DIY NAS Build: Compute, Drives, Power Walkthrough
Build a proper DIY NAS in 2026: case selection, CPU choice, drives, HBA card, ZFS pool layout, UPS sizing, and a real power budget that will not fail you.
Tag: homelab
All the articles with the tag "homelab".
k3sup vs kubeadm for Homelab Clusters
kubeadm is the official Kubernetes bootstrapper. k3sup is a one-shot SSH installer for k3s. Here's which one to use for your homelab cluster.
Dell R720 vs HP DL380 G9: Used Server Knife Fight
Dell R720 or HP DL380 G9 for your home lab? We compare CPU generation, power draw, fan noise levels, iDRAC vs iLO, and which used pizza box wins the fight.
NVMe Heatsinks That Actually Cool
NVMe drives throttle hard at 70-85C. Here is how to monitor temps, intentionally trigger throttling to confirm it, and pick a heatsink that fixes the issue.
SAS vs SATA in 2026: When SAS Still Wins
SAS drives are not dead — they are cheap on eBay right now. Here is exactly when used SAS3 hardware beats SATA for home lab storage builds on a budget.
Photon vs ESPHome: ESP Firmware Compared
Particle Photon 2 vs ESPHome for ESP32 projects: cloud lock-in, OTA updates, Home Assistant integration, and which firmware wins for self-hosters long-term.
Zigbee Coordinator Showdown: Sonoff vs ConBee vs SkyConnect
Sonoff Zigbee Dongle Plus-E vs ConBee III vs SkyConnect — pick the right Zigbee USB coordinator for your Home Assistant home lab or apartment setup in 2026.
BirdNET-Pi for Self-Hosted Bird Identification
Turn a Raspberry Pi and a cheap USB mic into a self-hosted bird ID station using BirdNET-Pi and Cornell ML audio models running entirely locally offline.
Scrypted vs Frigate for Self-Hosted Cameras
Scrypted bridges your IP cameras to HomeKit and Google Home. Frigate adds AI object detection on your own hardware. Here's how to pick — or run both at once.
ESPresense: Room-Level Bluetooth Presence in Home Assistant
Track which room you're in using cheap ESP32 nodes and BLE signal distance — real room-level presence for Home Assistant automations that don't annoy you daily.
Hetzner vs DigitalOcean vs Vultr
Picking a cheap VPS for home-lab overflow — off-site backups, public endpoints, CGNAT escape. Real tradeoffs, honest picks per scenario.
Plex Meta Manager: Posters, Collections, Sanity
Stop staring at a Plex library that looks like a clearance bin. Kometa (formerly Plex Meta Manager) automates collections, posters, overlays, and bulk ratings.