Explore the journey of creating a powerful home lab with Dell R640, NVMe storage, and high-speed networking.
If you’ve ever thought about diving into the world of home servers and virtualization, building a small home lab can be both fun and rewarding. Over the years, I’ve tinkered with virtual machines on some old gaming rigs, but recently, I decided to step up my game by investing in real servers. Specifically, I went for Dell’s R640 model, and it’s been quite the learning and upgrade journey so far.
Why a Small Home Lab?
A small home lab offers a playground for experimenting with different virtualization technologies, network setups, and storage solutions without affecting your daily devices. It’s a place to learn and grow your IT skills at your own pace. Plus, having your own hardware means better performance and more control compared to renting cloud services.
The Gear: Dell R640 Servers
I started with one Dell R640 server and shortly after added a second. These servers are surprisingly powerful and versatile. The specs I’m running look like this:
- 2 x Intel Xeon 8280L CPUs
- 256GB RAM at 2666 MHz
- 10 x Intel 15.36TB NVMe drives
- Dell NVMe expander cards
- TPM 2.0 security module
- iDRAC 9 Enterprise for management
- Dual 700W power supplies
- 10/25Gb NIC plus a quad 1Gb NIC
- BOSS-S1 card with an Intel 150GB M.2 SATA SSD
That’s a pretty solid foundation for running multiple virtual machines (VMs), and it’s been great to see the performance firsthand. Using NVMe drives for storage means VM disk speeds can go over 3000MB/s for read and write, even when running around 20 VMs simultaneously.
Upgrading and Expanding
One of the best parts about a home lab is that you can upgrade as you go without having to buy completely new systems. For example, I upgraded one server’s drive bays from 8 to 10 to fit more NVMe disks. I also upgraded CPUs, replaced storage backplanes with NVMe expansions using ribbon cables, installed high-performance fans for better cooling, and added TPM 2.0 modules for improved security.
Next on my upgrade list are more RAM and better network interface cards (NICs) to boost throughput. I’m also looking into improving the surrounding network infrastructure with high-density 100Gb switches and adding battery backups for reliability.
Networking: Switch vs. Direct Connect?
This part got me thinking: If you have a handful of servers like mine, is it better to connect them directly with dual 100Gb NICs or invest in a 100Gb switch? Direct connections can be faster between two machines, but a switch allows multiple devices to communicate easily and scales better in the long run.
There are some good deals on high-density 100Gb switches right now, so I’m leaning towards getting one to create a high-speed network backbone for all my servers. If networking is currently your bottleneck, upgrading your network gear will make a noticeable difference.
Experimenting with Hypervisors
I started out with Proxmox and VMware vSphere to manage my VMs but recently became interested in Microsoft’s Hyper-V Server. The challenge? I’m learning to set up and manage Hyper-V VMs using Server Core without a graphical interface. It’s a bit different but worth mastering for the control and efficiency.
Why Go Through This?
A small home lab isn’t just about having fancy hardware—it’s about hands-on experience with enterprise-grade tech without the enterprise price tag. Whether you’re aiming to improve your skills, host your own services, or just geek out, there’s something satisfying about the DIY approach.
If you’re interested in the R640, you can check out Dell’s official page here and read more about NVMe technology on Intel’s site here.
Final Thoughts
Building a small home lab is a continuous journey. You start small, learn a lot, and gradually build something that’s not only powerful but also tailored to your unique needs. Whether it’s tweaking hardware, optimizing storage performance, or experimenting with different hypervisors, it’s a rewarding hobby that deepens your understanding of modern tech.
So, if you’re on the fence, don’t be. Start with what you have, learn along the way, and have fun setting up your own small home lab!