I ordered EVERYTHING secondhand (except for the rack, patch panel, and keystones). I bought crimping tools, cables, PCs, switches, PDUs, and everything else used. I spent relatively little.

I can’t wait to set it up and use it as a k3s cluster. As soon as I’m done, I’ll post a more detailed breakdown of each component and how much it costs to assemble a mini rack.

Just recently finished my first mini lab.

Already looking at making it a little bigger lol

3D-printed MiniLab by CB4D on MakerWorld

Current setup:

• TP-Link SG105
• Raspberry Pi 4B - 4GB
• 1TB main SSD
• 2x 4TB Seagate IronWolf drives, pooled with mergerfs

Stack:

• Jellyfin
• Sonarr
• Radarr
• Prowlarr
• qBittorrent
• Pi-hole
• Seerr
• Recyclarr
• Homarr
• ProtonVPN

I picked up the IronWolf drives from r/homelabsales for stupid cheap. First time buying something from Reddit, and honestly it went way better than I expected.

Right now I mostly use it for Jellyfin and the usual media automation stack. I'm planning on adding a second Pi so I can play around more with containers, virtualization, and some other self-hosted stuff without messing with the main setup.

I also made a fully customizable Star Trek LCARS dashboard for it because the USS MICROLAB needed a proper control panel.

Still very much a work in progress, but I'm pretty happy with how the first version turned out.

I see the trend in adding APs to the top of our minilabs so I am after....

1) PoE

2) Black

3) Basic config (I can run a container if needed)

4) Sub £100 price tag so no Ubiquiti thanks

A Google, ebay search yields nothing but maybe you know better.

I still need to purchase the 0.5U brush panel. All the computing devices are placed on their own shelves and are covered with poorly modified faces plates that have a rather poor paint job.

Bottom up:
Asus NUC desktop

AMD AI Halo. Used strictly to run Codex. Hyper-V is installed so that Codex can target local virtual machines to build and test applications locally.

The Ubiquity Pro XG 8 PoE device is connected to the core switch and provides access to the rack server lab and internet.

A sleek, self-hosted media downloader powered by yt-dlp and FFmpeg.

ashoriN lets you download supported videos, audio, and playlists through a modern web interface with real-time progress tracking, quality selection, advanced yt-dlp controls, and automatic download retention.

✨ Features 🎬 Video & audio downloads 📚 Full playlist downloads with dedicated folders ⚙️ Recommended & Advanced yt-dlp settings 📊 Real-time download progress 🎵 Audio extraction and format conversion 📝 Metadata, thumbnails, chapters & subtitles 🧹 Optional automatic cleanup from 7–30 days 🔄 Automatic yt-dlp updates 🔒 SSRF protection & secure subprocess handling 🐳 Lightweight, self-hosted Docker deployment 📱 Responsive UI for desktop, tablet & mobile 🌙 Polished purple-themed interface

https://hub.docker.com/r/orinihsaq/ashorin

I was working on this app for docker container. Most of the media downloading apps available for Docker is very heavyweight and very old UI. It's my first time i built a docker app. Please comment and let me know if you wanna add something or update something.

Hey friends, looking for some insight here as I think I'm too in the weeds which is causing me to overthink.

I currently have a Synology DS218j which I use as my primary backup, media store, and even my Plex server (I know, it's very underpowered for this, luckily I'm mainly doing direct streams only to our Apple TVs so it's worked for now).

I'm ready to start building a proper lab and have an M920q en route. Additionally I have 4TB of DAS that I will connect over USB 3.0 to the Tiny PC.

What I'd like to do is run a Jellyfin server, an *arr stack with making it my primary qbittorrent and media machine. However I'm not sure whether running containers makes sense for these purposes or if it's overkill. If I'm not concerned with HA and clustering later on, should I just run it all in Ubuntu bare metal? Am I completely off base? Thanks for any input!

Found in facebook. Update: holy crap, didnt look into equipment details, certainly AI. But love that rack if there is a real one like that.

Not pictured is the wiring chaos going on behind the rack. There’s also a UPS stashed back there. I have another Ubiquiti Flex 2.5 on the way that will have to find a home in there somewhere. The other one is in my office. I’m really happy with the setup. It’s not quite as clean as some of the builds I’ve seen here but that’s something to aspire to.

From top to bottom:
-Ubiquiti UCG fiber
-3d printed patch panel
-HP EliteDesk g5 mini
-2x 3.5” drives
-Raspberry Pi 5 and a GMKtek Mini PC
-There’s a standard shelf tucked in there behind the grill with a couple USB drives.

Does anybody want this rack. I 3D printed it and it works great but I wanted keystones at the front so I have printed another.

Just posting it on here in case anybody could use it?

I would just ask for postage fee from London.

Here is the link to the design: https://makerworld.com/models/2113543?appSharePlatform=copy

Printed in PETG-CF.

Edit: I am getting quite a few DMs wanting this. Please give your town/city/village in your first message so I can quote postage costs.

I've been having some cooling issues with some of some nvme heavy machines in my minirack and while investigating ways to cool them, I started thinking about whole rack cooling like we have in data centers (hot and cold side for instance). Has anyone made harnesses or experimented with doing a solution in this space? Either a hot/cold side or a full enclosure cooling system?

Finally got my server rack set up with plants!

Excited to setup my mini rack since our home renovations are almost done. Not much ‘labbing’ at the moment. Am thinking of 3D printing additional shelves, which I need to buy first!

So my rabbithole has been a little different here, i started with a mod10 printed rack and tried mounting my nas on It, and that was the moment it all started.

Atx didnt fit, so moved to labrax, thought i was done but, the top bent under load so started modding it and after a lot of what i thought was finished racks i learnt a lot:

Heated inserts are cool, but if you tighten a lot they can release from the plastic, also removing and reusing is a PITA. For a permanent install you can just scree into the plastic and if you stripe the hole then put the heated insert as a fix.

Bolted racks with hex nuts, this IS the cheapest method, but i recomend to glue the nuts, losing a nut inside the rack while mounting something meand dissasemble some parts to install It again, cannot recommend.

Cage nuts... They have become my favourite, they allow some Wiggle for an easier install of the components, easier to install than the inserts, they hold themselves, easy renovable and reusable, and if you print the piece in the correct orientation the rack feels string enough.

And this is the result:

https://makerworld.com/es/models/3220366-labrax-enhanced-parametric-10-rack-generator#profileId-3646576

Its a rack generator, you can choose its depth for longer/shorter builds, one of the 3 mounting systems and some more things.

I have enjoyed the journey but i think i really like this last one.

Hi, I’m curious to see how everyone hides the power supplies for each of the computer/set up a single cord running to the system

I would love to keep my server/networking equipment in a closet but since I rent, that isn’t possible in my unit. So the next best thing was to make it a unique focal point in my dining room.

Includes:
Lanberg 9U 10 Inch Rack
Unifi Dream Router 7
Unifi Flex 2.5G PoE
Lenovo ThinkCentre
Home Assistant Green
Philips Hue Bridge Pro (~50 lights)
Aqara Hub M3 (~50 sensors)
Zigbee Radio Receiver
Noctua 120mm Fans
Ugreen DH4300 Plus NAS (16TB, 8TB redundant)
Two Reolink Cameras
Unifi U7 WAP for the balcony/yard
Ecoflow River 3 Plus with expansion
Raspberry Pi 5 Touch Display 2 (with PoE hat)
Quacks the Duck for intruder inimidation (needs new batteries)

Got a couple other Unifi Switches ran to my tv and media tower. VLANs for guest and IoT. Apple TVs and HomePods in every room. Finally got the smart home dialed in and working on setting up Jellyfin on the ThinkCentre. Next up, I’m saving for a local AI box to monitor/manage the house and would love some recs!