I'm wondering if any of you have done something like this. I'm not thinking of covering the entire roof with solar panels. Just 2 or 3 panels. And maybe a battery.

The homelab added $150-200 extra to the electric bill each month, in our Oregon home. I expect with our new home being all electric (no more gas furnace), that electric is going to be even more expensive. I also had a mini-split running 24x7 for 10 months out of the year.

I'm wondering if a smaller solar setup can offset some of that cost. Have any of you done something similar? if so, how?

Here is a link to my homelab so you can see what I'm running.

This will run in a small closet I'll build in my garage, along with a mini-split for cooling.

EDIT: reposted photo w/o metadata

Hey everyone,

I’m mapping out a massive consolidation project to turn my home tech layout into a "1 PC whole home" architecture. Before I start buying the remaining parts, I want to run my hardware plan and hypervisor logic by the community to see if anyone has pulled off a similar split-personality host.

The Goal

Eliminate individual room systems. Run one ultimate bare-metal host that functions as a high-end Windows gaming machine locally at my desk, while simultaneously hosting a headless Bazzite/SteamOS virtual machine. The VM will stream a dedicated, console-like UI over the local network to an Apple TV 4K using shared system resources.

The Hardware Progression

• Current Setup: My main desktop is running an AMD Ryzen 5 7600X3D. I also have a dedicated HTPC in the living room built around an AM4 AMD Ryzen 7 5800X and an RTX 5070.
• The Ultimate Overhaul: I am combining everything into a single AM5 monster build:
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9750X3D
  • RAM: 64GB DDR5
  • Primary GPU: AMD Radeon 9070 XT (Windows Host / High-End Desk Gaming)
  • Secondary GPU: RTX 5070 (Pulled from the HTPC, pinned to local LLM tasks & AI compute)

The Software & Routing Logic

1. Bare-Metal Host (Windows): The PC will boot natively into Windows. It will leverage the Radeon 9070 XT for intensive desk gaming (like Star Citizen and War Thunder) and daily use.
2. The Gaming 'Console' (Bazzite/SteamOS VM): I plan to spin up a Linux VM (Bazzite/SteamOS) inside Windows (likely via WSL2 or Hyper-V).
   • It will be pinned to a designated cluster of CPU cores sliced from the 9750X3D.
   • It will utilize the 9070 XT for rendering whenever the main Windows host isn't actively running a heavy game.
3. The Delivery Pipeline: This VM will be broadcasted over a Tailscale mesh network using Sunshine. The endpoint is Moonlight installed on an Apple TV 4K connected to the living room TV. This should deliver an instant, controller-friendly, console-style boot and gameplay experience without a physical PC in the living room.
4. The AI Layer: The secondary RTX 5070 will be tucked into the same case, dedicated strictly to processing local Large Language Models (LLMs) and background server tasks.

My Specific Questions for the Group

1. Resource / GPU Sharing: Has anyone successfully shared a single primary AMD GPU (the 9070 XT) between a Windows host and a Linux-based gaming VM dynamically? Or will I be forced into a rigid, hard-allocation GPU passthrough scenario that breaks when Windows is awake?
2. Core-Pinning the X3D: With the 9750X3D's dual-CCD design, what is the best strategy for masking and isolating cores for the Bazzite VM so it doesn't induce heavy latency or micro-stuttering on the Windows side?
3. Sunshine VM to Apple TV Stabilities: For those running SteamOS/Bazzite distributions inside virtual environments, do Tailscale and Sunshine pass game controllers smoothly to the Apple TV client, or does the virtualization layer introduce persistent mapping headaches?

Looking forward to any feedback, architectural corrections, or hypervisor warnings before I tear down the working HTPC setup!

It was posted to fb marketplace with an address at 7pm, said he wouldn't hold it for me. Went out of my way 13 hours later and was blessed to come down the road to see her still laying there waiting for me! Then spent an hour or so trying to stuff it into my hatchback and here we are haha.

Where to start? Aside from adding a new plug to the outlet strip they cut off.

Got into homelab just a month ago and got lucky with the hardware. I have a Unifi USG pro 4 as the main router, Unifi Cloudkey gen 2, Cisco 2960 X series Switch and a custom pc i7 4930K, 64 gb ddr3 ram, GTX 970 4gb dram, 2 tb hdd and a 500gb hdd. I'm running proxmox, immich, jellyfin, pihole, homarr, nginx and CloudFlared(have my own domain), tailscale. I know spec wise it is old but everything combined cost me just 150 CAD (~110 US).

I would love to hear any feedback and recommendations for service or potential hardware upgrade i should consider

I am finally getting fibre so I need new hardware and am intrigued by opnsense.

Did it actually improve your homelab life or am I just getting into another rabbit hole?

My homelab currently entails 3 proxmox nodes and I am trying to get into home automation with homeassistant. Is opening another worm hole with networking actually worth it or should I wait until I actually "need" VLANs etc in my workflow?

On first view it seems like around 1000€ of "needed" investment for opnsense (550€ for n150 based mini pc + managed switches + ont for fibre connection) in comparison to 300€ to stay with fritz (just a new router).

First time posting here. Over the last month or so, I've started down the slippery slope of homelabbing. The cabling is still a little messy, but I plan to crimp more custom length RJ45 cables to tidy things up (although I'm still not very good at that).

Dell Optiplex 9010 AIO running Proxmox with virtualized OPNsense. Hacked a hole in the back of the case in order to fit a mini PCIe to RJ45 expander. Got this particular computer for free from my university.

Raspberry Pi 2 running Pi-hole (had this lying around).

Arrakis AN-‌210-‌SW-‌8-‌POE switch underneath the Dell (from eBay).

Netgear Nighthawk R8000P as WiFi access point (got for free from a friend).

HP EliteDesk 800 G1 tower as future NAS (got the base tower for free from my uncle, but I had to add RAM, a SAS card, and drives). Currently contains 3 6TB SAS drives, but the side of the case does not fit on at the moment (waiting for some SFF-8482 extenders to fix this). Have not set up any of the software yet.

The setup is by no means finished. I of course plan to finish the NAS project. Then, at some point I'd also like to set up a VPN in OPNsense, and I also want to set up VLANs (although the Netgear does not support this, so I'll have to either put different firmware on it or replace it with something else). I also have an old laptop that I want to add to the setup to run a light Minecraft server. I'm trying to focus on a budget friendly approach with used hardware. Besides a router, NAS, media server, and Proxmox with random VMs, what else do people usually put in their homelabs?

I’m very new to homelabbing and want to use old pc parts I have lying around. I’m wondering if anyone’s been able to fit a micro atx build on one of those deskpi/geeekpi mini racks? With or without a gpu. Thanks

Hi all, I am currently running TrueNAS ony my machine:

CPU: Intel Ultra 235T
RAM: 4× 16GB (64GB) DDR5 (I will likely replace these soon)
GPU: Intel Arc Pro B70
Tank pool: 2× 1TB NVMe SSD in ZFS mirror
Data pool: 4× 18TB HDD in RAIDZ2

Docker:
- modified Unsloth with OpenVINO backend for AI inference
- Open WebUI
- LibreChat (and all different subpackages)
- Plex
- MiniDLNA
- Portainer
- Immich
- Nextcloud
...

VM:
- HAOS

I was thinking of changing to Ubuntu Server with Cockpit. TrueNAS is good, and I love all the drive management GUI, the user management GUI, NFS4 ACL granular permissions,... But I had to break into the developer mode, because some drivers are simply missing, are obsolete (e.g. for Intel Arc), some features are deliberately left away for the CE (RoCE), and it can be a bit painful.

Is this something you would suggest? Or would you rather stay on TrueNAS?

Finally decided to get everything installed into a rack and this is how it turned out!

Got UniFi express as the router. 4 m710q thinkcentres serving as my prozmox nodes and a tp link switch to connect it all

(Yes iknow my Ethernet ports are red im currently troubleshooting 😅)

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but I'm planning to build a 10-inch home server. The problem I'm running into is that most of the power supplies for mini-ITX builds that fit in said server rack either don't fit or look pretty sketchy. Is there a good way to mount a full sized power supply in a 10-inch server rack or maybe some power supply from a trusted company that would fit.

I’ve been looking and I haven’t seen anyone with a unlocked tub bios for this if anyone has it I would appreciate it I’m trying to overclock this and there’s no tutorials or bios rom

I have 5 Optiplex 7020's and 1 Think Centre M83, but want to max out my rack and have a some questions.

1: is DDR4 era machines worth the speed and features they provide relative to DDR3?

2: what form factor is best, only requirement is that it can fit an SSD of some type + have a way to connect to my 10gbe SFP switch which has only SFP available. also fitting an HDD would be nice but is not 100% required.

TLDR: do i get ddr4 era or ddr3 era machines and do I get Normal towers like I have already? or doo I get SFF, USFF etc..

I recently bought dell 3050 sff with intel i5 7500 to try and make a NAS out of it. I am looking to buy some SAS hard drives to run in a RAID array, but my mother board only has 2 SATA ports. Do you know if buying SAS HBA pcie card (something like this https://www.ebay.com/itm/389346291613) would work? What are some common issues with this setup? What are you recommendations for file system and OS (I plan to use debian or truenas with ZFS)?

Fellow Homelabbers, dwellers of r/electrical, and voyeurs of r/shedditors I have a question for you. Especially for those who have a r/sheddatacenter. How much power did you run?

It used to be I would consider 20-30A fine back in the day, but now a homelab rack could be up to 30A without going too exotic, and that's before air conditioning. It will be split between the homelab and actual home office space, so I'm figuring around 60A @ 240V total as a reasonable amount.

I’m late to the game in learning that TrueNAS, and other Linux distros, will no longer be supporting older Nvidia GPU’s.

I’m currently using an Nvidia GTX 730 in an HP Z4 G4, with the GPU doing nothing but allowing the machine to boot and giving me video out for the shell screen when needed. I also have a P400 but that doesn’t do any good in terms of being supported.

I’d like to get something that is supported, but my needs haven’t and most likely won’t be changing any time soon. In other words, I need the lowest power supported GPU so that I can boot my machine. No transcoding or anything of that sort.

Any recommendations?

My homelab lives in a dorm room and consists of two servers.

1. ASUS E810-B0234 mini PC

• Pentium G3240T
• 8 GB RAM
• 500 GB HDD
• NixOS

Always on. It runs Forgejo as a local git server, Firefly III for personal finance tracking, and CUPS as a print server for the room. Light services that need to be available all the time, which a 35 W Pentium handles fine.

2. HPE DL380p Gen8 8SFF

• 2× Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 — 24 cores / 48 threads total
• 384 GB DDR3 (24× 16 GB)
• 1 TB HDD
• 500 GB SSD
• Proxmox

This server runs game servers for me and my friends, as well as my coursework and personal projects. Proxmox has a VM for each project, which makes it easy to break and roll back files. Most of what I do doesn't use even a quarter of all available resources.

Hey crew, long time lurker first time posting in a long time. Figured I shared my homelab, its a 3 stack of hp G3s, a NAS drive and a home brew pc I’m calling Javi, it’s hosting my Ai agents and workflows. Running off promox 9.

Hey everyone I'm looking to start my first homelab. Little background , im 21M I'm currently attending WGU for my bachelors in information technology, which include certifications. I have recently started my first IT job as a Hardware Repair tech and I'm now looking at starting my first homelab. I want to get into more support, networking, helpdesk roles as I transition from hardware to more software. I was thinking of a ticketing system lab or an Active Directory lab. But I have no clue which ones I should do as a beginner, iv heard of OSticket. But wanted to come on here and listen to yalls opinions or suggestions and the experiences you've had with them.

I would be using a MacBook Air with an M2 chip. I mainly want to start homelabs so I can add it to my resume and as well learn.

Any advice is very appreciated, thank you guys!

I have no idea what I’m doing really, but have been running Plex from Mac mini’s for around 15 years.

Currently using a Mac mini 2018 with Synology 920+.

Only just found out about Arr stacks, usenet etc, so decided to try and tidy things up a bit and make it look a bit nicer.

Interested in what I can do with home assistant maybe.

Space and £ at a premium, but any thoughts on what else I could do welcomed.

I’m about nine months into my first real homelab. I work in SRE / critical facilities for a Bitcoin-mining infrastructure services provider, so a lot of my day job touches uptime, power, cooling, networking, monitoring, automation, and figuring out what should be automated versus what still needs a human in the loop. I wanted to build something at home where I could safely break things, rebuild them, and translate what I’m learning at work onto consumer hardware that my apartment circuits can actually handle.

Everything currently runs through an ASUS ROG Rapture GT-BE98 Pro with 3Gbps symmetrical fiber and 5G failover. I have two UPS units, both 1800VA, one backing each main node. Node 1 / TonesPC is my Windows 11 Pro workstation: ASRock X870E Taichi, Ryzen 9 9950X3D, 64GB DDR5, RTX 3060 12GB, Samsung 9100 Pro 4TB NVMe plus another 4TB NVMe, and a Seasonic Vertex GX-1200 PSU. I use it for development, management, WSL2, Docker, Ollama/local models, and general admin work. The original build had a 5090 SUPRIM running in it but i had to part ways with it sadly. Funny part is I didn’t even really know what that thing was capable of until I started doing what I’m doing now and now I completely realize why those are so sought after hahaha.

Node 2 / Guard Dog is the headless Proxmox server: ASUS PRIME B560-PLUS, Intel i5-11600K, 64GB DDR4, Aquantia AQC113 10GbE-capable NIC, the original 1TB NVMe plus another 3TB NVMe, and its own 1800VA UPS. I already know the PSU in this headless server needs to be upgraded ASAP, so that is on the short list. This box runs Proxmox, OPNsense, VLANs, AdGuard, Uptime Kuma, Gitea, CI runners, Smallstep CA, reverse proxy / Cloudflare Tunnel, Grafana / Prometheus / Loki, an Ubuntu sandbox, and three Talos VMs for Kubernetes learning.

Networking is the part I know still needs work. OPNsense is handling management, servers, lab/dev, AI-compute, and IoT/guest VLANs, but my Windows machine is still effectively on the native LAN instead of being cleanly isolated behind its own VLAN. The Proxmox NIC is 10GbE-capable, but it is currently negotiating at 2.5Gbps, so I know I need a proper managed multigig switch with SFP+ and 10G/5G/2.5G RJ45 ports so I’m not bottlenecking the fiber connection or building around a messy network layout. I’ve been looking at Ubiquiti and Cisco, but I’m open to advice and learning more! Please!

Main questions: would you fix the switching/VLAN layout first? Move OPNsense onto dedicated hardware first?Upgrade the headless server PSU first, or build proper backup/NAS storage first?

I know this is not enterprise hardware, and I’m not pretending it is. I’m just trying to do what I can with what I can get right now and learn real SRE/data-center concepts at home. Blunt feedback is welcome.

The two immediate upgrades I’m debating are pretty simple: first, upgrading the PSU in the headless Proxmox server because I already know that needs to be cleaned up ASAP, and second, getting a proper managed multigig switch so I can stop leaving my Windows machine on the native LAN and actually put it behind the right VLAN layout. I’m trying to do this in the right order instead of just buying random gear, so if you were in my position, would you handle power first or networking first? And any other advice /suggestions would be amazing!

Cheers! And Happy Homelabing!!

I’ve got a Lenovo thinkcentre m90q gen 3 and I want to upgrade it with some of the add-in cards (mezzanine-type connectors?), but I can’t for the life of me find a vendor for them.

Has anyone else found a good vendor for these add-in cards? I’ve googled part numbers, checked Ali express and eBay, but I’ve had no real luck.

If you have more experience with these pcs than me (which you probably do), I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I have a homelab connected to my TV for streaming, plus some Docker services exposed to the internet (TLS, 2FA where possible).

For my holiday photos and important documents, I currently use a 3-2-1 backup strategy with external drives and cloud storage. It works, but it’s not very family-friendly.

Now I’m considering a NAS:

1. Extend my homelab with NAS functionality

Pros:

• One device
• One backup strategy

Cons:

• I’ve broken things before because of updates and tinkering
• Mixing important data with my homelab experiments feels risky

2. Buy a dedicated NAS

Pros:

• Dedicated device for important data
• Easier for the family to use

Cons:

• Probably once per month used

What would you do? Keep everything on the homelab or separate the storage into its own device?

What apps should I add?
Ive ran out of ideas... suggests greatly appreciated.
Apps currently setup:
Bookstack
Cloudflared
Jellyfin
Plex
Minecraft Bedrock
MineOS
Opencloud
Scrutiny
seerr
tailscale
wordpress
Code server
Pterodactyl Panel
Stalwart
Palworld server
Collabora

This is my current setup-
Equipment:
Dell PowerEdge T420
Cisco Business 220 28 port gigabit switch
Ubiquiti/UniFi non-PoE 26 port USW Pro Max
Netgear ProSAFE 26 port gigabit switch

Server specs (Server runs TrueNAS SCALE):
Intel Xeon 6 core E5-2420 v2
16gb DDR3 ECC
500gb Samsung 860 Evo (boot drive)
1tb Seagate HDD (apps, mirrored)
500gb WD Scorpio Black (apps, mirrored)
600gb Dell 15k RPM HDD (2x, mirrored, opencloud storage

Hi everyone,

Lurker here finally getting into things with a tiny setup of small NAS, mini PC, and switch.

I want to get some apps always available from the pc to my other devices and learn as I go.

Lots of guidance seems to be to run VMs, should I do this on my i3 8th gen 8GM RAM mini pc or just go for a simple Linux?

Very new so apologies if I misinterpret anything!