Even I’M Jealous of These Guys - Reacting to R/HomeLab

[LMGcommunity]

Some people forget that there's a lot more to computers than gaming rigs and web browsing on a bigger screen. That's where the r/homelab subreddit comes in! Whether you want to run multiple virtual machines on a single system, experiment with Kubernetes through smart home automation, or just repurpose old hardware into your own server, this group can offer a TON of inspiration and encouragement.

 

 

[cmndr]

I'm literally building a homelab style server/NAS right now...

12600H
96GB RAM
280GB Optane drive
nvme SSDs (eventually)


My plan to put in a 400GB p5801x failed, it wouldn't fit... that's going into my next desktop... possibly Panther Lake in 3-9 months if reviews are good and Zen 6 isn't rumored to be AMAZING. Still need to figure out how to get the next desktop to have 2x optane PCIe drives (or to rig up an ES.1 drive to m.2 somehow), a 10Gbe NIC and a video card without too much of a performance hit from lane splitting. The 10Gbe NIC might go if I can do thunderbolt networking to my NAS directly. 

[gauravsingh]

I used a Lattepanda Sigma 16gb as my "starter" truenas deployment, all nvme. 
Now migrated to Minisforum ms-01 with a separate QNAP for the hdds. Not super crazy but I use some of the magentic cable management stuff to manage it. 
Also have a cheapo switch with 10gbps fiber to minisforum for future. The whole local lan is at 2.5 Gbps which is more than enough for my isos.

What you cant see much is a noctua at the bottom too for a bit of airflow help, also use that usb fan 

Also wifi on top as that piece is acrylic.

 

 

 

in M

[Zodiark1593]

Ngl, king of want a shipping container to live out of now. 

[gauravsingh]

1 minute ago, Zodiark1593 said:

Ngl, king of want a shipping container to live out of now. 

Yeah the container I was expecting to be meh, but it was great. 

[jeffsponaugle]

Very cool to see my homelab in the thumbnail.   For those curious there is a video tour on my channel:

 

Video Tour:  

Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/@jeffsponaugle6339
 
And of course happy to answer any curiosities about the homelab.

 

Jeff

 

[Lurick]

23 minutes ago, jeffsponaugle said:

Very cool to see my homelab in the thumbnail.   For those curious there is a video tour on my channel:

 

Video Tour:  

Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/@jeffsponaugle6339
 
And of course happy to answer any curiosities about the homelab.

 

Jeff

 

mmmmm, Nexus 9Ks

FX I assume for the 10g copper and 9336-FX2 for 100g?

No 400g GX2B?  

[jeffsponaugle]

1 hour ago, Lurick said:

mmmmm, Nexus 9Ks

FX I assume for the 10g copper and 9336-FX2 for 100g?

No 400g GX2B?  

No 400g yet!   But it would be cool!  I'm just glad a ran a lot of single mode fiber when I built my house.  So much easier to scale networks over that!

 

I did a short video response on my channel as well:  

 

[Polyrux]

1 hour ago, jeffsponaugle said:

Very cool to see my homelab in the thumbnail.   For those curious there is a video tour on my channel:

 

Video Tour:  

Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/@jeffsponaugle6339
 
And of course happy to answer any curiosities about the homelab.

 

Jeff

 

Truly an insane setup, and most likely the creme de la creme of what is even possible with a home setup. Enough IT infrastructure here to run multiple startups for sure. The real question is, can it run minecraft with that much dedotated wam?

[cmndr]

2 hours ago, gauravsingh said:

Now migrated to Minisforum ms-01 with a separate QNAP for the hdds. Not super crazy but I use some of the magentic cable management stuff to manage it. 
Also have a cheapo switch with 10gbps fiber to minisforum for future. The whole local lan is at 2.5 Gbps which is more than enough for my isos.

Hey we ended up with the same mini-PC! 

 

I have a 10Gbps switch and I'm still trying to "figure stuff out"

 

Things I'm thinking about

1. Some sort of set of external drives connected (DAS?)

2. Thunderbolt networking (my laptop doesn't have a 10Gbps NIC) for a single client

3. Buying a huge chunk of nvme storage. 

 

 

For anyone curious and as a future warning to others, the Optane P5801x does NOT fit into this mini-PC, the MS-01. The heatsink is too large (too tall) and the seemingly commonly included ES.1 to PCI-e adapter is too long. Standard sized PCIe optane cards like the p4800x and 905p fit just fine. 

[ChiefGeekOfficer]

Never really shared before and certainly does not compare to Jeff, but here is my humble little setup.

 

[jeffsponaugle]

15 minutes ago, ChiefGeekOfficer said:

Never really shared before and certainly does not compare to Jeff, but here is my humble little setup.

 

That is a nice setup!  All of the key elements in a nice package.  This really is what homelab-ing is about. 

[dogwitch]

mine just 2 sad thread ripper pcs!

[Bramimond]

Okay, but seriously: what do you need that much hardware for at home?

[gauravsingh]

15 hours ago, cmndr said:

Hey we ended up with the same mini-PC! 

 

I have a 10Gbps switch and I'm still trying to "figure stuff out"

 

Things I'm thinking about

1. Some sort of set of external drives connected (DAS?)

2. Thunderbolt networking (my laptop doesn't have a 10Gbps NIC) for a single client

3. Buying a huge chunk of nvme storage. 

 

 

For anyone curious and as a future warning to others, the Optane P5801x does NOT fit into this mini-PC, the MS-01. The heatsink is too large (too tall) and the seemingly commonly included ES.1 to PCI-e adapter is too long. Standard sized PCIe optane cards like the p4800x and 905p fit just fine. 

Yeah minisforum is great, although anecdotely on reddit I have seen folks needing to RMA them. 


1. For external drives, my use case was to use a JBOD and using truenas to manage them. Also I didnt want drives connected via thunderbolt as that could disconnect if I was not careful and the cable snagged on something(this whole setup lives is in my cupboard ). So I went with "QNAP TL-D400S 4 Bay SATA 6Gbps JBOD". It has a PCIe connector that does fit the ms-01 chassis and provides a much more secure connector along with drives showing up as JBOD. 

2. Awesome!  

3. Yeah I like nvme, I populated all the slots and I was a bit cheapo so I just reused my old steam deck sdd to one of the slots. But the problem was it wouldnt fit the slot so I got this small ssd extender thing for under 10 bucks so the tiny ssd could fit in a longer 2280 slot. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQ7BM2YV 

[cmndr]

3 hours ago, gauravsingh said:

Yeah minisforum is great, although anecdotely on reddit I have seen folks needing to RMA them. 


1. For external drives, my use case was to use a JBOD and using truenas to manage them. Also I didnt want drives connected via thunderbolt as that could disconnect if I was not careful and the cable snagged on something(this whole setup lives is in my cupboard ). So I went with "QNAP TL-D400S 4 Bay SATA 6Gbps JBOD". It has a PCIe connector that does fit the ms-01 chassis and provides a much more secure connector along with drives showing up as JBOD. 

2. Awesome!  

3. Yeah I like nvme, I populated all the slots and I was a bit cheapo so I just reused my old steam deck sdd to one of the slots. But the problem was it wouldnt fit the slot so I got this small ssd extender thing for under 10 bucks so the tiny ssd could fit in a longer 2280 slot. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQ7BM2YV 

I want THAT kind of DAS... I also want my 280GB PCIe optane drive in that slot... for reasons. L2ARC reasons. The hope is that the percentage of data pulls from the large drives ends up exceedingly low vs ARC (96GB RAM)+L2ARC(280 GB). This is definitely a "because I can" project. 

I am still trying to figure out how to use the 2x 8TB 2.5" SATA SSDs I have... 

[jordanbuilds1]

LTT might aswell turn this post into a "show your server off" section...

[Euchre]

When Jake says "That's not something you can 3D print." about custom PCBs... well.. he's wrong.
 

Bad Obsession Motorsport did exactly that to create the dashboard instrument panel for their Project Binky mini. Maybe time for LTT to do a collab?

[cmndr]

Just found THIS - it's relevant @gauravsingh