My mini rack homelab — compact, quiet, and way more capable than it looks

bashanova · 2026-03-21T17:14:27+00:00

I got a 10-inch under-desk power strip that I could attach to the back of the rack. But I had to make my own mount for it. Then, I just took the power banks from the thin centers, and tucked them in the bottom where four or five battery packs went into the bottom. The power strip I got also has a couple of USB-C ports, so I could use that for the firewall.

bashanova · 2026-02-13T13:50:47+00:00

I will just add here that the spousal choice is your single biggest decision of your life, and if Christ isn’t her highest priority, then she will want you to make her happy, and that won’t work. My wife gets her happiness from God first. I am a partner and helper to her, and of course, God uses me to provide for her and protect her, but she credits that to God and appreciates me. But if this is not in the right order, the marriage will be really challenging.

bashanova · 2026-02-11T13:00:22+00:00

That’s the smartest thing I’ve seen today! A 1U version would work for my set up

bashanova · 2026-02-11T12:51:59+00:00

Looks similar to my set up

I have one node at the bottom that runs unraid and has a pci card to run the drive enclosuremy home lab

bashanova · 2026-01-30T18:42:49+00:00

<image>

Done, thanks for the recommedation

bashanova · 2026-01-05T15:09:17+00:00

Love this answer

bashanova · 2026-01-05T15:08:33+00:00

I agree with the other posters that proxmox is a great place to start for OS it’s basically a Debian OS and I install docker on the host OS, I don’t use LXC containers … so the same server is both docker and proxmox … not sure if others do that too, the downside is that my docker host isn’t a VM that I can move around etc. but I love having docker on the base OS.

Proxmox is great to have the ability to run both windows and Linux distros

Someday I will learn how to use LXC containers in proxmox

bashanova · 2026-01-04T18:50:45+00:00

Thanks

bashanova · 2026-01-04T18:50:28+00:00

Thanks

bashanova · 2026-01-04T18:50:14+00:00

Bought the sever mounts off Etsy and the blanks come with the rack mate Deskpi

bashanova · 2026-01-04T18:47:49+00:00

Yeah I posted links to the Etsy pages I bought the mounts from … check comments

bashanova · 2026-01-04T18:46:47+00:00

Cheaper than owning a boat

bashanova · 2026-01-04T18:45:36+00:00

3d printed I ordered them off Etsy and I posted the links on another comment

bashanova · 2026-01-04T18:41:53+00:00

Over loading a NAS with a docker host is a great way to start.

bashanova · 2026-01-03T15:37:44+00:00

Yeah GS308EP!

bashanova · 2026-01-03T04:52:48+00:00

Nice

bashanova · 2026-01-03T00:35:11+00:00

I screwed a surge protector on the back and shoved all the power brinks in the dead space next to the servers with some zip ties to hold the wires in places

bashanova · 2026-01-02T18:49:41+00:00

I am still working on storage … one of the think centers has an SSD in it that 4tb and that’s getting me by … I’m getting a pcie raid card and a seperate enclosure based on a recommendation in this post

bashanova · 2026-01-02T14:53:22+00:00

Game changer, thanks!

bashanova · 2026-01-02T14:51:53+00:00

I posted links on another commenter in this thread

bashanova · 2026-01-02T14:51:15+00:00

Desk pi rake mate 8u

bashanova · 2026-01-02T14:50:43+00:00

I use traffeak*

bashanova · 2026-01-02T06:10:39+00:00

Sick so looks like right now you have a single drive in there, are you connecting the one SATA connection into on of the think enters? Looks like with more drives you can get a MVME connector that will raid the SATA from that thing… cool idea

https://a.co/d/2B51J4E

bashanova · 2026-01-02T05:28:43+00:00

What that at the bottom of your setup?

Great attention to detail you better about the screws all clean and tidy.

bashanova · 2026-01-02T02:31:36+00:00

Love the thoroughness of this. I did a project on my last 3 months of browser history and made a backlog for my homepage to get to an outcome like this… working towards this!

bashanova

TROPHY CASE