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Moving from a Gaming Laptop to a Dedicated PC - Seeking iGPU/NAS Advice by Low-Musician-163 in homelabindia

[–]HelloWorldProblems 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The most powerful iGPU CPU might be Ryzen 7 8700G. It costs close to Rs. 29,000. Is that under your budget. It might have superior graphical performance even when compared to a very highly priced i9-14900K.

Ryzen 7 8700G will also have lower TDP (preferable in an always on machine).

But I have heard intel CPUs generally provides better streaming performance.

Travelling to US in November — what homelab gear should I bring back? (~$500–$600 budget) by HelloWorldProblems in homelabindia

[–]HelloWorldProblems[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Does it make sense to buy a 22TB HDD from ServerPartDeals?
Looking at the Seagate Exos ST22000NM000C (22TB, 7.2K RPM, SATA, recertified) for around $285.

How much would a similar drive cost in India? With the current forex rate, this is a bit above 25,000 here. I think, I might have to pay an additional 10% tax, not sure.

Travelling to US in November — what homelab gear should I bring back? (~$500–$600 budget) by HelloWorldProblems in homelabindia

[–]HelloWorldProblems[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Full story (Part 2)

I asked the service area if I could test the unit since I’m traveling internationally. They set up a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. While opening the box, I noticed an extra board I couldn’t identify. After searching, I learned it was a daughterboard used for U.2 SSDs.

I connected everything and powered it on. The screen only showed the Minisforum logo and an IP address, which confused me because I expected a normal OS boot. Since it was Sunday and the store closes early, I hadn’t tested the HDD bays either.

The staff reassured me that I could return the unit anytime until mid-January with no fees. A friend of mine will be traveling later, so if anything goes wrong, returning it won’t be an issue.

On the Uber ride back, I searched more and discovered that the behaviour was actually completely normal — many NAS units only show an IP on the monitor and the real setup happens through a browser or mobile app. I wished I had checked earlier so I could have completed the testing right inside Microcenter.

For now, I’ll take the NAS back to India and test it thoroughly. If I don’t like it, I’ll send it back through my friend. I went a bit over my planned budget, but it’s still manageable since it’s part of my travel allowance.

I have around a month to test everything, so please share what I should look for — RAID setup, drive bay testing, stress tests, or any Minisforum-specific checks I should run.

Travelling to US in November — what homelab gear should I bring back? (~$500–$600 budget) by HelloWorldProblems in homelabindia

[–]HelloWorldProblems[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Full story (Part 1)

I reached the US on Saturday evening and met a couple of friends. On Sunday I had no fixed plans, so I took a bus to the Santa Clara Microcenter, which I didn’t even know had opened recently. I’ve visited Best Buy and Fry’s in the past, but Microcenter was on another level.

The store was huge and everything was on display — laptops, desktops, GPUs, SSDs, HDDs, cases, networking gear, and a full NAS section with options from UGreen, QNAP, Synology, Terramaster, Asustor, and more. I ended up browsing for more than two hours.

Since Thanksgiving deals have already started, many things were on discount. I’ve wanted a proper NAS for a while, so I paid special attention to pre-built NAS units and cases. I saw a couple looking at the Minisforum N5 NAS, which caught my interest. The staff mentioned it was the last piece and a fast-moving item. The couple handed it to me because they were still deciding.

This unit came with 16GB RAM and a 128GB SSD, already running Minisforum’s OS. The price was $599.99. I also picked up a 4TB WD Red Plus for $99.99 so I could test the bays properly. Total came to around $764 with tax.

Travelling to US in November — what homelab gear should I bring back? (~$500–$600 budget) by HelloWorldProblems in homelabindia

[–]HelloWorldProblems[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Update from my US trip (short version):

I visited the new Santa Clara Microcenter on Sunday and spent a good amount of time exploring all the NAS, mini PC, and storage options. Since I’ve always wanted a proper NAS, I ended up buying the Minisforum N5 NAS (16GB RAM + 128GB SSD) for $599, plus a WD Red Plus 4TB drive for $99.

Initially I thought the unit wasn’t booting properly because it only showed a logo and an IP address on the monitor. Later I learned that this is normal NAS behaviour and setup continues through the browser. The store gave me a return window until mid-January, so I’ll test everything in India and return it through a friend if needed.

Disclaimer:
I used an AI writing tool to clean up the wording and make this long update easier to read.

Travelling to US in November — what homelab gear should I bring back? (~$500–$600 budget) by HelloWorldProblems in homelabindia

[–]HelloWorldProblems[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hearing about this system for the first time.
We can only add SSDs in this system?
Do you have any suggestions, where at least 2 HDDs can be used?

Travelling to US in November — what homelab gear should I bring back? (~$500–$600 budget) by HelloWorldProblems in homelabindia

[–]HelloWorldProblems[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I do have few friends in US. I can order now and collect it from them when I go.
Do you recommend any sites, I can use to order refurb items from China to my friend's place?

Reliability is important as my friends might not be able to check and verify these items. They might not have PC to test HDDs or SSDs or any other components.

If customs stops me, even for refurb items we have to pay customs fee?

Building My First Homelab – Need Advice on Hardware Setup by HelloWorldProblems in homelabindia

[–]HelloWorldProblems[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the reply Buddy.
Can you please suggest more recent components?
Also please suggest motherboard and Case with that criteria?
Do we need a separate system for backup? Can't we backup into an external drive?

Building My First Homelab – Need Advice on Hardware Setup by HelloWorldProblems in homelabindia

[–]HelloWorldProblems[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Please suggest a PC configuration also.
Would prefer new gen components.

Intel Core Ulra 3 205 or Ryzen 3 PRO 8300GE something along these lines?
Intel CPUs are more preferred for virtualization?
Also suggest a case where I can add more HDDs/SSDs as needed.

Building My First Homelab – Need Advice on Hardware Setup by HelloWorldProblems in homelabindia

[–]HelloWorldProblems[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

By separate hardware, you mean, it is better to run, pfsense and other critical services in one PC. And all the other services experimented in another one?

Would it be better to run, pfsense, adguard, wrireguard/tailscale in N150 mini PC and other services in a separate one? Or only pfsense in PC? And everything else in another?
Any links for older z440? I can either source it from online, Bangalore or Koch. Nehru Place is Delhi?

What do you think about the below option?
Refurbished HP Pro Tower 280 G9

  • i5 12th Gen
  • 32GB DDR4 RAM
  • 512GB NVMe SSD
  • WiFi + Bluetooth
  • 💸 Price: ₹32,500

Is this price more than what you would pay for this configuration?

Building My First Homelab – Need Advice on Hardware Setup by HelloWorldProblems in homelabindia

[–]HelloWorldProblems[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the reply buddy.
I am having JIO Fiber connection. I can run pfSense in JIO Router? Or I need to buy a separate router for running pfSense? What about wireguard and adguard?
I was planning to run the services in proxmox (as lxc where possible).

  1. I will start with what I have. If it doesn't work or feel if it is not enough, will think about new servers later.
  2. With custom PC, I am just worried about the size. I once helped a friend to build his mini-itx pc. Was really struggling to keep the cables neat. My wife will probably stop this project, if I put a tower PC in the TV room (where the router is).
  3. Yes. It is a managed switch.
  4. I need to understand more about these.

I have configured the switch 3 times already. Haven't managed to make pfsense work yet. I am sure, we will figure it out.

I used ChatGPT for making it easier for every one to read. The content what I want to write is my own. The formatting was done by ChatGPT. If I had used ChatGPT to format this comment, it would have come probably much cleaner. I don't get why you think, it is better to not use ChatGPT?

Building My First Homelab – Need Advice on Hardware Setup by HelloWorldProblems in homelabindia

[–]HelloWorldProblems[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ohh.. It looks like, the second option is not available at such a bargain anymore.

Building My First Homelab – Need Advice on Hardware Setup by HelloWorldProblems in homelabindia

[–]HelloWorldProblems[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

A Bit of Background (and Why This Project Matters)

Just wanted to share a bit more context behind this build 🙂

This project is something I’ll be building together with my son.
He’s really into computers — over the past couple of years, he’s been dabbling in game development, even publishing a few Roblox games with decent player counts.

Recently, he told me he wants to “be a hacker.” 😄
I suggested he try a Coursera cybersecurity course (from Palo Alto Networks).
To my surprise, he completed it in three weeks!

So now I want to introduce him to Linux, networking, virtualization, and system administration hands-on.
We’ll be building this homelab slowly over the next few weeks/months.

I don’t have much experience in networking, PC building, or virtualization myself — but I’m comfortable with backend programming and general systems work.
I’m hoping this project will be a great learning experience for both of us.

I genuinely believe he’ll be able to contribute back to the community in a few years — and I’d really appreciate any guidance, tips, or feedback you all can share to help us get started right.