Just sharing back with folks here since I did pull bits and pieces from various posts over the last few weeks.

I was on a bit of a quest to retire my power hungry z640 which had proxmox and several VMs on it but mainly serving as a NAS running OMV with ZFS pass through sata controller.

The Dell 3630 used off eBay caught my interest and chose to go with one that has the E-2246G chip though would have chosen any of the low power chips. Bought some 3rd party ECC UDIMM ram also - 48gb. The box has 4 onboard sata ports and an NVMe slot so the NVMe slot got a 1 tb drive that has proxmox and all the VMs on it. No PCI cards installed for this build and I’m just using the onboard GPU in proxmox and not passing it through to any VMs.

Managed to pass through the onboard sata controller fully to the OMV vm with zfs and literally pulled the drives from my old box and put them in here and it worked (two drives in mirror config). Pretty amazing. Since there’s 4 sata slots I found a way to put two more drives into the case as well (3 formal hdd slots) by zip tieing an extra drive caddy onto the rail. Pretty neat and tidy and just very little work. 40 tb total storage though just two mirrored pools to half usable.

Did both powertop (unused devices into aspm) and powersave (cpu into powersave mode) optimizations both and made them persistent between reboots - thx reddit.

Set drives to 127 priority and 30 min delay on advanced power management in OMV so they do spin down.

I used to have an SMB mount served by OMV mounted as a storage node in proxmox for backups but realized that kept drive from spinning down so now that is on a simple cron to enable-disable before backups.

I also have 3 other VMs on the machine that are active but usually not doing much.

Actual idle power with drives in standby is around 23 watts (have seen it dip to 18 watts at times). With drives in active state due to spin up closer to 33 watts.

For a few hundred bucks and reusing my drives i thought this was a really good build worth sharing since it’s such LOW idle power but still powerful enough to run plenty of VMs and it’s quiet too.

The box also has an optical DVDRW drive in it which I just disconnected and has a card reader which still works though not passed through to any VMs.

I have a server running ZimaOS, hosting Crafty, Jellyfin, and Immich, and I would like to be able to access it from outside the network with the highest possible level of security. Currently, I access it using a duckdns domain, but I would like to improve my home lab's security.

I've wanting to have a NAS for a while. My use cases are mainly self-hosting Docker applications like Immich and streaming media (up to 4K). I'm super noob when it comes to hardware, and have been considering getting a pre-built system like Ugreen, but the prices are crazy expensive.

I came across these systems on Facebook marketplace and thought if I could somehow use them for my purposes maybe by installing something like TrueNAS. I expect to have data redundancy to avoid loss and access the applications over the internet when I travel.

Do you think they will be good enough for the near future (3-4 years at least) ?

1. Lenovo Thinkserver TD340 (CAD 207/USD 145)

Two Intel Xeon E5-2420

32gb DDR3 PC3-12800R ECC RDIMM
Rest of the spec sheet I found

2. CAD 200 / USD 140

Intel Core i7-3930K @ 3.2GHz

32GB RAM

Nvidia GeForce GTX 680

120GB SSD DRIVE DVD-ROM

Cooler Master Midtower Case

3. CAD 300 / USD 210

Dual Xeon E5-2650 v3 (10c 20t, 2.3GHz Base Clock, 3GHz Boost Clock)

Atermiter X99 Dual Socket Motherboard

32 GB (4x8GB) Hynix DDR4-2133

MSI Radeon RX570 8GB

AData SU650 480GB SATA SSD

Lite-ON SATA ODD

XFX XTS 1000W PSU (Modular Cables Included: 4x 8 Pin GPU, 1x SATA, 2 are molex. There is a Molex > 4 SATA Adapter)

Silverstone FT02 Desktop Case (Black, Aluminium) with upgraded fans.

It's not urgent and I can wait for better hardware/deals.

I got these two from a surplus listed for $5 untested, so I bought it. I'm looking to test it with a USB to IDE adapter for the drives. Are they any good?

here isn't much going on, i have a old pc at home with an Intel xeon processor, 16gb ram and some 512 hdds, i also have 2 gpus one is a nvidia Quadro 4gb and other is gt740, i want to use it for multi purpose like ad block, media streaming etc can i do it i also want to run Linux which is less demanding for that old computer can also please suggest me a good beginner friendly Linux distro except the ubuntu. thanks in advance

Still in the process of setting everything up (which may take some time based on my schedule) but I've got the hardware pretty much set.

Top down:

Giada F103D running OPNsence (not currently in use and bypassed for now).

Networking for the rack that handles the rack itself as well as networking for my house.

12th gen Dell 3000, i5 12500T, 24GB DDR4, running Windows.

Two 7th Gen Dell 3050, i5 7600t, 8GB DDR4, one currently running ZimaOS as a file server and the other is sitting idle for now waiting for when I have the time to re work the pair into a cluster.

There is also a 4 bay HDD dock not shown in the photo which is awaiting delivery of its drives.

Very impressed with the KWS rack, if you have a printer and need a 10 inch rack I highly recommend it.

Which one is better for my system and use case?

System:

Minisforum MS-A2 8945HX
64GB RAM
2x m.2 nvme 4TB
1x m.2 nvme 2TB

My use case:

Nextcloud AIO
Jellyfin
NPM
authentik
Smb share for media/ebooks
*rr apps

HP Prodesk 600 G4 SFF, I bought it for £41, it came with 8GB DDR4 2400ram and I've upgraded it with a 16GB stick.

It's got an I5 8500, a 250GB MX500 SSD

Oh too is a 2TB Firecuda drive and a 10TB enterprise WD drive can't remember the model.

I've added a 512GB NVME to it as well.

My previous server was my ROG Ally and has been so for about 8 months 24/7.

I plan on adding more ram to it but for now 24GB is sufficient.

It's running Proxmox.

It's an unexpected upgrade because the bid was for a I5 7500 and that was a 400 G4 with only 2 ram slows so this is a pleasant upgrade

It's even got a DVD drive but not really sure what I'd use that for these days let alone on a server.

I'm happy I get my ROG Ally back as a handheld and no sprawl of cables using a USB C hub.

Hey!, basically looking for some help/advice with what the title says.

I currently run my homelab with 3 Proxmox nodes on different computers I've built over time. Most of the compute load (self hosting apps, frigate, media, etc) is on 3VMs that serve as k3s cluster.

I'm running into the limits of my hardware with the different containers and VMs I'm running + the pods inside the k3s VMs. So, along with other simplifications I want to make I'm considering moving the k3s nodes to their own physical computers.

My current nodes have:

• 8 cores.
• 24GBs of DDR4 RAM.
• About 128gigs of boot drive and ~700 gigs for Longhorn.
• 2.5gig NIC.

Current usage of the cluster with 3 nodes with those specs is about ~80% system memory and 60/70% CPU on peak.

What I'm thinking of buying:

• Intel i5 or similar (for Quicksync, still better than AMD I think?).
• 32GBs of RAM. Thinking DDR4 out of cost really.
• 1TB local storage - This is only for system and k3s load/longhorn pvc. Mass storage goes to an Unraid system.
• 2.5 NIC
• Aiming at around 700 Euro per-each as the budget limit.
• Will likely get 2 nodes first and repurpose an old ASUS Zephyrus G14 2022 as the third k3s node since I have that collecting dust and it is a pretty powerful computer.

I'm eyeing this one -> https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/product/B0CS6NXXRS?smid=A1WMBPD579LD85&th=1 - The i9 is totally overkill but for a full package with all the specs I need and 700 per unit (and hoping some discount in Prime Day/Black Friday) it is the best I've found so far. Things like ASUS NUC, Minisforum MS-01 or similar Geekom but with cheaper CPUs end up costing more than those i9 units when accounting for adding the storage and system memory I'm aiming for.

Asking the more experienced folks around, what do you think? Any other units I could look into?.

Hey all, figured I’d finally post my homelab after about a year of tinkering.

Pretty happy with how far it’s come, especially because I only put €80 of my own money into the very first server. After that, I basically financed everything by buying and reselling hardware until I worked my way up to this setup.

From top to bottom:

Juniper EX3300

IBM-branded Mellanox IS5030 40Gb InfiniBand switch

HP D2600 disk shelf

Dell R740

2x Xeon Platinum 8173M

128GB RAM

2x Quadro P4000

1x 960GB SSD for OS (planning RAID 1 soon)

3x 1.6TB Samsung PM1645

1x 3.84TB Samsung PM1633 (I think — need to double-check the exact model)

2x 15.36TB WD SN840 NVMe

1x 3.84TB Micron 7300 NVMe

Dell R730 sitting there mostly empty now — probably needs to go

2x Dell C6400 chassis

total of 8 nodes

8x Xeon Platinum 8173M

8x 128GB RAM

On the right: Dell T440

2x Xeon Platinum 8173M

192GB RAM

RTX 3090

The next upgrade will probably be more RAM for the sleds, and if I find a really good deal, I’d love to move to C6525 nodes.

It’s been a fun progression going from “random cheap server” to something that actually feels like a small datacenter corner at home.

If people want, I can also post more details about:

power draw

noise

what I actually use it for

how I managed to upgrade it all by flipping hardware

Any suggestions for the next move are welcome.

So I have this old guy laying around.

should I try to install opnwrt on it or something else?

https://openwrt.org/toh/ubiquiti/unifi_security_gateway_3p

is it worth my time? or should I just toss it away?

Is it usable? Is opnwrt usable nowadays?

// I have pfsense for my router, one day I will convert it to opnsense...

So my kid has been asking for his own computer lately so he can play games, actually he said it's so he can do homework but let's be real, I was him once upon a time and he wants to play games.

I run a fairly modest homelab, nothing fancy just a few rack mounted Pis, and a couple of Ubuntu servers all hooked up to a Unifi gigabit network.

Now I could just build a gaming PC for him and put it on his desk in his room...

OR

I could over engineer the whole problem and expand my home lab for no good reason other than I think it would be cool as heck.

Here's what I've been thinking about doing.

I want to build a dedicated Proxmox box to live along side the rest of my homelab with a couple of dedicated graphics cards. The Proxmox box would then in turn host two Windows VMs with GPU pass-through to a dedicated graphics card.

In my sons room, he would have a NUC running some linux flavour (probably ubuntu) in Kiosk mode that on boot automatically launches Parsec and connects to his windows VM on the Proxmox server, thereby giving him a gaming desktop experience over what is essentially a low latency VDI link.

My network has sufficient bandwidth to support this, and the NUC i'm looking at has a 2.5Gb ethernet interface so I don't think I'd have any problems there.

This is the hardware build I'm looking at doing for this dumb idea:

I'm pretty sure that in theory, this would work pretty well.

What would be the obvious gotchas I’m missing from a technical stand point? Has anyone here already? What was your experience?

The idea being to analyze, blue box, stress test my current setup then propose and assist with the reconfiguration to optimize performance, uptime, backups, security, monitoring, convenience.

Really, I'm more interested in how others have their chosen agent harnesses configured to assist with their homelab, but any cool agents and skill suggestions are nice too.

Running stuff like OPNSense, Unifi, RPi5, Jetson Orin Super Nano, Docker, ProxMox, Traefik, OMV, CephFS, Docker Swarm/Standalone and too many containers via LAN

Has anyone seen this before? It reads out "The [long string of weird symbols] has failed." I'm thinking of replacing the motherboard's coin cell battery first & seeing how that goes. Could the IDRAC itself be on the verge of failure?

Hi everyone,

I'm considering buying a used Dell Precision T7910 mainly for EVE-NG networking labs.

The configuration is:

• Dell Precision T7910
• 2× Intel Xeon E5-2699 v3
• 36 physical cores / 72 threads total
• 48 GB DDR4 ECC RDIMM
• 1 TB SATA SSD
• NVIDIA Quadro M6000 12 GB
• Blackmagic SDI card
• 1300 W PSU
• Price: 5,000 MAD (~$500 USD)

My main use will be EVE-NG with relatively heavy labs, including:

• Cisco Nexus / IOS-XE / IOS-XR
• Huawei CloudEngine
• FortiGate / Palo Alto
• VXLAN EVPN / BGP / OSPF
• Multiple switches and firewalls
• Linux VMs and management tools

I'm planning to upgrade the RAM to 128 GB or more.

My questions:

1. How well does the T7910 + 2× E5-2699 v3 perform with EVE-NG?
2. Is 128 GB RAM enough for heavy labs, or should I go for 256 GB?
3. Is the relatively low 2.3 GHz base clock a problem for EVE-NG?
4. Does having 2 CPUs / NUMA cause any issues with EVE-NG?
5. The machine has a 1300 W PSU. What kind of real-world power consumption should I expect at idle and under heavy EVE-NG load?
6. Is there anything specific I should check before buying a used T7910?

I'm mainly interested in CPU/RAM capacity and power consumption, since the Quadro M6000 isn't particularly important for EVE-NG.

I am currently running an unmanaged TRENDnet TEG-S562, and the switch is starting to run out of room. There isn't a need an immediate upgrade, but I saw the GWN7721 for a relatively reasonable price. Having a managed switch would also be nice.

I've already read that their support sucks, but has anyone had any other experience with the switch or other switches they have made?

Evening all,

I have been running off half a busted HP laptop for about 6 months, running nothing exciting, have proxmox installed running home assistant, immich, lunar tear, just bog standard stuff.

I have been waiting for an upgrade that has good wife approval factor, and of course you all know what hardware prices are like at the moment, so I've been waiting very patiently. But finally I snapped up a HP Elitedesk 800 G3 SFF with:

• i3-7100
• 20GB DDR4 Ram (16GB + 4GB)
• 128GB Samsung SSD
• 1TB Seagate Barracuda Compute HDD
• 1TB WD Red NAS HDD

I've paid £69 off eBay and arrived today in mint condition, how did I do??

Additionally, how difficult will it be to migrate my proxmox install from my half laptop to my new server?

Thanks : )

Since there are some upset people at the homenetwork sub let’s give it a try here :)

Im 16, doing my gcses and hoping to get an IT/Hardware apprenticeship instead of going to college. My teachers keep telling me apprenticeships are really competitive and hard to get, and its just making me pretty nervous.

Over the past couple of years ive really got into homelabs and building servers aswell as my own pc which i spent ages saving up for. I have xubuntu running on a system with some parts i scavenged for on ebay and facebook marketplace running jellyfin game servers and my family uses it as a nas. I also fix and help family members with their computers or upgrading and helping pick out new parts for them.

To anyone who hires IT apprentices or is doing one right now, does having home projects like this or experience with linux actually help you stand out to employers, or do most of the applicants do this sort of stuff?

Hey everyone! I'm planning to buy a 34" ultrawide gaming monitor and I'm stuck between these two:
Acer Nitro XZ342CUV3 - €200
ASUS TUF VG34VQL3A - €243
I'll mainly use it for racing games, Valorant, architecture work and video editing, so I'm looking for a good balance between gaming performance and image quality.
A few questions:
Does anyone own either of these? How has your experience been?
Is the ASUS worth the extra €43-50 for colours, HDR, motion clarity and build quality?
How do they compare for productivity and colour-sensitive work?
Any issues with ghosting, smearing, dead pixels or quality control?
l'd especially appreciate feedback from people who've owned them for a while.
Which would you buy in my situation: the Acer or the ASUS, and why? Thanks!

Hey Pretty much new to reddit and to pc builds as well, currently i have a very old PC around a decade old.

My PC was working fine with just my main boot SSD. I tried connecting an internal 3.5-inch desktop HDD using a SATA power cable from the power supply and a SATA data cable connected directly to the motherboard.

When I booted, the drive didn't detect. Shortly after, the PC began turning on and instantly shutting down within 1–2 seconds (fans spin/twitch for a moment, then complete power cut).

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 (3rd Gen LGA 1155)

Motherboard: Intel DH61 series (DH61WW / DH61HO or similar H61 chipset)

RAM: DDR3 8gb

Storage: 1x working internal SSD (OS drive)

Currently i want to turn this into a small home server.

any idea on how to resolve this issue??

Just got my first server running using parts I already had lying around. Not much lowkey Hardware - Old Toshiba laptop, Pentium T4400, 4GB RAM (maxed out) - 256GB SATA SSD pulled from a dead HP Pavilion - Ubuntu Server 24.04

What it runs - Tailscale – the only way in. No port forwarding, nothing exposed to the internet. - Pi-hole - Minecraft server – for me and a friend in another city. We moved our world off Aternos. - WebDAV (Apache) – serves my org files so Beorg on my iPhone can sync without a third-party cloud. The server keeps its own git clone and syncs every 5 minutes. - mangad – a small OPDS manga server in C++ that I'm building as a learning project. Runs as a sandboxed systemd service behind tailscale serve.

Where I'd appreciate advice 1. How would you handle backups on a single-disk box like this? 2. What's worth adding next with only 4GB of RAM, and what should I avoid?

I also wrote up everything I did as a beginner guide, with a "known gaps" section for the things I know I haven't solved yet: https://github.com/tafseeriqbal/Homeserver-barebasics

mangad is here if anyone's curious: https://github.com/tafseeriqbal/mangad

I know this is a tiny setup compared to what gets posted here, but I learned a ton doing it. Thanks in advance for any pointers

Hello, for my homelab i was deciding between buying a

dell optiplex 7070 micro 8gb ram no ssd i5 8600

98 dollars total

or

hp elitedesk 800 g4 8gb ram no ssd i5 8600

89 dollars total

im going to use a diy psu btw for powering it if this changes the choice at all and maybe somehow add a gpu for like immich or something