Guys, just getting the posts started for this forum. These are pics of my home lab as it sits in 2023. Upload your pics in the forum!
Notifications
Clear all
Home Lab Pics
30
Posts
7
Users
24
Reactions
2,589
Views
Dec 10, 2023 8:56 pm
29 Replies
Dec 11, 2023 3:23 pm
I actually just took some pictures the other day to show how bad the rear of mine looks as compared to the front 
Dec 11, 2023 3:30 pm
@malcolm-r that looks awesome. Don't worry about the back of the rack. Mine looks about the same. I change hardware and devices so frequently that it stays in a state of disarray, but that is the nature of home labs I think 🤣 🤣 🤣 also, I have those same Startech PDUs 👍
Dec 19, 2023 8:22 pm
guess i should post my specs. from top to bottom:
Mikrotik CRS317-1G-16S+
Mikrotik CSS326-24G-2S+
Custom 1U Plex Server: i3-10105 (w/ Quicksync), 32GB RAM, 256GB NVMe, 500TB SATA
KVM
Custom 3U - ESXi/NAS - Chenbro RM31616, Xeon E5-2680v4 14c/28t, 128GB ECC, 10x 14TB, 4x 6TB SAS, 2x 2TB NVMe, Optane, bunch of 10g/1g networking
Huawei 2U RH2288H V3 - ESXi - 2x Xeon E5-2660v3 20c/40t total, 256GB ECC, 6x 1TB SATA, 3x 2TB NVMe, Optane, bunch of 10g/1g networking
Cyberpower PR2200LCDRT2U UPS (2170VA / 1600W)
Average power for the rack is about 600W. I'm just glad my utility rate is relatively cheap per kWh.
Dec 19, 2023 8:25 pm
@malcolm-r awesome specs. Hey which Optane are you running? I was able to get my hands on some Optane drives through the vExpert program and have been running those in my supermicros as a Cache tier in vSAN...getting over 100,000 IOPs on my old servers lol 
Dec 19, 2023 8:32 pm
@brandon-lee i snagged a bunch of the 58GB M.2 drives from Newegg here:
NEWEGG.COM Dec 19, 2023 8:40 pm
@malcolm-r I can't believe how much Optane has come down. Shame that Intel is killing it, but definitely leading to killer prices now. I remember when Optane was thousands of dollars for minimal space, but man, how times have changed.
Dec 16, 2023 7:06 pm
The A+ cable management of a beginner homelab. Currently living the hashtag vanlife in a travel trailer so space and power is limited. Currently my homelab resides on top my fridge, consisting of an HP Elitedesk G3 w/ i5-6600, 48GB RAM, 2x 128GB 2.5" SSD, 1x 512GB NVMe and 2x 4TB 3.5"HDD and a quad I225-V network card. Inseego FX2000 5G router in bridge mode for internet and a TP-Link Omada Wifi AP.
The Elitedesk is running Proxmox with a PfSense VM, a TrueNAS Scale VM, a Debian KDE desktop VM, Home Assistant VM, Jellyfin and Cloudflared as CTs.
I have plans to outfit my fridgetop server room as a 3U rack and separate my workloads into Critical and Not-so-critical with two machines, one hosting PfSense and Home Assistant (Critical) and the second with the HDDs and horsepower to run the NAS and everything else that I don't mind shutting down if power is low.
Dec 19, 2023 7:28 pm
@life-from-scratch dude, your van-homelab-life setup is great! you can make some pretty powerful clusters with mini/micro PCs.
Dec 16, 2023 7:34 pm
@life-from-scratch That is awesome! Even though space is limited, you truly have a mobile lab with the travel trailer. Very cool. Don't worry about cable management. That will come with time. All of us started small and with little cable management in the beginning. It's all about little upgrades here and there. Definitely awesome. Thanks for sharing!
Dec 19, 2023 5:41 pm
So here is my homelab, keep in mind I'm still new to all of this in 2023. I do want to do much more but I have to start small. However it's hardware I feel is pretty impressive for my first homelab
Intel NUC 12th Gen i7-1260p NUC12WSH7
2TB Western Digital SN850X NVMe
1TB Crucial MX500
64GB Corsair DDR4 Memory
Raspberry Pi 4th gen 8GB Model
Had to get the NESPi Case for the Nostalgia
While this is not homelab related I thought I would show off my gaming PC that I built in late 2021 (I hadn't built a new PC in 10 years so I may have gone a bit overboard especially on the RGB and water-cooling)
Hardware Details:
Monitor: 49" Samsung UltraWide Screen G9 Odyssey Gaming Monitor (240Hz)
CPU: Intel i7-11700K
Memory: 32GB DDR4
Case: Corsair 5000D Airflow Tempered Glass
GPU: NVidia GeForce RTX3080 Ti Founder's Edition
Watercooling: Corsair AIO Watercooling
Storage: 1TB Samsung 980 Pro NVMe
Storage: 2TB Samsung 870 EVO SSD
Keyboard: Steelseries APEX Pro Gaming Keyboard
Mouse: Razer Basilisk Ultimate Optical with Hyperspeed Technology and Charging Dock.
**If chosen I will use the additional miniPC to expand my current lab to take advantage of testing vSAN and other clustering technologies.
One thing I want to add to this post is join the discord community if you have not already there is a great group of like minded users and anytime I have had questions I have always gotten a response and the owner of all this is extremely approachable and open to suggestions to help the community grow.
Thanks,
Ghaleon
Dec 19, 2023 7:49 pm
@ghaleon That is an awesome gaming machine! Congrats on the build...that looks nice. Also, yes you are starting out with some great hardware there with your home lab as well. Thank you for posting your lab setup, pics, and specs!
Page 1 / 3
Next