Homelab Guides
Practical homelab guides: mini PC picks, NAS builds, Proxmox setup, and networking. Real hardware, real power draw, real recommendations.
Homelab guides
TechFuel HQ’s homelab coverage is editorial selection over exhaustive listing. The guides below are the ones I’d send to a friend asking “what do I actually buy?” — opinionated picks at three price tiers, with cost-of-ownership math, idle wattage notes, and the configurations that hold up after the first weekend.
About this section
Articles here are sourced from cited third-party measurements (ServeTheHome, Phoronix, Tom’s Hardware) plus first-party history from a 2024–2025 home test bench. That gear was largely retired in early 2026 (Colophon has the full timeline). New first-party measurements live in the Open Bench Datasets directory.
Getting Started
Best Mini PC for a Homelab 2026: MS-01, NUC, SFF
The best mini PC for a homelab in 2026, by budget: a used OptiPlex 7060 Micro at $219.99, the MS-01 for 10GbE, the NUC 14 Pro+ for low idle. Newegg prices.
HardwareHow to Set Up Proxmox on a Mini PC: First VM in Under an Hour
Set up Proxmox VE on a mini PC step by step - install, storage, networking, and your first VM in under an hour (MS-01, NUC 14 Pro, EliteDesk 800 G4).
TutorialSelf-Hosted Services: What to Self-Host First
Six self-hosted services in the right order, with real hardware needs: Pi-hole, Uptime Kuma, Jellyfin, Nextcloud, Immich, and Home Assistant.
Comparisons
Proxmox vs ESXi in 2026: Free ESXi Is Back, But Does It Matter?
Free ESXi stops at 8.0U3e (2 CPUs, 8 vCPUs per VM, no ESXi 9); Proxmox VE 9.2 has no caps. What maps, breaks and costs when you move, as of September 2026.
Proxmox vs TrueNAS vs Unraid: ZFS, btrfs, and Homelab IOPS
Unraid vs TrueNAS vs Proxmox in 2026: which storage platform to pick, how their ZFS and btrfs backends really differ, and the IOPS and rebuild tradeoffs.
LXC vs VM in Proxmox: When to Use Each
LXC or VM in Proxmox VE 9.2 for Docker, Home Assistant, Jellyfin, a NAS, Windows and a firewall: service choices, backups, storage and migration.
Builds & Infrastructure
Best Budget NAS Build 2026: 4-Bay DIY in the Drive + RAM Crunch
Budget TrueNAS build on a $379 AOOSTAR WTR Pro 5825U: $1,186.76 for an 8TB mirror with 16GB DDR4 and two IronWolf 8TB drives. Prices September 23, 2026.
Networking10GbE Homelab Networking on a Budget: A 2026 Guide
Two machines on 10GbE for $77.99, four for $320.98 at September 24, 2026 prices: cost per 10G device, switch power per year, and when 2.5GbE is enough.
NetworkingBest Homelab Networking Gear Under $200 (2026): Routers & APs
Best homelab router under $200 in 2026: MikroTik RB5009, UniFi UCG Ultra and GL.iNet Flint 2 compared, plus 10GbE switches and Wi-Fi 7 APs.
Power & Cost
24/7 Homelab Idle Power Costs: What It Really Costs to Run
Real idle power draws for common homelab hardware: mini PCs, NAS, switches, and tower servers, with annual cost math and a region-by-region breakdown.
ToolHomelab Power & Cost Calculator
Calculate your homelab's annual electricity cost, 3-year TCO, and savings vs cloud. Enter each device's idle and load watts, hours per day, and your rate.
ToolUPS Runtime Calculator
Enter your system load and UPS rating to estimate runtime in minutes. See if your UPS can handle a graceful shutdown and which models fit your target.
ToolProxmox VM Capacity Planner
Enter host RAM, CPU cores, and VM profile to see how many VMs or LXC containers your Proxmox server can run, with ZFS ARC overhead included.
More from this section
Intel N150 Mini PC: Which Box, and Is It Enough?
Intel rates the N150 at 6 W and 16 GB. Across eight vendor pages I opened, the same chip carries six different power figures. Which N150 box fits which job.
Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2: Buy It, or a Sonoff? (2026)
Connect ZBT-2, decided: one radio, Zigbee or Thread, never both, no Bluetooth or Z-Wave. When it beats a Sonoff dongle or the SLZB-06, and when it does not.
Synology or Build? The Five-Year NAS Cost
Five years of a Synology DS925+ against a DIY four-bay build, priced line by line on published idle-power measurements. Electricity is not what decides it.
Size a Frigate NVR by Bitrate, Not Megapixels
Frigate storage is set by the recorded bitrate, not camera megapixels — Reolink's 5MP and 4K cameras default to the same 6144 kbps. Size the drive on that.
Six-Bay NAS Drives: The Rebuild Math at 20TB+
Which 20TB+ drives belong in a six-bay NAS, how long a 24TB rebuild really takes, and why the famous URE calculation is the wrong reason to pick RAIDZ2.
NAS Software at Month Eight: DSM, UGOS Pro, TOS, QTS
Good hardware carries month one. The software is what you still run at month eight: Synology DSM, UGREEN UGOS Pro, TerraMaster TOS and QNAP QTS.
Minisforum MS-01: Reviewed as a 24/7 Hypervisor Node
The MS-01 judged as a 24/7 hypervisor node instead of a desktop: four network ports are the reason to buy it, idle runs higher and the fan runs louder.
Living With Exos: Noise, Vibration, and Recerts
Exos are loud, but the chassis panel is what you hear. Published idle noise for Exos, Ultrastar and Toshiba MG, and how to buy a recertified drive.
How to Test a UPS: Charge Is Not Health
A UPS showing full can still drop the load on transfer. The test that proves it, why pure sine matters behind active PFC, and why USB plus NUT beats a card.
Homelab Regrets: Five Purchases I'd Take Back
Five homelab purchases I regret — used rack servers, over-building, two-bay NAS units, cheap 2.5GbE switches, and Exos drives bought on price alone.
ECC on a Home Server: What It Catches, How to Verify
What Google and Facebook measured about DRAM errors, why DDR5 on-die ECC is not ECC, and the dmidecode and EDAC checks that prove yours is switched on.
Best Hardware for Frigate NVR (2026)
Frigate NVR hardware sized by camera count: CPU, RAM, detector, and drive picks with cited specs and dated prices - plus why you probably don't need a Coral.
Restic vs Borg vs Kopia: Which Backup Tool (2026)
restic vs Borg vs Kopia on verified 2026 docs: restic has had compression since v0.14.0, and where the backup lands decides the tool.
Best Mini PC for Home Assistant (2026)
The best mini PC for Home Assistant in 2026: an N100 box at $339 or a used EliteDesk at $179.99 on Newegg, and which install method goes on each one.
Best NAS for Plex & Jellyfin 2026: Which Ones Actually Hardware-Transcode
Which NAS to buy for Plex or Jellyfin in 2026, by transcode load: what each chip does in hardware, Plex's software rule per chip, dated Newegg prices.
Forgejo vs Gitea 2026: Which Self-Hosted Git to Pick
Forgejo hard-forked from Gitea and the two have diverged. How they compare in 2026 on governance, licensing, federation, and migration — and which to self-host.
Best NAS Hard Drives 2026: Picks by Use Case + Real $/TB Math
The best NAS hard drives for 2026 by use case: the CMR-vs-SMR history from the spec sheets, a live-priced $/TB table, and what recerts really cost.
Karakeep vs Linkwarden: Which Self-Hosted Bookmark Manager (2026)
Karakeep (formerly Hoarder) vs Linkwarden for 2026: AI tagging vs full-page archival, Docker footprint, license, and a clear pick by use case.
Servers for a Homelab (2026): Which One to Buy
Servers for a homelab in 2026: five classes priced at Newegg on September 26, measured idle watts where they exist, and what each costs over three years.
Proxmox System Requirements: Hardware for a Homelab (2026)
Proxmox VE 9.2's official minimum and recommended hardware, the installer's real disk floor, and the RAM, disk and CPU each homelab workload adds.
How to Build a NAS From an Old PC (2026 Guide)
Build a NAS from an old PC in 2026: does your desktop qualify, OMV vs TrueNAS vs Unraid, SATA ports and HBA cards, and the power and ECC caveats.
Proxmox Helper Scripts (tteck): Safety and Root Access
Proxmox helper scripts (community-scripts, ex-tteck) run as root and pull more code at runtime. What they do, the actual risks, and how to vet them safely.
Komodo vs Portainer vs Dockge: Best Docker Manager (2026)
Komodo for fleets, Portainer for Kubernetes and BE controls, Dockge for one Compose host. Portainer CE stays on 2.45 LTS as 3.0 goes Kubernetes-first.
Caddy vs Nginx Proxy Manager vs Traefik in 2026
The three homelab reverse proxies compared: Caddy, Nginx Proxy Manager, and Traefik on HTTPS automation, Docker discovery, licensing, and which to pick.
Beszel vs Netdata vs Glances: Homelab Monitoring
Lightweight homelab monitoring compared: Beszel, Netdata, and Glances on footprint, history, and alerts — plus where Uptime Kuma fits, and which to run.