This is my collection of hardware from over the past 10 years of computer building for friends, family members, companies, and myself. AKA my Homelab.
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FAQ:
Q: Your cable management is abysmal
A: There is no cable management.
Q: What GPU is sitting on the table?
A: It's an AMD PULSE RX 580 4G G5. I got it from my uncle's mining rig, I'm trying to switch to using those to give them a peaceful retirement.
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Now, onto the nitty gritty. I know it ain't much, but it's honest work.
1) The Router - DT Technologies 136S
Stock > Upgraded
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Intel Core i3-3120M @ 2.50GHz > Intel Core i5-2430M @ 2.40GHz
8 GB DDR3 1600Mhz > 16 GB DDR3 1600Mhz
64 GB MSATA SSD > 512 GB MSATA SSDI got this box, ran a few IPerf tests, and immediately upgraded everything. When I bought this box, my thought process was "huh my old Netgear router doesn't need active cooling and can do gigabit, I'm sure any old pc can do just fine". I was wrong - I didn't consider virtualization and driver overhead. Luckily, this box is essentially a laptop in a passively cooled hunk of metal, so I upgraded the cpu from my mom's old laptop, and now I'm getting way faster speeds. A friend of mine has an old laptop CPU which is better than both of the listed ones, so eventually you'll see a CPU upgrade walkthrough for that as well!
Software wise, my router is running Proxmox. This allows it to run OPNSense (with cpu priority), then host piHole, and HomeAssistant(there's a Zigbee antenna on the front).
My OPNSense router currently runs ZenArmor for a user friendly siem while also generating some nice reports of network traffic usage. It also runs Suricata which runs in promiscuous mode.
I also run 3 VLANs with their own subnets to separate LAN, local, and server networks with individualized firewall rules. My IOT network exists through my mesh networked access points, which have the ability to host a individualized "guest" network, allowing for IOT devices to be network isolated with internet access. I also restrict certain applications from network access unless manual updates are required.
2) Netgear Managed Business Switch - GS3O5E
5x 1GB
Managed Switch
Tagged/Untagged VLAN CapableMy Netgear switch makes this entire idea possible. I have tagged all ports on the switch to allow for proper separation of my LAN, local, and server networks. I also have a management port specifically for managing OPNSense/other device configs as this is not accessible from the PROD network.
3) Netgear Modem
1.2 Gbps down
35 Mbps up :(Patiently waiting for Docsis 4.0 or fiber.
4) Igor
AMD Ryzen 2600
32 GB DDR4
NVIDIA GT 730 (for hypervisor)
NVIDIA Geforce 970 (for VMs)This is Igor. It stabilizes things that fall apart. In all seriousness, this was my first AMD Ryzen PC build that is now retired as a home server. It also runs Proxmox, running a file server, some game servers, streaming services, backup services for my PROD machines, all the goodness. It also runs a Windows VM for when my family visits, so they can locally stream games to their portable devices with high fidelity (rip online multiplayer games because anticheat.) :(
5) Synology NAS DS1511+
This is a part of the "2" in my 3-2-1 backup solution. This is my weekly backup solution of choice that does snapshot backups of Igor, just in case.
6) Project :D
AMD 8320
16 GB DDR3
AMD PULSE RX 580 4G G5
AMD PULSE RX 580 4G G5This case houses most the parts of my first ever gaming rig. Even though the AMD 8320 is more power hungry than I'd like, it supports two RX 580s which I have attempted to run stable diffusion models on. I've already run into issues with AMD support for models and am considering switching to NVIDIA in the near future, especially for the VRAM. However, this will do for now and tech like this gets me super excited for the future.