So I was wondering, what is exactly the use case of owning a server rack with huge CPUs and 256GB of DDR4 RAM with 1PB of storage?
Obviously, I’m kind of exaggerating here, but it does seem that most homelabs are big server racks with at least two CPUs and like 20 cores in total.
Why would I want to buy a server rack with all the bells and whistles when a low-power, small NAS can do the trick? What’s the main advantage of having a huge server, compared to an average Synology NAS for example?
Honestly, I only see disadvantages tbh. It consumes way more power, costs way more money and the processing power it provides is probably only relevant for (small) businesses and not for an individual like me.
So, convince me. Why should I get a homelab instead of a regular NAS?
I was debating between getting myself a NAS or some PC to setup my homelab. I decided for a PC as it gives me more freedom to install and personalize it the way I want.
At the moment I’m running FreeBSD with jails on a Q920 with an i5 processor, 16 GB of RAM, one internal SSD with 512 GB and 2 external USB SDDs with each 1 TB which costed me around 300 Euros.
Seems more than enough for the services I want to provide to myself which are the following.
Navidrome > serves all my music locally and remotely.
Zabbix > to monitor my servers
DNSMasq > ad blocking and local dns
gitea > repo for code and other docs
Transmission > torrenting
Radicale > webcal and webdav
Photoprism > local photo gallery
Vaultwarden > Password manager
SearXNG > search
HAproxy > to serve my public content easily to the web
Mastodon
Emby > local media server
And I run a Linux VM on bhyve to serve 2 tools that I was not able to make work easily on FreeBSD.
Besides that, the node replicates some data from my VPS as a backup solution.
And I can’t complain at all. That PC is doing its job just fine. No need for any rack that uses huge amount of electricity.