Saying goodbye to my first self-built server and looking ahead to the next chapter in my home lab journey.

There’s a special kind of hum a computer makes when it’s one you built yourself. It’s a quiet, steady thrum that’s more than just the sound of fans and spinning disks. For me, it’s the sound of learning, of late-night tinkering, and of my very first beginner home lab. It’s sitting next to my bed right now, but not for much longer, and saying goodbye feels surprisingly bittersweet.

This whole journey started with a single PC, my first-ever full build. It’s not a flashy gaming rig, but a workhorse designed for one thing: experimentation. It’s been my gateway into the incredible world of self-hosting and virtualization, and it proves you don’t need a rack of enterprise gear to get started.

What’s Powering My First Beginner Home Lab?

When I first pieced this machine together, I chose the parts carefully, balancing cost with capability. The heart of it is an Intel Xeon E5-2630 v4 processor, which gave me plenty of cores to play with. I paired that with 40GB of DDR4 RAM, a 500GB SSD for the operating system and a few game servers, and two 2TB hard drives mirrored for reliable storage.

But the hardware is only half the story. The real magic happens with the software.

Instead of Windows or a standard Linux desktop, I’m running Proxmox VE. If you’re new to the concept, Proxmox is a hypervisor. It’s a lightweight operating system that lets you run multiple, independent virtual machines (VMs) on a single physical computer. It’s the foundation of my entire lab.

On top of Proxmox, I run two main VMs:
* A Debian VM: This is a lean, mean, command-line-only machine that I use to host game servers for my friends. It’s lightweight and super stable.
* A TrueNAS VM: This handles all my important data. TrueNAS is an amazing open-source storage platform. It manages my mirrored hard drives and runs all my other fun applications like Jellyfin (for my own personal media streaming) and Immich (a self-hosted Google Photos alternative).

This setup has been the perfect educational tool. It taught me about networking, storage arrays, Linux, and the power of virtualization. Every service I got running felt like a major victory.

The Next Chapter: Upgrading The Home Lab

So why change a thing? Well, the hunger to learn (and to host more stuff!) is real. I recently got my hands on an HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9 server. This thing is a beast. It’s equipped with two Xeon E5-2690v3 processors and a whopping 256GB of RAM. It’s a serious step up.

I’ll be moving my current drives over to the new server, which has more than enough capacity for anything I can dream of for the foreseeable future. The old PC, my first build, will likely be retired to a quiet corner. I can’t bring myself to sell it or throw it away—it holds too much sentimental value. It’s the machine that started it all.

The new server also means I’ll finally be moving my lab out of my bedroom. I’m planning to run an ethernet cable to the next room, giving the server its own dedicated space. No more falling asleep to the gentle hum of server fans, I guess.

It’s About More Than the Tech

I wanted to share this story because it’s about more than just hardware specs or a simple upgrade. Building a beginner home lab is one of the most rewarding projects I’ve ever tackled. In a world where many worry about future generations being “tech illiterate,” it’s a hands-on way to dive deep into how computers and networks actually work.

It’s proof that the curiosity to build, to tinker, and to understand technology is alive and well. There are entire online communities filled with people of all ages sharing their projects, from tiny Raspberry Pi servers to full-blown enterprise racks. It’s a shared passion for creating and learning.

If you’ve ever been curious about setting up your own server for media, files, or just for the fun of it, I can’t recommend it enough. You don’t need the latest and greatest enterprise hardware to start. You just need a spare computer, a bit of curiosity, and the willingness to learn. My journey started with a single PC, and it’s taken me further than I ever imagined.

This post was published on August 4, 2025.