Tag: hardware

Real RAM, disk, and CPU numbers for self-hosted Nominatim. Planet vs region, mini PC vs server, what survives the import and what doesn't.

Pick the right rack for your homelab: open frame vs 4-post vs wall-mount. Cable management, noise, and space trade-offs explained.

Used SFP+ gear turns 10GbE from a $5k fantasy into a $200 build. Mellanox NICs, the MikroTik CRS305 switch, DAC cabling, and where the savings stop.

Pick the right IT-mode HBA for ZFS: LSI 9211-8i vs 9300-16i vs 9400 series. Flash firmware, avoid RAID controllers, navigate expanders and PCIe lanes.

Calculate true energy costs: watts, kWh, BTU output, and 5-year TCO for homelab hardware swaps. When efficiency pays back.

Used enterprise-grade managed switches under $100: Aruba, Brocade, MikroTik picks, VLAN setup, wattage, and gotchas for home lab networks.

Noctua fans, IPMI curves, and undervolting techniques to make rackmount servers bedroom-quiet without thermal compromise.

Master UPS sizing math: VA vs watts, runtime calculations, battery replacement costs, NUT monitoring, and when EcoFlow beats enterprise hardware.

Raspberry Pi 5 vs Mini PC: when ARM wins, real costs with NVMe HATs, power consumption, performance, and ecosystem trade-offs for your home lab.

Head-to-head benchmarks: Intel N100/N305 vs Ryzen 7000 mini PCs. Power consumption, NVMe slots, RAM, transcoding, virtualization. Which one to buy.

Dell R630/R730 and SuperMicro buying guide for 2026. Real idle power draw, how loud they get, what to avoid entirely, and how to read an eBay listing.

NUT (Network UPS Tools) monitors APC, CyberPower, and Eaton UPSes and triggers graceful shutdowns before your home lab eats a corrupt ZFS pool.