Planning first Homelab/Server/DVR build. Looking for opinions.

jtcrowder49 · January 24

Hi All,

Let me first start by saying thank you for reading my thread and tell a little about myself. I am an intermediate PC/tech user with a background in Mechanical Engineering. I have been building PCs for myself and friends along with some basic network trouble shooting for hosting private servers for gaming. (Mostly port forwarding so nothing really troublesome). In addition to those things I am also an avid LTT viewer.

I am in the process of planning a total upgrade to my homes network and security. I am here today to get opinions and recommendations for some products that might fit my needs. That being said, here is what is on my punch list and the actual questions I need help with.

1)Wire whole home for network - I am going to do this myself. Not an issue since I have done other work like this, but I am debating on where to conduct the majority of the work. I will have to pull through the attic and the garage, but the bulk of the work could go in either place. Is it worth the extra hassle to traverse the majority of the runs in the attic, or should I save the effort and just come up from the bottom in the garage (this would also be faster)? Visually, they will be tidy in either place, but is it a turn off to see network wiring every time you come through the basement/garage? What if you were a home buyer?

Anticipate 20 runs using Cat 5e (longest run is probably 100 feet max) (4 to the attic eves, 12 to the living space, 4 down to the garage)
I already have the Cat cable so...
Potential rack locations (depending on heat generation & power requirements) - A small coat closet centrally located in the living space, or under the staircase in the basement.

2)Purchase and install security cameras - I am leaning towards Ubiquiti for this. The sole reason, I like what I see in the LTT videos. They are a little pricey, but I have been able to justify it to myself. I am, however, open to other recommendations if there are any.

Anticipate 8 cameras (4 outside, 3 inside, and one door bell)
POE is really attractive to me.
Must have footage locally stored.
Must have ability to view cameras/footage from phone while away. (iOS)

3)Build and incorporate NAS/Homelab - This is probably a project for next year, but if some solution above helps with this then that's great.

Storage for our digital items like photos and videos
Potential to store our media collection.
Accessibility outside the home would be nice but not necessary.
Maybe home automation later.

Additional information:

Located in the dirty south so it's going to get HOT in the summer and humid.
Basement/garage is *mostly* temperature controlled. (Say 50*F-80*F throughout the year)
We have gigabit network from our ISP. Its been plenty for streaming video and gaming simultaneously for our family of 3.

I am sure I missed something, but If I could get your opinions on hardware and problem solving that would be great. I am ready to get after this but I needed someone to talk tech with, and my friend group is limited in that regard.

Thank you!

-JT

aggie113 · January 24

As a homeowner, I say run the cable how you want. Don't think about the resell value unless you have an actual plan to sell in the next 2-3 years. If you don't mess up the walls installing the ports then some cables visible in the basement is not a biggie. If you're doing POE cameras, you'll be in the attic anyway so maybe it'll be easier to just do all the runs through the attic. Speaking of cameras, POE is the way to go. Ubiquiti is not a bad choice, but it does put you in a walled garden. While some of the cameras can output RTSP video to something like BlueIris or another security system you can't count on it. If you do want to save some $ but stay with Ubiquiti you can always buy used cameras. Otherwise, there are several options for POE security cameras, even ones with PTZ (pan/tilt/zoom) enabled. You can get offsite access to the footage using a local VPN (one current advantage of Ubiquiti is skipping this step). For the rack location, be sure you have some airflow to help keep temps under control. Doesn't need to have AC coming in but should at least have something to circulate air outside the enclosed space. For a NAS you should spec it after knowing which way you're going with the security cameras. Ubiquiti uses its own storage (1,4 or 7 hard drives depending on device) but if not then you'll be offloading that storage and processing to the NAS. For NAS you can go the "build it" or "buy it" route. I like Synology but just look through the posts here for many other suggestions on NAS builds.

AliveGhost13 · January 24

Look at Hikvision. The cameras are better than Ubiquiti, local storage and app, all free with no subscription. This is why most businesses etc use them.

voyager_ · January 25

The wiring is really up to you, I would want to run it where I don't see it and where I do it needs to be run nicely.

As far as the cameras go, I would not want ubiquiti. I use them for my networking and have had great luck but when it comes to their camera stuff it seems pretty limited and over priced. Check out Blue Iris, it runs on windows but supports different integrations, AI object detection, can be used with pretty much anything, notifications, you can connect either through the app of an ip address. It's an extremely flexible platform and it uses your hardware and storage. I would take a close look at it, I have 11 cameras running and about half have been upgraded so far to 4k. With how flexible it is you can get some great cameras and tailor them to where they are being placed. It does support PTZ cameras too. I just run the windows vm on an unraid server and pass through a sata controller and a 2060 super for AI and video decoding. I have all the cameras go to a 4tb wd purple then move them to a second drive as that one fills and once they hit a certain age it starts clearing the old ones.