Homelab Guides
Practical homelab guides: mini PC picks, NAS builds, Proxmox setup, and networking. Real hardware, real power draw, real recommendations.
Best Mini PCs for Your First Homelab
Five mini PCs tested for homelab use in 2026 with real idle power, NIC counts, and pricing. Minisforum MS-01, MS-A2, MS-02 Ultra, Beelink SER8, and AI X1 Pro-470 compared honestly.
HardwareHow to Set Up Proxmox on a Mini PC — Box to First VM in Under an Hour
Step-by-step Proxmox VE setup on a mini PC. From USB boot to your first VM and LXC container in under an hour. Real hardware, real power draw, no enterprise bloat.
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.
Proxmox 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.
HomelabProxmox vs TrueNAS vs Unraid 2026: Which to Run
Proxmox VE 8, TrueNAS Community Edition 25.10, and Unraid 7 compared — license cost, ZFS, Docker, clustering, and a clear pick per homelab use case.
Best 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.
Budget10GbE Networking for Your Homelab: The $150 Upgrade That Changes Everything
10GbE networking dropped below $150 for a full homelab setup in 2026. Mellanox cards for $20, budget SFP+ switches for $85, and real use cases that justify the upgrade over 2.5GbE.
NetworkingBest Homelab Networking Gear Under $200
Seven pieces of homelab networking gear under $200 that actually deliver multi-gig speeds. MikroTik, Ubiquiti, GL.iNet, and TP-Link compared with real throughput and honest tradeoffs.