paulywog

Hi everyone, I'm setting up my new home's network. So far, all I have is the DOCSIS 3.1 modem that my cable company gives me and a 200mbit internet plan. No router, APs, nothing. It's all from scratch. I'm trying to keep the budget somewhat reasonable as, well, I've just bought a house. I think <$500 US invested is pretty reasonable, and probably achievable given my list of wants and hardware laying around. But I'm open to suggestions, what to invest in now vs later, etc. As far as what I have laying around, I have no shortage of old computers/servers, I've got plenty of cabling (but perhaps would have to buy CAT6a or whatever else for any 10G runs), and I have a gigabit switch or two. My most powerful computer I have laying around is my old build with an AMD FX-8120 in it. I think this would be good as the main server. The idea would be to have this server running a hypervisor, and from there have pfSense and other application servers up under KVM. This would act as my router, Plex server, home automation, etc. Running anything more "server grade" would be louder and consume more power. That PC would need at least one more NIC if it were to act as the router, as it currently only has the one motherboard onboard gigabit NIC. One thing I'd possibly like to do is have a 10G linkup between this server and my desktop. Both of these would need 10G cards, in that case, but hopefully an expensive 10G switch would not be needed. I may only have two or three items in the house with wired internet. My laptops, phone, smart devices, etc, will all use WiFi. Having excellent WiFi is a must have, so I want to go Unifi. So here's what I'm considering buying: Unifi nanoHD as the AP 10G capable NIC for Server At least one more gigabit NIC for server (could be a 4-port, could be a 1-port connected to a gigabit switch, might not be necessary at all if I got a 2-port 10G NIC?) 10G capable NIC for Desktop CAT6a to run directly between server and desktop What's the most cost effective way to make this 10G connection? I need to run wire no matter what, so I guess SFP cards or something is not out of the question. I'm not at all opposed to used or janky gear. I've got ~2 acres of land. My house and an outbuilding garage are 100ft away from each other. Ideal would be blanketing the entire property with WiFI, but I think for now this is a pipe dream. It'd be really cool to have the WiFI be usable from the outbuilding though. I don't know that the nanoHD will be able to achieve this sitting in the house. I'd considered the Unifi AC LR for long range, but I'm not certain that any single AP would reach anyway. In that case I could probably leave the second AP until later and just get the nanoHD for great in-house coverage. How would you set up my network? What would you buy today and what would you leave for later? --Paul

I don't understand what everyone's issue is with it. You have to pay X for your phone, and your attention to ads is worth Y to someone. So if they put on ads, they let you pay X-Y instead of X. You're just paying with a different currency. If you want to pay with full cash and not have ads, then... do that?

In that case, I think I'll go with this EVGA which looks to be a good deal right now. https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-Support-08G-P4-5173-KR-Rodgers/dp/B01KVZBNY0/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1481426519&sr=8-9&keywords=1070 Thanks guys!

I'm looking at the 1070s on Amazon right now, I think I want to get one to one up my aging 660 slightly. I've always gone EVGA in the past, so I know those are good cards, but at the same time you get charged the "EVGA tax" with them. I've been looking at this one, the Asus Turbo variant. I actually really like the way that it looks, I'm not a particular fan of the "gamer focused" aesthetic that some cards have. But it has the blower cooler. My question is, is it going to be a lot louder than a normal cooler? Is there a better 1070 I should go for?