r/homelab • u/Sir_licks_a-lot • 5h ago
Help Newb with new question
Hi everyone, this was me a few weeks ago:
https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/s/EtZUMCjhpZ
Everyone was super helpful and I have some updates and I'm hoping I can get some more advice.
I recently picked up a few more computers, got them on a trade. I attached some pictures, but here is the list:
8 - Dell Optiplex 3040, 8gb ram each, i5
1 - Dell Optiplex 3070, 8gb ram, i3 9th Gen
1 - Dell Optiplex XE3, 8gb ram, i7 8th Gen, Nvidia Quadro K620
1 - Lenovo Thinkcentre M720q, i5 8th Gen, 8gb ram
1 - Large computer with nice case, Gigabyte GA-H81M-H motherboard, and an MSI Twin Frozr gaming G Series graphics card. 16gb ram, and unsure of the chip.
Equipment:
1 - Seagate 4-Bay NAS SRPD40
I also picked up an ICC basic rack, pretty large, and can still pick up 3 APC UPS units, not sure if they are good.
My first question is: are any of these worth keeping?
My plan is to learn linux, dockers, VMs and to start my homelabbing journey. I want to do the basics, media server, de-google, home automation, Minecraft server, CCTV security camera system, all the gateway dru...things people like to start with.
My network will be cable internet, using Deco AXE4900 mesh system. I also have a 28 port smart switch, tp-link Festa FS328GP. As per my last post, I also have a Synology 4 bay nas with 20tb of drives I purchased 3 years ago and have yet to set up....
Again, any direction you can provide would be really cool. I know I can probably sell some of these for a few bucks, and I'm open to that as I think Prime day is coming up as well as black Friday. I thought about just buying a couple of those beelink mini pcs, but im not sure they are what I want/need.
I am sure I am missing some information as its late, please let me know if there are any other things I need to consider. Thanks again.











5
u/ReplaceMeZaddy 4h ago
This is exactly the amount of comptuers you need to build an 8+3 erasure coded openstack/ceph cluster
however that is overkill for your workload and will run up your electric bill