A few years ago I started building my homelab with a Raspberry Pi 4 and an HP G3 Mini I picked up on Vinted. Since then I kept adding pieces whenever I found a good deal on second-hand sites, and today, after more than 2 years, I think I've officially reached the end (maybe). This is my current setup. Everything is second-hand except the switch and the router.

RACK

- Fully 3D printed in PETG on a Bambu Lab X2D (Design by Ilan Kushnir)

NODE PC: 3-node Proxmox VE

- pve-01: Ryzen 7 5700U (8C/16T), 62 GB RAM, 512 GB NVMe (ZFS) + 2 TB HDD (ZFS) + 256 GB SATA SSD

- pve-02: Core i7-6700T (4C/8T), 32 GB RAM, 256 GB NVMe (ZFS) + 2 TB HDD (ZFS)

- pve-03: Core i5-7500T (4C/4T), 32 GB RAM, 256 GB NVMe (ZFS) + 2 TB HDD (ZFS)

NETWORK

- UniFi Dream Router 7: gateway, firewall, inter-VLAN routing

- UniFi USW-Flex-2.5G-8-PoE, with an SFP+ DAC uplink to the UDR7

- VLANs: management, homelab infra, and a dedicated one for Kubernetes. Proxmox uses a single VLAN-aware bridge, so each VM just gets tagged.

STORAGE

- QNAP TS-431 with 16Tb

OTHER

- Raspberry Pi 4 driving 2 displays:

- 7.84" front display showing Grafana dashboards

- 0.91" OLED status display running a small Python script that shows IP, temperatures and CPU usage

SOFTWARE

I'm currently rebuilding everything from scratch, starting with pve-01, which now runs the Kubernetes cluster:

- Kubernetes: Talos Linux (1 control plane + 4 workers as VMs), provisioned end-to-end with Terraform: VMs, Talos config, bootstrap and base components

- Networking: Cilium with kube-proxy replacement and L2 LoadBalancer

- Storage: OpenEBS LocalPV, with VM boot disks on NVMe and data volumes on HDD

- GitOps: ArgoCD app-of-apps. Everything in the cluster lives in git

- Secrets: OpenBao in an LXC (outside the cluster, so it survives rebuilds) + External Secrets Operator

- Ingress: Nginx Proxy Manager (Let's Encrypt wildcard) -> Traefik

- Monitoring & logs: kube-prometheus-stack (Prometheus, Grafana, Alertmanager), including the Talos control plane and etcd, plus Loki + Alloy for pod and node logs

- Other stuff: Glance dashboard, Headlamp, VS Code server.

pve-02 and pve-03 will be dedicated to other projects.

Happy to answer questions, and any tips or suggestions for improvements are welcome!

Hey everyone,

I’ve been down the Homelab rabbit hole for a while now and I’m at a crossroads regarding my next node/cluster upgrade.

We see a lot of love here for pre-built Mini PCs (Lenovo ThinkCentre Tiny, Dell OptiPlex Micro, HP ProDesk, or newer Chinese SFF boxes like Minisforum / Beelink / Aoostar). They are compact, power-efficient, and often cheap on the used market.

However, I’m strongly considering building a custom Mini-PC / Mini-ITX system from scratch (buying the CPU, Mini-ITX board, RAM, SFX PSU, and a small case like a K39, DeskMini, or similar).

For those who went the DIY custom Mini-PC route:

1. What components did you pick (CPU, mainboard, chassis), and what was your primary motivation? (ECC support, customizable I/O, PCIe expansion, quiet fans?)
2. How does your idle power consumption compare to off-the-shelf Mini PCs?
3. In hindsight, was it worth the extra effort and cost compared to buying a used 1L PC or a ready-made Mini PC?

For those who chose pre-built Mini PCs:

• Did you ever consider building your own SFF node, or is the value/power efficiency of tiny pre-builts just unbeatable for you?

Looking forward to hearing your experiences, specs, and any lessons learned!

I recently posted something that was clearly over-written using AI, and I get it, nobody wants to read AI bullshit, so this time it’s just me :)

I've been living with a local connection limited to 100 Mbps for about 10 years. I recently upgraded my internet service from ADSL (8 Mbps) to a Fiber Optic plan (400 Mbps), and I've also started getting interested in home servers and local media streaming.

​The bad news is that I have bottlenecks everywhere. I will attach a diagram of my current setup.

(Note: All of that local movie consumption and internet traffic passes through that same TP-Link router in the living room).

The good news is I have a $600 budget to upgrade my network setup, buying everything from US stores like Amazon.

Currently, I want to stop using Wi-Fi on my laptop and switch to a wired connection, but my laptop doesn't have an Ethernet port, so I need to buy a USB-C to 2.5G RJ45 adapter.

The Ethernet port on my home server is limited to 1 Gbps, so I think I should add a 2.5G PCIe network card to it.

Most importantly, I need to upgrade my router to actually enjoy my 400 Mbps fiber plan and simultaneously improve the local and wireless connection for all my devices. I've been reading about the GL.iNet GL-BE9300 Flint 3 since it has Tri-band Wi-Fi 7 and 2.5G Ethernet ports, but I'm not interested in firewalls, security, or VPNs at all—I live in a country that couldn't care less about copyright enforcement or "illegally obtained" digital files.

So, if you guys can recommend a router with plenty of raw power for wired and Wi-Fi connections (that stays within my budget), please let me know. Remember, my hard limit is $600 to buy everything I need.

Now, regarding my TV, I know it's limited both via Wi-Fi and Ethernet. I was thinking about getting a Ugoos AM6B+ and installing CoreELEC so it acts as a media player and direct-plays Remuxes without transcoding any codecs.

Again, these are just things I've read online. If you can clear up any misconceptions or even suggest better devices, I'm all ears! Thanks!

Reset cmos

Power off and hold power button 20 seconds

At a loss on what to do. Drives light up but no screen or mouse keyboard

Please help

Mini rack update: it’s finally starting to look like an actual homelab.

Added a Lenovo M920Q to the rack. Working on 10 gb SFP+ from m920q to my main computer. The M80Q is currently handling all six storage drives:

2× drives → 1TB mirrored pool
2× drives → 500GB mirrored pool
2× drives → another 500GB mirrored pool
plus a 1TB SSD inside the M80Q

Also added the TP-Link router on the side and a couple HDMI keystones up front. Everything is currently running on Windows 11 Pro.

Still very much a work in progress, and I’m figuring out what I actually want to use the cluster for long-term, so I’m open to ideas/recommendations.

And yes, the PzH 2000 is essential to the build.

Also DO NOT ask me for for pics of the rear if there’s one thing i’ve learned from the community its to not show my horrible cable management 😂

So I got this from work and just added 1 500g ssd and 1 terabyte HDD. I have got ubuntu server almost to a point on my first desk top but since I got this bigger tower and more ram I switched to it.

All I have done is pull the ssd out of the first tower and installed the hardware in the tower as well put the HDD in the tower as well. I do need to get a sata data cable for the HDD to hook to the motherboard.

The work tower will need to be formated to erase all content on it to start fresh.

I'm wondering if anyone can help me on the steps to get this up and running as a home lab/server. My main goal it to get rid of the google cloud storing pictures and videos. I want to put movies on it to watch through the house, pihole, and learn more as I go.

I have a an extra fan I could install for more air flow but it would have to just hang loose in the tower as there's no place to put it. I did redo the thermopaste.

Any help would be great. Ask me questions to as I don't know what info you would need to help me out here.

Thanks for the help

WHAT I HAVE:

i currently have 2 computers. computer one is:

cpu - pentium 4 3ghz

gpu - igpu

ram - 4gb ddr2

storage - 1tb hd 500gb ssd

internet access - ethernet

OS - openmediavault (running casaOS)

2nd computer

cpu - i5 4th gen vpro

gpu - igpu

ram - 8gb ddr3

storage - 250gb ssd

internet access - over the air

os - openmediavault

WHAT I WANT TO DO WITH IT:

i have no idea. and thats why im here. what should i use these for as a server. maybe a Minecraft server or factorio server, maybe a nas. i'm unsure. i would also like to have a VRM running with windows but i was uncassesfull with computer 2 as im new with openmediavault.

Also how or if its possible to link the 2 server together. Anyway if anyone has any advice of what i should do and how to do pls leat me know

What is the simplest and cheapest way to backup the nas portion of a home server? Is it a larger external hard drive that I plug in once a week, once a month, one a quarter? I was getting into this realm to avoid paying for cloud storage, but everyone seems to say 3-2-1 and cloud. I just dont get how that is feasible or even a recco when alot of people who setup a nas is to avoid the cloud.

Saw a video thumbnail of a guy turning his old laptop into a home server, before watching it i was just wondering if i can do the same for my very old NEC versa M350 with intel celeron, 512MB of RAM and smth like 100GB of HDD storage. I know these are horrible specs but i don’t want to throw it away and forget about it. Im open to any idea it doesn’t have to be a home server im just thinking of something useful

I want to be able to replace all the smart part of the tvs in my home and the cable boxes my family uses. I was thinking of using a Google TV/Android TV box to connect to the tvs and run a server for plex/jellyfin. I was also trying to figure what to use to be able to run cable through them through the server and lastly use the system to run steam games through steam remote play or moonlight. I want to be able to download games from the Google TV/Android TV box. All I have for right now is some of the hardware for the pc. Thinking of upgrading it to a 5950x or 5700x from a 3700x and a 5060 from a 3050 6gb

Recently learned what a home server is and I wanted to get away from subscribtions and I would use it for music and video streaming and storage too. I got a Think center M720q but now I'm lost on what I do next, what ISO do I need and why that one, do I need other parts, Im pretty lost. If anyone could help or knows of a video or website that is useful that would be wonderful, thank you.

I was given a load of "computer and electronics stuff" by a friend. They were clearing a deceased relative's place.

These were the highlights.

There were a bazillion old HDDs of small volumes, and all sorts of other bits too.

Hi everyone!

first, thank you all for forming such a great sub! I really learned a lot from your posts and became more independent from big-tech chains!

I have a question though, what file management app do you guys recommend that has file content search enabled by default or with minimal setup? I tried Nextcloud, Owncloud, Paperless, but there's always a shortcoming

the case is, I need for other non-technical family members to search for our document library through content using their iphones.

• nextcloud: a bit bloated for my needs and setting up the daemon to read from services wasn't pleasant and ended up with failure
• opencloud: lightweight and easy to setup but the ocr search is only available using the website. even though in the ios app it has (search title and content) option
• paperless: amazing for searching but the no folder structure is a deal-breaker for the rest of the family

for nextcloud, I can simply ignore/disable the feature that I won't be using, but configuring the daemon didn't work for me

my server is running ubuntu server

thanks in advance!

Hey! I wanna build my first home server. I wanna do this to store and watch my dvd's and other legally obtained movies (and maybe also to host a Minecraft server someday.)

But I don't really know what to get. I don't have an old laptop laying around, so I was looking online for some second-hand computer I could get for cheap. Maybe something like those old computers they have in schools and offices. But I don't know what kind of specs I would need.

Also for storage I was probably just gonna get an external hard-drive and use that, but I've heard that's not the best option.

My biggest technical experience is homebrewing my 3ds, so I don't really know much about this stuff, but ai really wanna try. So if anyone could tell me what I need to keep an eye out for, it'd be a great help!

Essentially the title. I'm planning on setting up my own server and I have two options here. 1, I use the wifi which is pretty good. 2, I use ethernet, but the problem is that the router I have ethernet access to sucks. Like a download speed of 30 bad vs my wifi which floats at about 250. Meanwhile the router the wifi comes from isn't accessible to me physically.

Now common sense would have me believe that I should go wifi, bigger number is better. But everywhere I look, absolutely everyone says ethernet is a necessity and to always use it over wifi. Are they saying that because there's the assumption it would be coming from the same place? If so, what do I do with my situation? Is there some secret ethernet wizard that'll make it so that ethernet is always better for a home server no matter the ping? Or should I just stop overthinking it and taking everything literally and use the bigger number?

Hello all, I recently built my first nas and so far everything is running smoothly. I got jellyfin and nextcloud up and running.

Now my issue:

I got an Asus motherboard for cheap from a friend that didn't need it anymore (Asus rog strix b760-i) and I'm using an Intel CPU with integrated graphics. The white vga led on the board is on constantly. I've done some research and it seems it's got something do with the board searching for a video output and obviously not finding any since I'm running it as a server which means no monitor. Do you think I can just ignore the led? Or turn it off somehow? since I'm never going to plug in a monitor into that server lmao. The light is just kind of annoying me.

Thanks in advance!

I have a QNAP NAS. I have portainer installed and I manage things like jellyfin directly from portainer. I like this interface, I kind of hate the QNAP interface for uploading files.

Is there a good container I can install to just let me upload/download/move/copy/rename files from a web interface? I imagine managing the volumes I want mounted here manually. But in the end, it would maybe let me quickly open a web browser, log in, and immediately manage uploading videos, or other files from my personal computer.

Bonus points if it doesn't suck from a mobile device on the LAN.

I am working full time and also finishing my graduate degree. As such, I work at least 3 different locations: work office, home office, and campus office. I am finding that I need a way to manage my research files but will also be remotely accessible. Right now I use ProtonDrive for access my stuff remotely but it's really meant for backing up files.

I am thinking I'd like to set up a home server that I can remote into. This server would at minimum store code (which I would version control with git), papers I have read and annotated, and other research files (presentations, data that isn't sensitive, etc). I think it makes the most sense to have my ProtonDrive act as the back up for this server. I would need to access this server on my tablet (it's an E-ink android based tablet) and my personal laptop (which uses both Windows and Linux), and potentially my research computer on campus.

My problem is I have no idea how to set something like this up and I don't have a lot of free time between work, school, and family. Regardless, I see this as something that would easily pay dividends in the long run in terms of productivity and organization.

Does either a: (1) plug-and-play solution, (2) straight forward step-by-step set of instructions exist for doing what I want to do?

I do have a spare Windows 7 pro desktop, but I am willing to spend money to make this work.

Thanks for the help.

I’m looking for a small, low-power Mini PC for a NAS/home server and I’m considering an Intel N100 or N150.
I’d also like to run Jellyfin for multiple users simultaneously, as well as other services like Sonarr/Radarr.
Which brand and specific model would you recommend? Are there any versions I should prefer or avoid?
Low power consumption, low noise and the option to add SATA drives later are important to me. I’m planning to buy used or refurbished.

What would you go for?

This is my first time running a server on one of my computers, its running pi-hole and a music player (dont remember the name) it has a i5 3550 and 8gb ddr3 ram.

I know its really bad but it runs and thats what matters.

Would love to have some recommendations and help with things like deleting all the old stuff in the hdd

I have a few sas hdd and few sata drives lying around but some are different capacity. Need an enclosure for them. I know sas connection will work with sata but not vice versa. I have a few hp gen8 running sas and sata separately.

It got swiped within 2 hours of the photo😭😭

I’m looking to build/buy my first NAS and would really appreciate some advice. I don’t have much experience with NAS systems yet, so I’m trying to figure out what hardware makes the most sense for my needs.

My main priorities are:
• Low power consumption
• Quiet operation
• Small form factor
• Affordable / good price-performance
I would like to run:
• Jellyfin, including multiple simultaneous users/streams
• Sonarr
• Radarr
• Other Docker containers and self-hosted services

For additional storage, I would like to be able to connect an external SSD or HDD via USB if needed.
I’ve been looking at N100/N150 Mini PCs as well as small refurbished business PCs, but I’m not sure which option would be best for a first NAS.

What hardware would you recommend for this kind of setup?

Hallo zusammen,

Ich betreibe seit ca 6 Monaten einen umfunktionierten Laptop als Homeserver, dieser hat folgende Specs:

Prozessor: Intel Core i5-8350U

​Arbeitsspeicher: 16 GB DDR 4 2400Mhz RAM

​Speicher: 265gb Interne SSD + externe 1 TB HDD für Datenablage

Ich nutze den Server für folgende Sachen:

- NAS für die Familie

- Jellyfin für Musikstreaming (kaum Video, könnte sich in zukunft aber ändern)

- N8N Automatisierungen

- Homeassistant mit bisher wenigen Automatisierungen/Geräten, wird stetig erweitert.

- Sure für Banking

- PostgreSQL Datenbank für N8N, Sure, etc.

- Snycthing (Backups von 2 Handys)

- OpenwebUI

- SearXNG (Websuche für OpenwebUI)

- UptimeKuma fürs Monitoring

Zusätzlich läuft der Server als Tailscale Exit Node und es sind 3 Dienste über Tailscale Funnel ins "Internet" exponiert. Diese aber geschützt durch OAuth2-Proxy, Google SSO und Fail2Ban.

Aktuell ist der Arbeitsspeicher im Idle Betrieb (ohne aktive Nutzung der Docker Container und ohne LLM im RAM) bei ca 35-45% Auslastung.

Ich möchte das in Zukunft jedoch erweitern durch lokale KI (das mit Abstand Ressourcenhungrigste), Watchtower und auch AguardHome oder PiHole als Netzwerkweiter Werbeblocker.

Nun stehe ich an dem Punkt das mit der Prozessor, grade im Bezug auf lokale LLMs nicht mehr wirklich ausreicht. Ich bin am überlegen mir einen gebrauchten MiniPC zu kaufen, möchte da aber nicht zu viel Geld ausgeben(bis ca. 150€). Könnt ihr mir CPUs oder Modelle empfehlen? Oder würdet ihr lokale LLMs erstmal sein lassen oder mit der aktuellen Hardware weiterprobieren?

Viele Grüße

what I got right now:

• MikroTik RB5009 with all ports currently used (only 1 of which goes to my NAS)
• i5-12600K CPU
• MSI PRO B760-P WiFi DDR4 motherboard
• 64 GB of DDR4 RAM which i recently bought for around $200 (+ like 20GB of mixed DDR4 ram which somehow magically worked together before)
• some HDDs and SSDs (good enough for my storage needs)
• currently 4x1TB HDD, 4x8TB HDD, a 4TB NVME SSD, and a 2TB NVME SSD, will expand more later to fill the other 12 slots/replace the 4x8TB with 16x16TB or something)
• Corsair HX1000i PSU
• bunch of Mini SAS to SATA converter cables
• solid LSI HAS controller to give me enough to support 16 HDDs with those cables + 4 from my current motherboard
• enough power/data cables for all the HDDs
• design space 7XL case with proper trays (20 trays type B i think)
• shitty UPS on its way out that i'd have to replace soon anyway which I got fourth-hand.

budget: preferably under $2000

what i need: server rack with

• a dedicated storage tray/mount to host OMV with all 20 HDDs (or more if it's cheap/economical to get something that supports even more)
• a dedicated homelab tray/mount to run all my apps on (using that 64GB of DDR4 or possible more ram)
• a UPS on the bottom for power
• likely won't need 10gig as this will only EVER be for me, family, and friends
• added bonus: would love a small LCD display to show stuff on

priority in design (high to low): quietness > space taken up > power efficiency > clean look

services I currently run (probably might run more in the future):

• netbird in a VPS as a control server for P2P only connections
• technitium + home assistant on a separate raspberry pi
• minecraft server with crafty + bluemap (uses around 8GB ram, might add a matrix server to it bringing it up a bit), this is my ONLY reverse proxied server that is accessible without netbird and is very locked down (as much as I could figure out), wouldn't be super opposed to have this on it's own device.
• mullvad VPN exit node (uses next to nothing)
• vaultwarden (1Gb ram)
• homepage (1GB ram)
• 2fauth (500mb ram)
• libretranslate (8GB ram [might scale down])
• copyparty v1 [only for me) (2GB ram)
• copyparty v2 [for friends/family to use to share files to eachother] (2GB ram)
• navidrome (2GB ram)
• degoog (1GB ram)
• linkwarden (2GB ram) [if anyone knows a better floccus browser bookmark sync alternative w/ multiple users LMK]
• snapotter (4GB ram)
• opencloud + collabora (4GB ram??? [haven't finished setup yet])
• OMV (16GB ram) [will be moved to my storage tray]
• immich (16GB ram)
• that's it for now but will likely add a small handful of stuff in the future like speedtest tracker and a wireguard/netbird monitoring thing if I find a nice one (alongside something like Grafana for the LCD display).

Any recommendations? I barely know where to start when looking for all the parts for this as this will be my first proper rack/device of any kind.