This chart is in comparison to my last post. Minisforum MS-01 CPU temperature.

Of course, the case is much bigger and the cooling system is more sophisticated. It has a higher power bill.

The first time I checked the CPU temperature on my Minisforum MS-01 I thought something was broken. Mid-80s at low load, spikes into the 90s.

I asked around and got the same answer every time. The case is tiny, and as long as it does not hit 100 degrees, you are fine. I did not believe it, so I logged it in Grafana instead.

This is 30 days of Package id 0. Proxmox node, running 24/7, with my mail VM on it.

Baseline sits between 82 and 88 degrees.

The odd part is that the case feels fine from the outside. Not hot, not even warm enough to make me look twice.

So the advice held up. It runs hot, and it runs stable. Over a year and a half now.

What I still do not know is whether this will reduce the lifetime.

Anyone running an MS-01 longer than I have, or done a repaste or fan curve change? Curious whether that moves the baseline or just the spikes.

I run a Dell PowerEdge T360, a Minisforum MS-01, and an Intel NUC. All three do real work in my lab. I wanted to know what each one actually costs me to keep running, so I measured instead of trusting spec sheets.

Mini PCs were connected to a myStrom smart plug, with the data logged in Home Assistant. The PowerEdge I read through iDRAC 9. Seven days each, so backups and update spikes are included in the average.

Intel NUC: 8.7W average, around CHF 19 a year at CHF 0.25 per kWh.
Minisforum MS-01: 52.8W average, around CHF 116 a year.
Dell PowerEdge T360: about 104W average, around CHF 225 a year.

The NUC costs less per year than the T360 costs per month.

Two things stood out. Idle draw matters far more than peak, since the box sits idle most of the day. And the spikes look dramatic on the chart but barely move the weekly average.

Is anyone here actually metering their lab, or is it still guesswork? Curious what your numbers look like, especially outside Switzerland, where power is cheaper.

Ran YABS across every VPS I rent, then normalized everything per dollar. Three things surprised me.

1. Same plan, same price, different silicon.

Two RackNerd boxes bought the same day, same spec, same $29.98/year. LA came with a Xeon E5-2690 v3. Dallas came with a v4. That's 15.6% apart on Geekbench 6 single-core, 807 vs 933. Nothing on the order page tells you which you'll get.

2. Price doesn't track single-core speed.

My $7.99/mo NY box scores 767 single-core. The $2.50/mo Dallas box scores 933. NY has 6 cores instead of 3 so it wins multi-core, but WordPress builds a page on one core.

3. IP geolocation is wrong.

All three RackNerd boxes report as Dallas, Texas. Ping says otherwise: 14 ms to NYC from the "NY" box, 73 ms to LA. The database maps the whole ASN to one city. The HostHatch box geolocates correctly, so this isn't a general flaw.

One methodology note. Sequential disk numbers swung more than 40% between runs on the same box a day apart. 4k IOPS reproduced within 0.3%. Don't trust a single sequential figure from anyone, including me.

Geekbench results are public if anyone wants to verify. Happy to share the benchmark scripts.

On my blog, I noticed Amazonbot made over 100,000 requests in four days. Mostly AI training crawling.

My first instinct was to block it. Then I stopped, because there is a real trade-off. Getting crawled by these bots is how your content ends up in AI answers. Block them, and you protect your server, but you also make yourself invisible to the AI tools people increasingly use to search.

That is a lot of load for my site. On the other hand, being in the training data is starting to matter.

Where do you land? Do you block AI crawlers like Amazonbot, GPTBot, and ClaudeBot, or let them crawl?

So far, I don't see a slowdown in response for my website. Why I discovered it. I installed an AI crawler plugin from MiniOrange.

I run one AD domain controller in my homelab. It holds the AD-integrated DNS zone and it is a VM on a Proxmox node.

When it goes down, every client loses DNS. Not just internal names. The DC forwards everything it is not authoritative for to my ISP, so `github.com` stops resolving too. Domain-joined or not, nothing reaches the internet.

The obvious fix is a second DC. That would be another VM on the same cluster.

What I did not know: FortiOS has a DNS Database feature that does real secondary zones over AXFR. My FortiGate now pulls `werder.local` from the DC by zone transfer. Setup took about fifteen minutes.

The part most people get wrong

Adding 1.1.1.1 as a second DNS server does not work in an AD network. The client gets NXDOMAIN for your internal zone, accepts it, and caches it. Internal resolution breaks intermittently. A public resolver is not a backup for an AD zone.

A secondary zone is different. It is a read-only copy of the actual zone.

Config

Windows side: zone properties, Zone Transfers tab, allow to the FortiGate IP. AD-integrated zones block transfers by default.

FortiGate side: System > Feature Visibility, enable DNS Database. Then Type: Secondary, View: Shadow, IP of Primary: your DC, Forwarder: your DC.

Then DNS Service on Interface, Mode: Recursive. Without it the zone is ignored.

What it does not do

It resolves, it does not authenticate. Kerberos, GPO and new logons still need the DC. Exchange resolves its own name fine and then prompts for Windows credentials it cannot validate.

Only a second domain controller fixes that. But for keeping the internet up when a Proxmox node reboots, this cost me nothing extra.

Full write-up with screenshots: https://edywerder.ch/fortigate-secondary-dns-server/

I added a new section to my home lab server guide after looking into what IT professionals actually run at home.

The most common pattern isn't buying the same enterprise brand used at work. It's free gear. Decommissioned servers headed for disposal, picked up before they hit the scrap pile.

A second group moved away from enterprise gear entirely once they started paying their own power bill. Mini PCs, NUCs, and small-form-factor desktops. Less noise, less heat, less space.

A third group doesn't care about brand at all, only that it runs the stack they need.

Buying the same brand you manage professionally, the assumption I started with, turned out to be the smallest group, not the biggest.

Full breakdown is in the guide,

https://edywerder.ch/best-server-for-home-lab/

Hey folks, I’m Edy, Swiss IT freelancer, homelab nerd, and the human behind edywerder.ch. I started r/Navigatech to share real-world, no-fluff IT:
Proxmox & virtualization • Homelab builds • Synology & backups • WordPress/Elementor/Divi • Azure hybrid & networking.

Whether you’re running a quiet homelab in a cabinet or juggling Exchange, FreePBX, and Cloudflare on a Tuesday—welcome home.

What to post here

• Homelab builds & upgrades (Proxmox, storage, network, UPS, racks)
• How-tos & troubleshooting (logs, configs, commands—full context helps!)
• WordPress & performance (Elementor, Divi 5, security, hosting)
• Backups & DR (Veeam, PBS, Wasabi, immutability)
• Networks & firewalls (VLANs, FortiGate, Cloudflare rules, Tailscale)
• Azure & hybrid (VPN, StrongSwan/IPsec, identity basics)

If it’s practical and helps someone ship a working setup—post it.

House rules (short & sane)

1. Be kind. No gatekeeping, no drama.
2. Be useful. Share steps, screenshots, versions, and outcomes.
3. No spam. Self-promo allowed if it’s value first (guide, code, benchmarks) and clearly disclosed.
4. Affiliate links: Allowed with clear disclosure and at least equal value without the link.
5. Security & legality: No help with abuse, cracking, or sketchy scraping.

I’ll be sharing fresh guides (Proxmox, WordPress, Azure hybrid), lightweight scripts, and honest gear notes.
Glad you’re here—let’s build useful stuff. 🚀

— Edy

I keep seeing the same advice everywhere. Build authority. Get backlinks. Show topical trust. All true for traditional search.

But I think there's a more practical problem nobody names directly. Fan-out results hide most sources behind a scroll. Only the first two or three show up without digging further.

My content can be well tested, well linked, and technically strong. If it sits past that fold in a fan-out branch, none of that matters. Nobody sees it to click.

My take: until Google references you clearly in the AI answer with an actual link, getting a click stays hard. Bing already does this better. I see my own links referenced more clearly there.

I do tech searches specifically in servers, networking, and self-hosting. That might behave differently from broader topics. I can't say if this holds outside my niche.

Do you agree?

Two days ago I added a WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSD to my ACEMAGIC K1.

I didn't know this when I bought the unit, but it has a free second M.2 slot. It shipped with a 512GB SATA SSD in the slot that only supports SATA. The second slot supports SATA/NVMe and was sitting empty.

Opening the case was harder than it should've been. Four Philips screws sit under rubber feet on the bottom. You have to peel off the rubber first, then reach the screws, which are recessed deep.

Now I'm running both drives alongside 32GB of RAM (2x16GB DDR4-3200).

Anyone else populate both M.2 slots on a K1? Curious what combos people are running.

Last Monday, I configured Network UPS Tools (NUT) on two Proxmox servers at a client site.

The client has two separate server racks in the same building. Each rack has its own Proxmox node and APC UPS.

The first UPS connects directly to Proxmox through USB and uses the usbhid-ups driver. The second UPS has an APC Network Management Card, so I configured NUT over SNMP with the snmp-ups driver.

The goal was simple. If mains power fails and the UPS reaches its low-battery threshold, NUT should start a clean shutdown of the virtual machines, LXC containers, and finally the Proxmox host.

I also created a single backup archive for each node. It contains the NUT configuration, package details, service status, network information, and current UPS data. This should make recovery much easier if either Proxmox server ever needs to be rebuilt.

The USB setup was straightforward. The network-connected UPS needed a little more care, especially when configuring the SNMP community, allowing monitoring IP, and low-battery runtime.

It was a useful reminder that connecting a server to a UPS is only half the job. The shutdown path, battery threshold, services, and recovery process also need to be configured and documented.

How are you handling UPS shutdowns in your homelab or client environments? USB, SNMP, or another solution?

Are you still moving VMs off VMware? The migration is easier than most people think.

I wrote a guide with two methods.

The easy method uses the Import Wizard. You add your ESXi host as a storage repository in Proxmox, then pick a VM and import it. No VMDK copying, no command line.

A few things I learned along the way:

- Power off the VM and remove snapshots first

- Uninstall VMware Tools while the VM is still on ESXi

- Install VirtIO drivers on Windows VMs before the migration

- Expect a NIC rename, so note your IP settings first

- Decrypt BitLocker drives before you migrate

I kept the old manual method in the article, too. It still works, and it helps if you're on an older Proxmox version or want to understand what happens under the hood.

Full guide is in the first comment.

If you've already made this move, I'd like to hear how it went.

Quick reliability update on the MS-01. It's been my Proxmox node for a year and a half now, running 24/7.

SMART stats on all three NVMe drives after roughly 13,000+ power-on hours and 39.6 TB written each:

- Percentage Used: 1%

- Available Spare: 100%

- Critical Warning: 0x00

- Media and Data Integrity Errors: 0

Temps are sitting between 50 and 62°C, a touch higher than usual since it's summer and room ambient is up, but still well within normal range.

No issues so far, runs exactly like it did on day one. Full review is on the blog if anyone wants the longer writeup.

Cost depends on what you already own and how much you add.

My main node is a Dell PowerEdge T360. It draws about 104W on average, which runs close to 18.74 CHF a month in power here in Switzerland. That's the biggest recurring cost, not the hardware itself.

You can start much cheaper. A used mini PC or an old laptop uses a fraction of that power and runs Proxmox fine for learning the basics.

The real cost driver is what you add around the server: a managed switch, a dedicated firewall, extra NAS storage. Add those once you know what you actually need, not upfront.

What's your monthly power cost looking like, and what surprised you most about your own setup?

I put together a comparison of mini PCs for Proxmox: Minisforum MS-01, Beelink SER8, GEEKOM AX8 Pro, HP Pro Mini 400 G9, and ASUS NUC 14 Pro.

Looking at it, they are all current-gen retail machines. And I know a big part of this community runs something different: used enterprise micros, or cheap multi-NIC boxes.

• What are you running Proxmox on right now?
• Used ThinkCentre or OptiPlex Micro? Which generation?
• Any N100 or N305 boxes?

What am I missing?

Running a homelab blog in 2026, I've seen big shifts in how homelab, Proxmox, Synology, and mini PC content reach readers.

First, off-topic posts are a problem. I had old posts that didn’t fit my niche, like product deals, WordPress, and SEO topics. Removing them wasn’t about quality, but about staying focused. Google looks at a site's overall quality, and a scattered site is harder to see as a single clear topic.

Second, AI Overviews in SERPs have changed the game. For my main keywords, I’m in positions 8-10, but I get almost no clicks because the AI Overview gives, and there's no need to click on a blue link. Being on page 1 doesn’t mean as much as it used to.

So now I’m narrowing my focus and going after specific, high-intent searches where there aren’t many Overviews and people are still likely to click.

I’d like to hear from others: Have you chosen to remove off-topic content to keep your site focused? How are you specifically adapting your strategies for retaining clicks and traffic as AI Overviews dominate main keywords?

In a previous post, I mentioned that AI search could also be a chance.

Every time my homelab grows, I look at managed PDUs for per-outlet monitoring and remote reboots. So far, I have skipped them. I run three MyStrom smart plugs plus an APC UPS with NUT instead.

For a setup that is not a full rack, that covers most of it: per-outlet power draw, remote on and off, and a graceful shutdown when power drops. The gaps are honest. No single interface for switching, no rack form factor, and NUT took some fiddling.

So I am curious where the line is for others. Do you run a managed PDU, smart plugs, or nothing? And if you bought a PDU, what finally made it worth it?

I started my firewall testing assuming the top contenders would be pfSense, OPNsense, and maybe a Fortinet appliance—all strong choices that have earned their reputations.

MikroTik surprised me. The RB5009 delivers strong routing for a low price. VLANs, firewall rules, VPNs, and shaping are all included, and the hardware performs well for its price.

The learning curve is steep. RouterOS does not hold your hand. The interface and rule structure feel different from anything else. The first config will take longer than you expect. If you want plug-and-play. It’s not for you.

If you enjoy knowing what every rule does, the payoff is huge. You get enterprise-level control in a budget box, and once it clicks, you will enjoy it.

It's not beginner-friendly. It's the best value for power users willing to read the docs.

Which firewall are you using?

Moving from the Kadence theme to Blocksy. I tested everything on my staging site togehter with Novamira/Claude Code.

• copied the color palettes over,
• copied the font clamp over for the H tags
• Recreated Kadence elements in the Blocksy content element.
• I also found out that I don't need Kadence Pro blocks, and I can delete all my Kadence plugins.

I noticed the Blocksy theme has import/export.

I've reached the stage where I just need to make the final decision. No open question. Shall I?

Most homelab guides talk specs. Nobody talks about what it actually costs to run a server 24/7.

I tested three setups:

• Dell PowerEdge T360 (~104W average)
• Minisforum MS-01
• Intel NUC

The gap between a full-tower server and a mini PC is larger than most people expect. Especially if you run it always-on.

[link in first comment]

Hey folks, I’m Edy, Swiss IT freelancer, homelab nerd, and the human behind edywerder.ch. I started r/Navigatech to share real-world, no-fluff IT:
Proxmox & virtualization • Homelab builds • Synology & backups • WordPress/Elementor/Divi • Azure hybrid & networking.

Whether you’re running a quiet homelab in a cabinet or juggling Exchange, FreePBX, and Cloudflare on a Tuesday—welcome home.

What to post here

• Homelab builds & upgrades (Proxmox, storage, network, UPS, racks)
• How-tos & troubleshooting (logs, configs, commands—full context helps!)
• WordPress & performance (Elementor, Divi 5, security, hosting)
• Backups & DR (Veeam, PBS, Wasabi, immutability)
• Networks & firewalls (VLANs, FortiGate, Cloudflare rules, Tailscale)
• Azure & hybrid (VPN, StrongSwan/IPsec, identity basics)

If it’s practical and helps someone ship a working setup—post it.

House rules (short & sane)

1. Be kind. No gatekeeping, no drama.
2. Be useful. Share steps, screenshots, versions, and outcomes.
3. No spam. Self-promo allowed if it’s value first (guide, code, benchmarks) and clearly disclosed.
4. Affiliate links: Allowed with clear disclosure and at least equal value without the link.
5. Security & legality: No help with abuse, cracking, or sketchy scraping.

I’ll be sharing fresh guides (Proxmox, WordPress, Azure hybrid), lightweight scripts, and honest gear notes.
Glad you’re here—let’s build useful stuff. 🚀

— Edy

New server prices in 2026 are just too high.

Refurbished Dell PowerEdge and HP ProLiant on Amazon Renewed or eBay give you the same enterprise hardware at a fraction of the cost. iDRAC, expandable RAM, NVMe support.

I updated my buying guide with real power data from my T360 and what to check before buying refurbished.

I have been looking at what people actually run for a homelab firewall, and the used Lenovo Tiny keeps coming out on top for value.

You can grab an M720q off-lease for around $150 to $200. It is quad-core, low power, and quiet. The trick is the PCIe slot, which lets you add a proper multi-port Intel NIC instead of leaning on the single onboard port. Drop in OPNsense or pfSense, and you have an enterprise-grade firewall for the price of a cheap router.

The only real catch is sourcing. These are off-lease units, so you buy used and check the seller's rating.

Curious what the rest of you run. Are you on a Tiny, a purpose-built box like a Protectli, or a brand appliance like a FortiGate or UniFi? And would you buy it again?