I have completed the physical home network. My goal in 2026 is to learn Proxmox. Currently using VMware workstation to run Linux desktops. I have acquired several HP mini desktops for the Proxmox install.
@alonzosmith Love the diagram here, very detailed and helps to see how you have your hardware setup. How are you liking your Grandstream equipment? I have never had my hands on anything GS, but hear ones really like them. Very cool goal of learning Proxmox. I think that will pay off as so many are migrating that way.
Brandon
@alonzosmith You won the Beelink SER9 Max! Congrats! Can you sign up on my discord server and send me a message? https://discord.gg/Zb46NV6mB3
Greetings from Germany, I share my setup below:
Setup since 2021:
2x HP-Z240-SFF (each i7-7700; 64GB-DDR4-2133; 4TB AHCI-SATA-SSD; 2TB NVMe)
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One machine running ESXi-8.x with RTX-A2000-12GB and GPU-Passthrough to a Win11-VM
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One machine running PVE-9.x with Quadro-K1200 GPU-Passthrough to a Win11-VM
Since 2025:
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One machine received an upgrade to RTX-A2000-12GB
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The same machine additionally received an 8TB AHCI-SATA-SSD
Host and VM setup:
Host-OS:
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1x ESXi-8.x
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1x PVE-9.x
VM:
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Multiple Windows-VM (some used as LLM-Server)
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Multiple Debian-13.x-VM as File-Server and Docker-Host
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One PVE-9.x-VM with a replicated setup to the physical PVE-9.x server (for practice with a replicated setup)
Docker-Container:
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Portainer
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Open-WebUI
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NPM
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PiHole
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Bitwarden
From 2026 onwards:
I am planning to build a house, and within it I will set up a 19" rack with more modern hardware in the utility room.
Thank you very much, Brandon, for your regular, exciting content – a truly great job! ♥️👍
@restrictanon Very nice setup! Love how ones are using hardware like the 2x HP-Z240-SFF. Curious to hear on what your main use case is for the GPU power. Are you using these as daily driver workstations or any LLM projects? Thanks again!
Brandon
@brandon-lee Thanks for your reply and your feedback, Brandon.
I also get a lot of input for this from your videos. 👍 Thanks for that and keep up the great work! 😊
Greetings from Germany, Marc
Current Setup:
My home lab runs on two main systems. The primary server is an Unraid box with an Intel i9-14900K and 32GB of RAM, currently sitting at about 24TB of storage. This handles all my media streaming through Plex and Jellyfin, plus a bunch of Docker containers for various projects I'm working on. The second machine is a Ryzen 3900X that I dedicated to game servers, and it's been handling multiple dedicated servers at once without breaking a sweat, including Valheim with the Krumpac Reforge modpack and several Minecraft servers.
Not Pictured
For networking, I'm keeping it pretty straightforward with a UniFi Dream Router Pro 7 and a 150W UniFi switch. Nothing fancy, but it gets the job done.
What I Added or Changed in 2025:
The big upgrade this year was finally expanding my storage capacity on the Unraid server. I also picked up a UPS to protect everything, though I still need to replace the batteries in it. One project I'm planning to tackle soon is setting up two redundant Raspberry Pis running Unbound for DNS. I've been researching it but haven't pulled the trigger yet.
Plans for 2026:
Storage is the main thing on my mind. I want to double or even triple my current 24TB capacity because I'm running out of room faster than I expected. Beyond that, I've been eyeing a possible Threadripper upgrade, probably going with an older generation to keep costs reasonable. The dream plan is to eventually get everything properly rack-mounted instead of the current desktop tower setup you see in the photo.
The Story Behind It:
This whole setup evolved from hand-me-down hardware, which I think is how a lot of home labs get started. I ran an old i7-5930K as my Unraid server for several years, and it did fine for what I needed at the time. When I upgraded my gaming PC, I cascaded the i9-14900K down to become the new Unraid server, and the performance difference was massive. Same story with the Ryzen 3900X, that was my gaming PC two builds ago, and instead of letting it collect dust, I repurposed it as a dedicated game server host.
What started as just a simple media server turned into a multi-purpose platform. I use it for AI development tinkering and app development work, hosting game servers so friends and I can play together, and keeping all our media streaming in-house with Plex and Jellyfin. It's partly about the learning experience and technical challenge, partly about having practical tools that actually get used, and partly just enjoying the control of running my own infrastructure instead of relying on cloud services for everything.
The setup lives in my basement workshop area, and yeah, the cable management could definitely use some work. But that's the beauty of a home lab, you can iterate and improve as you go. The next evolution will hopefully involve some proper rack mounting and a lot less spaghetti.
@kackarot I love your story here. Definitely agree how many home labs start is getting hardware handed down or 2nd hand enterprise hardware at a good price. I think this will become more and more important with the inflated RAM pricing. Very cool that you have a storage focus here too on your upgrades. I will be making some of those same decisions myself this next year to expand a few things for storage purposes. Very nice!
Brandon
Currently running a few Dell 730Xds and 740XDs (Truenas server & esxi). My home is mostly running a 10gbit core with 1gig / wifi mesh to support IoT, Cell Phones, etc.
Added in 2025: Ubiquity Fiber Gateway (installing this weekend). I have dual ISPs that currently is managed by a pfsense. my pfsense works great but the ubiquity devices was on sale and I used that as an excuse to start looking at ubiquity products.
Planned for 2026: Replace random switches with more unifi gear. Replace the old iron with some mini pcs to save on power and noise. Migrate to proxmox.
Goals: I work in IT so its mostly a playground for me to continually learn and leverage my knowledge to make our life easier or better at home (pihole, *arr stack, jellyfin, truenas, proxmox, etc.)
One exciting idea I have... Minipc with occulink or usb4 to external dock for HBA to run the diskshelf without the need of a massive server.
@michaelmurphy Very clean rack, love it! Your journey seems very similar to mine as well. I started out as a vSphere junkie and loved the technology. Shame that Broadcom has basically killed it in the community. Curious if you decided to certify to get access to VMUG licensing? Wondering how many are actually doing this. I can't imagine that VMUG is not hurting or seeing a tremendous drop in subscriptions. However, glad to have Proxmox and the new features and functionality they are coming out with, going to be exciting to see how this matures. I also got into Unifi and love the ecosystem there. They seem to have a solution for basically everything which is nice that it all works together and integrates.
Brandon
Hey! first time posting, just to try to get the SER9 for my home lab, right now i have the SER5 that very optimisticly wanted to use for AI compute. but now its running proxmox with some VM and docker. Would love the SER9 for a more powerfull task and speed transfers. that 10G would do good.
THanks for the youtube content, thats how i discovered this site and I hope i get it.
@peerviewpoint Awesome little setup! Very clean and awesome that you are already familiar with the Beelink ecosystem. SER9 is a great little machine.
Brandon