Component Recommendations for Proxmox Homelab with TrueNAS and Various Applications

[alehop]

Hello everyone,

I'm in the process of setting up my own homelab and would greatly appreciate your recommendations and advice. Below, I provide the details and requirements of my project:

Goals and Essential Requirements:

1. Homelab Server with Proxmox: I want to create an environment to learn and practice various IT certifications.
2. TrueNAS: One of the virtual machines will be a TrueNAS that will utilize 6 Seagate Exos X18 HDDs, each 18 TB (already have them) for backups and cloud at home.
3. Cybersecurity and Sysadmin Labs: I need to set up labs with virtual machines for practice.
4. Home Service Applications: I wish to run various applications in virtual machines and containers (Docker or similar) to service at home.

Components I Already Have:

• Chassis: Fractal Design Node 804
• HDDs: 6 Seagate/dell Exos X18 - 18 TB

Additional Requirements:

• Low Power CPU: Seeking a processor that doesn't consume too much energy.
• Silent System: I want the server to be as silent as possible.
• Compatibility and Performance: Compatibility with Proxmox and good performance to handle multiple virtual machines and containers.

Components I Need:

• Motherboard
• Processor (CPU)
• RAM Memory
• Additional Storage (SSD for the operating system and cache)
• Power Supply Unit (PSU)
• Cooling Systems (if necessary)
• Network Card (if not integrated into the motherboard)

I'm open to specific recommendations for models and brands that you consider suitable. Additionally, any additional advice on configuration, optimization, and management of a homelab like this would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your help!

[Needfuldoer]

I recommend keeping your "production" NAS (where you store files you care about) separate from the lab. That way you don't have to worry about accidentally losing data when you're tinkering.

 

My stuff is all ex-enterprise and rack mount servers, so I can't really help with your "quiet" and "low power" requirements.

[Electronics Wizardy]

How much ram do you think your need for your VMs?

 

 

I'd probably go with a consumer platform based solution like lga 1700 or am5. There are lots of boards, but the server ones are typically the best if you don't mind spending extra. Look at the B650D4U3-2L2Q/BCM and simmilar boards for an example. Power is typically pretty good, enough io for this usecase, very good single threaded CPU performance.

 

RAm really depends on the VMs your running, but I'd start at 64GB here and probably go 128/192GB if you can.

 

I'd probably get a small ssd or two for Proxmox Boot. THen a few 2tb drives for VMs.

 

Overall config looks good and makes a good amount of sense here.