Hardware

As I said, the homelab project isn’t static. However, this is the current hardware snapshot, if you will.

Main server (custom build):

• Case: Jonsbo N4, with a custom 3D-printed front intake for two extra fans, improving airflow and cooling for the HDD bay
• CPU: Ryzen 5 5650G PRO APU (6C/12T). Specifically chose the PRO variant for ECC support
• Cooler: Noctua NH-L9x65
• Motherboard: ASRock B550 Pro4, known and proven to work with unbuffered ECC RAM
• RAM: 2x 32 GB DDR4
• Boot/OS drive: Crucial MX500 250 GB, running Proxmox VE
• PVE storage: 1.8 TB Kioxia Exceria Plus G2 SSD
• TrueNAS OS drive: WD SN730 1 TB, passed through to the TrueNAS VM
• TrueNAS storage: 4x 4 TB Toshiba N300 HDDs, passed through to the TrueNAS VM
• PSU: Seasonic Gold 550W, roughly 50W idle draw
• NICs: Intel I225-V (vmbr0) and Intel I226-V (dedicated backup NIC, vmbr1). Both added after disabling the onboard Realtek chip, which proved unreliable on Proxmox and isn’t worth the risk in a real testing environment
• HBA: LSI SAS2008, passed through to the TrueNAS VM
• Zigbee: Sonoff USB MG24 controller, passed through to Home Assistant

Now I want to explain the rationale behind each hardware choice, so I decided to make this its own post. The main homelab writeup would get too large otherwise, and it’s easy to lose focus along the way.

Overview

I’m a firm believer in experience gained by breaking things, working through failures, and solving problems under real constraints, with real ownership of the decisions.

The homelab idea was introduced to me by r/homelab and a few other forums, including Tom Lawrence’s, a very technical community.

For context: my current setup is a rework of a previous build. Below I’ll detail the actual hardware choices, the struggles along the way, and the real-world constraints behind them.