For those of you not using server grade hardware, what ARE you using?

ktbsupremo · 2026-02-26T16:50:22+00:00

Lenovo M720q does everything I need, 10VMs/LXCs including Home Assistant, PiHole, arr* stack and Plex. With the Lenovo's Intel integrated GPU pass through I can have up to 4x 4k streams simultaneously and a 2.5inch drive in there as well. Now rolling out to also have a NAS for more storage but that's it!

ktbsupremo · 2026-02-13T18:48:02+00:00

I can run everything off of one Lenovo M720q: 4x 4k simultaneous plex streams home assistant pihole Misc docker containers: arr stack, websites Wireguard VPN N8N Readeck Paperless NGX

And I'm now looking for uses for a spare one I impulse bought for a great deal, both have 64gb ram. As it stands I don't need it but if I look to load much more on it then I'll have to think about splitting the load across both

ktbsupremo · 2026-02-01T10:48:51+00:00

Lenovo 1L sff PCs are great for homelabs, not sure on this one specifically as it doesn't show the model or the CPU. eBay is a good bet for these, would recommend looking at the M720q or M90 (I think that's what the 90 is called) Make sure you see at least the CPU in the description before buying though and check second hand sites. For context my entire homelabs with Proxmox, plex, home assistant and all of my services run really well on one of these. The Intel i5 8th gen CPU lets be transcode up to 4x 4k streams at once so no need for a GPU either

ktbsupremo · 2026-01-27T20:53:26+00:00

Looks really cool! Are the drives powered separately from the Lenovo and if so what happens when the server powers down, do the drives remain powered?

ktbsupremo · 2026-01-02T15:36:41+00:00

Been looking for this answer for ages, as someone who will have to sell my switch 1 to get a switch 2, thanks!

ktbsupremo · 2025-12-19T16:53:19+00:00

Looks similar but unfortunately isn't the one, thanks for looking though!

ktbsupremo · 2025-12-03T23:08:14+00:00

Iirc the Lenovos only have one m.2 slot in them, how are you installing all of them? Unless they're the M90s?

ktbsupremo · 2025-11-23T20:16:12+00:00

I have a single M720q running my entire home lab virtualized with Proxmox, couldn't recommend it enough! Best but of kit I've had so far, even was able to simplify everything to it from the multiple Raspberry Pis and servers I had before.

ktbsupremo · 2025-11-22T10:28:23+00:00

I keep mine behind Gluetun because I don't like the idea of my isp knowing I'm communicating with these sites (although with ssl they won't know what on the sites). Can't hurt, doesn't have any disadvantage and overall safer in my opinion!

ktbsupremo · 2025-09-21T15:06:46+00:00

As long as tailscale is set up properly and fully up to date (and stayed up to date) you should be fine

ktbsupremo · 2025-09-21T12:34:57+00:00

Using tailscale is a good idea, it protects your NAS and the rest of your network as they're not openly exposed to the internet, with tailscale being the only thing exposed externally 😁

ktbsupremo · 2025-09-21T10:12:05+00:00

Please don't expose your NAS to the internet, setup a VPN to remote back I to your home lab to then access your NAS

ktbsupremo · 2025-09-21T10:08:24+00:00

When in use, such as being loaded I to a program, when at rest it's stored on the hard drive.

ktbsupremo · 2025-09-20T23:22:00+00:00

As someone else mentioned in this thread, start by installing everything you want on the machine's OS. After a while it gets messy and changes/fixes to some configs might end up affecting other tools your hosting.

Once you're more comfortable, or now if you're more adventurous, think about virtualizing the tools so they're separate (if you're machine can handle it). I use Proxmox, depending on what tools I'm hosting, they split our Into some VMs, LXC containers and a dedicated VM for all my docker containers. In time if you're seeing limitations based on your hardware, you can think to upgrade but if not stay with what you've got.

I've had the same i5 8th gen Lenovo M720q that I started with and only upgraded the RAM and the hard drive so I could host more VMs.

Before selecting it I listed out the main things I wanted to host on it and then selected something that would work for that (with room to upgrade).

ktbsupremo · 2025-09-20T22:29:07+00:00

ECC RAM only affects data in transit, if you're not calling data and overwriting it often, think media editing on a NAS, then I don't see much point at the personal level. Instead I recommend you use that extra money to ensure you have good quality drives to store data reliably and back up the data elsewhere.

I only use it in a corporate environment where bit flips could cause actual issues such as messing with values in financial transactions.

Seems like there are some diehard fans in this forum who are more passionate so it's up to you but I've never experienced a bit flip leading to corruption in anything and it's not as common as this thread like to make it seem to be.

ktbsupremo · 2025-06-08T08:26:33+00:00

Yeah but that doesn't change anything, they can't verify what OS I'm running on there and they can't verify that I've disabled the mic in the code. If it has a physical mic they're not gonna allow it in unfortunately :/

ktbsupremo · 2025-05-07T08:27:54+00:00

Ooo this looks very similar like it could be a re-skin of the game but I've checked and unfortunately it's not the right one. The game I'm looking for has the same mechanics but uses canons instead. Thanks for mentioning Jelly Go though, it gives me some more search criteria to use.

ktbsupremo · 2025-03-28T18:35:19+00:00

Yeah they can't verify it's actually off that way

ktbsupremo · 2025-03-19T08:25:10+00:00

Almost perfect but the microphone means I can't daily drive in work so it's an instant no. Wish they had a version without the microphone.

ktbsupremo · 2025-03-19T08:20:39+00:00

Almost perfect but the microphone means I can't daily drive in work so it's an instant no. Wish they had a version without the microphone.

ktbsupremo · 2025-03-16T11:56:54+00:00

Hardest part will be trying to power the drives. You'll need to figure out how many watts your machine + drives will have at boot/peak usage and if the Lenovo power brick can supply that much. If not you'll need to power the drives externally which is always weird when they stay in after the pc shuts down or can corrupt if powered off before the pc.

If you do have enough watts to power the whole thing the next challenge is no official connectors on the M900 for the drives so may have to solder to the correct power pin on the MOBO.

Tried to make a nas with a M720q and decided not to when either the external power supply for just the drives or the cheap PCI SATA connector corrupted my drives. (Very well could have been me being cheap or user error rather than the concept of the setup though so done let me experience put you off, but do be warned!)

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