Follow my personal journey of building a homelab, from a simple Synology NAS for files to a massive Proxmox server for virtualization and media.

It’s funny how hobbies start. Sometimes it’s a deliberate choice, and other times you just sort of stumble into it. For me, my homelab journey was definitely the second one. It didn’t begin with a grand plan for a server rack and a wall of blinking lights. It began with a simple need: I had to store my school files.

The Humble Beginning: One Simple NAS

My first “homelab,” if you could even call it that, was a Synology NAS. It was a straightforward, reliable little box. Its main job was to make sure my schoolwork was safe and accessible. That’s it. No fancy media streaming, no complex virtual machines. Just files.

For a while, that was enough. It did its job perfectly. But if you’ve ever tinkered with tech, you know that “enough” doesn’t always stay enough for long. The curiosity bug starts to bite.

The First Real Upgrade: Getting Serious About Media

The next step came when I wanted a better way to manage my media. That’s when I brought a Mac Mini into the mix. I set it up to run Plex for streaming and the “Arrs” (software like Sonarr and Radarr that help manage media collections).

This was a solid setup. The Synology handled the files, and the Mac Mini had enough power to serve everything up smoothly. The two devices worked together well. My needs were met. But the itch was back. I started wondering, “What else could I do? What if I wanted more control? More power?”

The Great Leap: Building a Proper Server

In the last month, I decided to go all in. I moved from my simple consumer-grade setup to a full-blown enterprise server running Proxmox.

For anyone new to this, Proxmox is a hypervisor. Think of it as an operating system for your server that lets you create and run multiple other operating systems inside it, all at the same time. These are called virtual machines, or VMs.

My main storage is now a TrueNAS VM. This is where things get a little technical and, I think, really cool. I have two special storage controller cards (HBAs) in the server that I “pass through” directly to the TrueNAS virtual machine. This means the VM gets to talk to my hard drives directly, with no middleman, giving it full speed and control. It’s a powerful and efficient way to manage a huge amount of storage.

The Mac Mini has a new job now, too. It’s a central backup station for all my family’s Apple devices using a great tool called iMazing.

A Look Under the Hood

So, what’s actually running this whole operation? I managed to get my hands on a decommissioned Nutanix server, which is built from Supermicro parts. It’s a beast.

Here’s a quick rundown of the specs:

• Server: Supermicro 2U Chassis (Model: CSE-829U)
• CPU: 2x Intel Xeon Gold 6140 processors. That gives me a total of 36 cores and 72 threads.
• Memory: 384GB of DDR4 ECC RAM. The “ECC” part is important—it stands for Error Correcting Code, which helps prevent data corruption.
• Storage (OS/VMs): Two 2TB Samsung 990 PRO NVMe SSDs in a mirrored setup for speed and redundancy.
• Storage (Main Pool): 12x 16TB Seagate drives managed by TrueNAS.
• GPU: An NVIDIA RTX A2000 with 12GB of VRAM. This is fantastic for Plex, as it can handle multiple video transcodes without breaking a sweat.
• Networking: A 10GbE NIC and a 10GbE switch to make sure data moves between devices lightning fast.
• Power: Dual 1000W power supplies for redundancy and a CyberPower UPS to keep everything running safely if the power goes out.

My 3-2-1 Backup Strategy

Having a powerful server is great, but all that data is worthless if it’s not backed up properly. I follow the classic 3-2-1 rule: three copies of my data, on two different types of media, with one copy off-site.

1. The Proxmox server and Apple device backups (from the Mac Mini) are first backed up to my old friend, the Synology NAS.
2. The Synology NAS then uses a tool called HyperBackup to send an encrypted copy of everything to BackBlaze, an online cloud storage service.

This way, even if my house and all my hardware were to disappear, my most important data would still be safe in the cloud.

It’s been quite a journey, from a single NAS for school files to this powerhouse in a rack. It’s a hobby that’s always evolving, and I’m constantly learning. If you’re just starting out, don’t be intimidated by setups like this. Start small, solve a problem you have, and let your curiosity guide you. You might be surprised where you end up.

Started a home lab for fun and now wondering if it should be your career? Explore why it’s okay for your tech passion to just be a rewarding hobby.

It often starts with a simple problem.

“I wish I could share files more easily at home.” Or, “I’m tired of seeing ads everywhere.” So you get a Raspberry Pi or dust off an old computer you had in the closet. You follow a tutorial, type a few commands into a black screen, and suddenly, it works. You’ve created something.

That feeling is powerful.

So you do it again. You set up a media server. Then a network-wide ad blocker. Before you know it, you’re learning about Docker containers, networking, and firewalls. Your little project has snowballed into a full-blown home lab, a stack of blinking lights that hums quietly in the corner.

It stops being just a hobby. It feels like you’ve stumbled into a whole new world. And that’s when the big, slightly scary question pops into your head: “Should I be doing this for a living?”

The Hobbyist’s Dilemma

If you’ve ever felt this way, you’re not alone. I’ve talked to a lot of people who get deep into home labs—people who are students, artists, engineers in completely unrelated fields, or retirees. They spend their nights and weekends learning skills that are directly transferable to a career in IT, DevOps, or network engineering.

It’s a strange crossroads to be at. You’re passionate about what you’re building. You love the challenge, the problem-solving, and the endless learning. It feels more engaging than your actual day job or field of study.

But then the doubt creeps in.

You wonder what the job is really like. Is being a DevOps professional actually fun? Or is it a stressful grind of fixing other people’s problems? You imagine a world where you can’t just build what you want. Instead, you’re stuck maintaining a system someone else built a decade ago, navigating office politics, and hearing the dreaded phrase, “We can’t change that. It’s just how we’ve always done it.”

The fear is that turning your passion into a paycheck might just kill the joy that got you started in the first place.

It’s Okay If It’s Just for Fun

So, here’s the simple answer: You don’t have to choose. It is perfectly fine—and incredibly common—to be a wildly passionate “amateur.”

Think about it this way: plenty of people are amazing home cooks. They buy fancy knives, perfect their sourdough starter, and host incredible dinner parties. Does that mean they should all quit their jobs and open a restaurant? Of course not. The pressure of turning a profit, managing staff, and dealing with health inspectors would suck the joy out of it for many.

Your home lab can be the exact same thing. It can be your kitchen, your workshop, your studio. It’s a place for you, by you.

Here are a few reasons why keeping your tech passion as a hobby is a powerful choice:

• You Have Total Freedom: You are the boss. You decide what services to run, what hardware to buy, and when to tear it all down and start over. There are no tickets, no deadlines, and no one telling you that your idea is out of scope.
• The Learning is Pure: You learn because you’re curious. You can spend a whole weekend figuring out a complex networking problem just for the satisfaction of it, not because it’s a requirement for your job. This is learning in its purest form.
• It Makes You Better at Everything: The skills you gain from running a home lab—critical thinking, project management, and deep-level problem-solving—are valuable in any field. A biomedical engineer who understands server infrastructure is a better engineer. A writer who can automate their own backups is a more efficient writer.
  

  Your Day Job Doesn’t Define You

  That little server rack in your closet doesn’t have to be a sign that you’re in the wrong career. It can just be a sign that you’re a curious person who loves to learn and build.

  Your home lab is your personal playground. A place to experiment without consequence. A creative and technical outlet that you control completely. It doesn’t need to be anything more than that.

  So whether you’re a student, a lawyer, a doctor, or a barista, your place in the world of tech is valid. You don’t need to be a professional to be passionate.

  What about you? What do you do for a living, and what does your personal tech playground look like?

Feeling lonely? Here’s a no-fluff guide to intentionally building a meaningful support system as an adult. It’s easier than you think.

I used to think a support system was something you just… had. That you’d trip over your people one day, like finding a twenty-dollar bill on the sidewalk. You leave school, you start your job, and the friendships just sort of happen, right?

Turns out, not so much.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized something important: A real support system doesn’t just appear. You have to build it. Brick by brick. Conversation by conversation. It’s an act of intention, not luck. And it’s one of the most important projects you’ll ever work on.

The Myth of “Finding Your Tribe”

We love the idea of “finding your tribe.” It sounds so effortless. But it sets us up for disappointment. We wait around to be discovered, to be welcomed into a fully-formed group of best friends. When it doesn’t happen, we feel like we’re doing something wrong.

But you’re not doing anything wrong. It’s just that adult life is different. There’s no built-in social structure like there was in school. Everyone is busy, schedules are a nightmare, and people are often wrapped up in their own little worlds of work, partners, and kids.

If you want deep, meaningful connections, you have to be the architect.

What Is a Support System, Anyway?

It’s not just one person. A solid support system is a small, diverse network of people you can lean on for different things. It’s not about having a huge circle of friends; it’s about having the right kinds of support.

I like to think of it in a few categories:

• The Practical Pal: This is the person you can call when your car won’t start or you need help moving a couch. It’s support based on action and favors. You help them, they help you. It’s simple and incredibly valuable.
• The Emotional Anchor: This is the friend who listens. The one you can text after a terrible day and say, “Do you have a minute to talk?” They don’t need to solve your problems. They just need to hold space for you to feel your feelings.
• The Honest Advisor: We all need someone who will tell us the truth, even when it’s hard to hear. This is the friend who says, “I think you might be wrong here,” or “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Their honesty is a gift, even if it stings a little.
• The Fun Friend: This person is pure joy. They’re the one who pulls you out of a funk, makes you laugh, and reminds you not to take life so seriously. Their job is to help you forget your troubles for a little while.

You won’t find all of these qualities in one person. And that’s the point. Building a network means you don’t have to put all of that pressure on a single relationship.

So, How Do You Actually Build It?

Okay, so you’re sold on the idea. But how do you go from feeling lonely to having a network? It’s a slow process, but it starts with small, deliberate actions.

1. Start by Giving. The fastest way to build support is to be support. Offer to help a coworker with a project. Check in on a friend you haven’t heard from in a while. Be the person who listens without judgment. When you put that energy out there, it has a funny way of coming back to you.

2. Revisit Your Interests. What do you actually like to do? Hiking, board games, pottery, learning a language? Go do those things. Consistently. Don’t go once with the goal of making a best friend. Go because you enjoy the activity. Friendships often bloom as a side effect of shared passions.

3. Nurture Weak Ties. We all have “weak ties”—acquaintances, neighbors, that friendly person at the coffee shop. These are the seeds of potential friendships. Don’t dismiss them. Ask a follow-up question. Remember their name. The simple act of showing genuine interest can turn a casual connection into something more.

4. Be the One to Make the Plan. This is the hardest part for most of us. We meet someone cool, we exchange numbers, and then… nothing. We wait for them to reach out. Don’t wait. Be the one who sends the text: “Hey, it was great talking to you. Want to grab coffee next week?” The worst they can say is no. But they’ll almost always be flattered that you made the effort.

Building your people is a quiet, steady, and sometimes awkward process. It won’t happen overnight. But by shifting your mindset from finding to building, you take back control. You stop waiting and start creating the connections you need. And that’s a pretty powerful thing.

Tired of Google Photos fees? Learn how to create your own private photo cloud with self-hosted alternatives like Immich, PhotoPrism, and Nextcloud.

That little notification pops up when you least expect it: “Your account storage is almost full.”

It’s happened to me, and it probably just happened to you or someone you know. My girlfriend got the alert last week, and it started a whole conversation. We love the convenience of Google Photos. You take a picture, and boom, it’s everywhere—safe, sound, and sorted. But that convenience comes with a catch: a monthly subscription that only ever seems to go up.

So we started asking the same question you probably are: Is there another way? What if you could have all the convenience of a photo cloud without the endless fees and privacy trade-offs?

It turns out, you can. It’s called self-hosting, and it’s basically like creating your own private, secure version of Google Photos right in your own home.

So, What Does “Self-Hosting” Your Photos Even Mean?

Let’s cut through the jargon. Self-hosting simply means running an application on your own hardware instead of on a tech company’s servers.

Think of it like this: Instead of renting a storage unit from Google, you’re buying your own shed and putting it in your backyard. You have the only key. You decide how it’s organized. No one else can peek inside or change the rental terms on you.

For photos, this means setting up a program on a computer you own—which could be an old desktop, a tiny Raspberry Pi, or a dedicated device called a NAS (Network Attached Storage). This program then serves your photos to an app on your phone, just like Google Photos does.

You get the same experience: automatic uploads, a beautiful gallery, and access from anywhere. The big difference? Your pictures live with you, not on a server farm in another state.

The Best Self-Hosted Alternatives to Google Photos

The good news is that smart people have already built amazing, free software to do this. After looking into it, a few clear winners emerged that are perfect for someone leaving Google Photos.

1. For the True Google Photos Experience: Immich

If you want something that looks and feels almost identical to Google Photos, start with Immich. It’s a modern, fast, and beautiful platform that’s clearly inspired by Google’s design.

• Familiar Interface: The timeline, album structure, and search feel incredibly intuitive if you’re used to Google Photos.
• Great Mobile App: The Android and iOS apps are slick and handle automatic background uploads perfectly. This is a must.
• Advanced Features: It’s not just a simple gallery. It has facial recognition for grouping people, object detection for searching (“show me photos of cars”), and a map view to see where your photos were taken.
• Multi-User Support: Perfect for families. You can set up separate accounts for your partner or kids, all running on the same server.

2. For the AI-Powered Organizer: PhotoPrism

PhotoPrism is another fantastic choice, but it really shines for its powerful organization and tagging features. It’s a metadata machine.

• Incredible AI Search: PhotoPrism automatically scans your photos and tags them with keywords, colors, locations, and more. You can find photos based on what’s in them with surprising accuracy.
• Built for Big Libraries: It’s designed to handle massive photo collections (we’re talking 100,000+) without slowing down.
• Maps and Stats: It offers detailed world maps of your photos and provides cool data about what cameras and lenses you use most often.
• Less of a 1:1 Clone: The interface is clean but different from Google Photos. It feels more like a professional archival tool, which some people absolutely love.

3. For the All-in-One Private Cloud: Nextcloud Memories

What if you want to de-Google your life, not just your photos? That’s where Nextcloud comes in. Nextcloud is a full suite of apps you can host yourself—think of it as your own private Google Drive, Calendar, Contacts, and Photos all rolled into one. The “Memories” app is their photo solution.

• Complete Ecosystem: If you also want to host your own files and documents, Nextcloud is the most efficient choice.
• Solid Photo Features: The Memories app has a nice timeline view, automatic tagging, and albums.
• Mature and Stable: Nextcloud is a massive open-source project and is incredibly robust and well-supported.

Okay, What’s the Catch? A Quick Reality Check

This all sounds great, but is it as easy as signing up for Google One? Honestly, no. It requires a little bit of a DIY spirit. But you don’t need to be a coding genius.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1. A Server: This is the computer that will run 24/7. An old laptop, a tiny and cheap Raspberry Pi, or a dedicated NAS from a brand like Synology or QNAP will work perfectly.
2. Some Time for Setup: You’ll have to install the software. Most of these apps run on a platform called Docker, which makes installation much, much simpler. You’re basically just copying and pasting a few commands from an online guide. There are tons of step-by-step tutorials on YouTube for each of these apps.

Is It Really Worth the Effort?

For me, and for a growing number of people, the answer is a definite yes.

The initial setup might take you an afternoon. But once it’s running, it’s mostly hands-off. You get a private, secure photo library that you control. There are no more monthly fees. No more worrying about a company changing its privacy policy. Your most precious memories are truly yours.

It’s a pretty powerful feeling.

Learn how to measure CPU value beyond the sticker price. We explain price-to-performance and performance-per-watt to help you find the best deal on your next PC build.

I was chatting with a friend the other day who’s looking to upgrade his computer. He was getting lost in a sea of specs, model numbers, and prices. It’s easy to do. You see a CPU for $500 and another for $250, and the simple math says the cheaper one saves you money.

But that’s not the whole story.

The real question isn’t just “what does it cost?” but “what do I get for what it costs?” This is the core idea behind a super useful concept: price-to-performance ratio.

So, What Is Price-to-Performance?

Think of it like buying a car. You wouldn’t just look at the price tag. You’d ask about its gas mileage, right? A cheap car that guzzles gas might cost you more over a few years than a slightly more expensive one that sips fuel.

CPUs are the same. The sticker price is just the entry fee. The real cost includes the electricity it uses every single day. That’s where we get into an even more important metric: performance-per-watt.

This number tells you how much processing power you get for every watt of electricity the chip burns. A chip with great performance-per-watt is efficient. It runs cooler, quieter (because the fan doesn’t have to scream), and, most importantly, keeps your power bill down.

The Hidden Costs of “Cheap” Hardware

This is especially true if you’re building a machine that will be on 24/7, like a home server for your files, a media center, or even just a PC that you never really shut down.

I’ve seen people buy old, decommissioned server hardware for a bargain. On paper, it looks great—tons of cores for next to nothing! But then the power bill arrives. Those older chips were often built for raw power in a time when electricity costs weren’t as big of a concern for data centers. They can run hot and loud, and that “great deal” ends up costing hundreds in extra electricity over its life.

A modern, entry-level processor might have fewer cores but can often be faster in everyday tasks and use a tiny fraction of the power. So, while it might cost more upfront, it’s the cheaper, smarter choice in the long run.

Okay, How Do I Actually Figure This Out?

You don’t have to do the complex math yourself. Thankfully, some real hardware nerds out there do it for us. If you’re looking to compare chips, here are a few places I’d look:

• PassMark Software: They have a famous “CPU Value Chart” that literally plots performance against price. It’s one of the fastest ways to see which CPUs are a true bargain at any given moment.
• Tech Review Sites: Websites like Tom’s Hardware, AnandTech, and Gamers Nexus do incredibly deep dives. When they review a CPU, they almost always include charts showing its power consumption under different loads (like idle, gaming, or heavy work).
• Puget Systems: These folks build high-end workstations, and they publish tons of data on how different components perform in real-world professional software, along with power usage.

When you’re looking at these charts, don’t just find the one with the highest benchmark score. Look for the sweet spot. Find a chip that performs well but has a surprisingly low power draw. That’s your winner.

It’s Not About Being Stingy, It’s About Being Smart

At the end of the day, this isn’t about pinching every penny. It’s about making an informed choice. It’s about building a machine that’s not just powerful, but also balanced and efficient. The most expensive, top-of-the-line CPU is rarely the best value. Often, the smartest buy is a step or two down the ladder—a chip that delivers 90% of the performance for 50% of the cost and power draw.

So next time you’re upgrading, don’t just look at the price. Dig one level deeper. You’ll save money, run a quieter machine, and build something you can feel genuinely good about. Happy building!

Thinking of a mini PC for your Plex server? Learn if budget models can handle 4K Dolby Vision transcoding and what to look for in a powerful, compact setup.

So, you’ve finally done it. You’ve built a beautiful library of your favorite movies and shows, all saved as high-quality digital files on a network-attached storage (NAS) drive. The dream is to create your own personal Netflix—a slick, easy-to-use media server with Plex or Jellyfin that lets you stream your collection to any device, anywhere.

You start looking for a small, quiet, power-efficient computer to run the server 24/7. And you quickly stumble upon the world of mini-PCs, like the super popular Beelink or Minisforum models. They seem perfect. They’re tiny, they sip power, and they’re surprisingly affordable.

But then you hit a wall of technical jargon: “transcoding,” “hardware acceleration,” “Dolby Vision Profile 8.” Suddenly, the simple project feels complicated. The big question is, can one of these tiny, budget-friendly PCs actually handle the heavy lifting of streaming a pristine 4K movie file?

I’ve been down this exact rabbit hole. Let’s break it down over a virtual coffee.

What is “Transcoding” Anyway?

Before we get into the hardware, let’s quickly demystify transcoding.

Imagine your server has a huge, 80GB 4K movie file. You want to watch it on your phone while riding the bus. Your phone screen isn’t 4K, and your mobile connection definitely can’t handle streaming that much data.

Transcoding is the process where your server, in real-time, converts that massive file into a smaller, more manageable version that’s perfect for your phone. It’s like having a personal video editor instantly resizing and compressing the movie just for you.

When everything on your network is perfect—your TV supports the exact file format, your connection is fast—your server can “Direct Play” the file, which is easy. But the moment you need to convert it, your server’s processor has to do some serious work. And this is where 4K, especially with fancy formats like Dolby Vision, becomes a real challenge.

The N100 Mini-PC: A Great Start, But Know Its Limits

A lot of the popular, affordable mini-PCs right now use an Intel N100 processor. It’s a fantastic little chip that’s perfect for a lot of tasks. For a media server, it’s a champ at Direct Play and can even handle transcoding a couple of standard 1080p streams without breaking a sweat.

But 4K is a different beast. And 4K with Dolby Vision (specifically Profile 7 or 8, the kind found on Blu-ray remuxes) is the final boss.

Here’s the catch: The N100 relies on a built-in feature called Intel Quick Sync to handle video transcoding efficiently without maxing out the CPU. While it’s great for common formats, it often lacks the specific hardware support to properly transcode certain Dolby Vision profiles.

When Plex or Jellyfin asks it to transcode a Dolby Vision Profile 8 file, the N100’s hardware acceleration can’t do it. So, it falls back to “software transcoding,” meaning the main CPU has to do all the work. And frankly, the N100 just isn’t powerful enough for that. You’ll likely see buffering, stuttering, or it might just fail completely, especially if you try to run two streams at once.

So, can an N100-based mini-PC run a 4K media server? Yes, but only if you are 100% certain your devices will always Direct Play the files. If you need a reliable transcoding safety net, you’ll need something with a bit more muscle.

Finding the Right Tool for 4K Transcoding

If your goal is to reliably transcode one or two 4K streams, you don’t need a giant, power-hungry tower. You just need a mini-PC with a slightly better processor.

The key isn’t necessarily getting a Core i7, but getting a processor with a more modern and capable integrated GPU. For Plex and Jellyfin, the recommendation is almost always an Intel CPU from the 8th generation or newer.

Here are a few paths to consider:

• The Value King: Refurbished Office PCs: Look for used or refurbished mini-PCs like a Dell OptiPlex Micro, HP EliteDesk/ProDesk Mini, or a Lenovo ThinkCentre Tiny. You can often find models with 8th, 9th, or 10th-gen Intel Core i3 or i5 processors for an incredible price. These CPUs have the Quick Sync muscle needed to handle multiple 4K transcodes smoothly.
• The Modern Step-Up: If you want to buy new, look for mini-PCs with more modern Intel processors like the i3-N305 (a more powerful sibling to the N100) or any of the 12th-gen or newer Core i3 or i5 chips. These are more expensive than an N100 box but are basically guaranteed to handle anything you throw at them.
• A Quick Hardware Checklist:
  • CPU: 8th-generation Intel Core series or newer.
  • RAM: 8GB is the minimum. 16GB is a comfortable and future-proof choice, especially if you want to run other applications on your server.
  • Storage: A 256GB or 500GB NVMe SSD is perfect for the operating system and your server software. It makes the whole system feel snappy. Your movie files can stay on your NAS.

It’s About the Right Fit, Not Just Power

Building a home server is a fun and rewarding project. It’s easy to get caught up in specs, but it’s really about finding the right balance for your specific needs and budget.

That little N100 mini-PC is an amazing piece of tech and a perfect starting point for many. But if your library is full of high-bitrate 4K files, investing a little more in a PC with a more capable processor will save you a lot of headaches. You’ll get a silent, efficient, and powerful little server that just works, letting you get back to what really matters: enjoying your movie collection.