compound	ARCTIC MX-6 4 g Thermal Paste	Purchased For $7.99
Motherboard	MSI PRO X870E-P WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard	Purchased For $186.47
Memory	Corsair Vengeance RGB 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory	Purchased For $223.23
Storage	Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive	Purchased For $149.99
Storage	Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive	Purchased For $149.99
Storage	Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive	Purchased For $149.99
Storage	Toshiba MG10 512e 20 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive	Purchased For $329.26
Storage	Toshiba MG10 512e 20 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive	Purchased For $329.26
Storage	Toshiba MG10 512e 20 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive	Purchased For $329.26
Storage	Toshiba MG10 512e 20 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive	Purchased For $329.26
Video Card	NVIDIA Founders Edition GeForce RTX 5070 12 GB Video Card	Purchased For $0.00
Case	Fractal Design Define 7 ATX Mid Tower Case	Purchased For $179.99
Power Supply	MSI MAG A850GL PCIE5 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	Purchased For $129.99
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 11 Pro Retail - Download 64-bit	Purchased For $37.18
Case Fan	Fractal Design Dynamic X2 GP-14 68.4 CFM 140 mm Fan	Purchased For $17.00
Monitor	Dell Alienware AW3425DW 34.2" 3440 x 1440 240 Hz Curved Monitor	$769.99 @ Dell Technologies
Keyboard	Cherry STREAM Wired Slim Keyboard	Purchased For $25.99
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$3809.62
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-07-03 13:19 EDT-0400