Real hardware guides from someone who actually uses this stuff.
No sponsored picks. No affiliate-first recommendations. 13 years of building PCs and running servers — just what I use and why.
How We Test
From 2024 through early 2026 I ran a home test bench in St. Louis County, MO — measuring idle power draw at the wall, logging thermals under sustained load, and benchmarking on hardware I bought with my own money. Most of that gear has since been sold or retired (see About and Colophon for the full timeline). Today the site combines my hands-on history with a synthesis of cited third-party benchmarks — ServeTheHome, Phoronix, Tom’s Hardware, TechPowerUp — plus original first-party runs on the rigs I still own (most recently the ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC dataset). No vendor samples, no sponsored content, no affiliate-first picks.
New to the site? These three guides cover the essentials.
Best Mini PC for a Homelab 2026: MS-01, NUC, SFF
The best mini PC for a homelab in 2026 by budget: MS-01 for 10GbE, ASUS NUC 14 for low idle, used OptiPlex under $200. Specs, idle watts, and picks.
Self-HostedBest Self-Hosted Apps 2026: 12 That Replace SaaS
The 12 best self-hosted apps in 2026: Immich, Nextcloud, Vaultwarden, Jellyfin, and 8 more. Docker compose files, hardware requirements.
Best Mini PC for a Homelab 2026: MS-01, NUC, SFF
The best mini PC for a homelab in 2026 by budget: MS-01 for 10GbE, ASUS NUC 14 for low idle, used OptiPlex under $200. Specs, idle watts, and picks.
HomelabTurn an Old Gaming PC Into a Server (2026 Guide)
Step-by-step: turn a 2018-era gaming PC into a Proxmox VE 8 homelab server. BIOS settings, install, GPU passthrough, idle wattage.
ComparisonProxmox vs ESXi in 2026: Free ESXi Is Back, But Does It Matter?
Free ESXi 8.0 returned with limits. Proxmox VE is open source with no VM caps. Real benchmarks, feature comparison, and an honest verdict on which hypervisor wins for homelabs in 2026.
ComparisonBest Budget NAS Builds for Home Users in 2026
Build a 4-bay NAS for under $800 with real hardware, measured power draw, and the right OS. AOOSTAR WTR Pro N100 and 5825U compared with TrueNAS, Unraid, and OpenMediaVault.
DDR5 RAM Buying Guide for 2026: Stop Overpaying for Speed You Can't Feel
DDR5-6000 to 6400 is the smart money in 2026. Real benchmark scores, specific kit recommendations at 32GB, 64GB, and 96GB, and the gotchas nobody warns you about.
Build GuideThe Best Gaming Monitor You've Probably Never Heard Of
The Gigabyte AORUS FO48U is a 48-inch 4K OLED with DisplayPort and a KVM switch that nobody talks about. Here's why it's been my daily driver.
Best Self-Hosted Apps 2026: 12 That Replace SaaS
The 12 best self-hosted apps in 2026: Immich, Nextcloud, Vaultwarden, Jellyfin, and 8 more. Docker compose files, hardware requirements.
TutorialSelf-Hosting Essentials: What to Self-Host First and Why
Six self-hosted services in the right order, with real hardware requirements for each. Pi-hole, Uptime Kuma, Jellyfin, Nextcloud, Immich, and Home Assistant — what you actually need to run them.