Expansion slots and 10Gbit networking options (including WiFi slot!)

Normally building a system based on a Micro-ITX board limits your available IO options heavily. You are basically dependent on whatever comes on the motherboard + 1 PCIe x16 slot.

While the same holds true for the system we are building, using some smart modern trickery we can actually get quite a lot of IO and more importantly PCIe lanes out of it!

Let’s explore that a bit and see what our options are, but with this method you’ll be able to get multiple unrestricted 10Gbit ports + NVMe SSDs and SATA drives without a problem!

Continue reading Expansion slots and 10Gbit networking options (including WiFi slot!) →

Buy new or second hand Enterprise?

Home Server Cluster 2025 index

For a long time when running home servers it’s been normal to use older Enterprise hardware, is this still the correct choice in 2025? Let’s explore this.

Continue reading Modern hardware vs older Enterprise hardware →

Calculating power requirements

Home Server Cluster 2025 index

When building a system you need to do some power requirements guesstimates, most often this doesn’t have to be very precise and especially when building a normal form factor PC or server, the power supply is often heavily oversized anyway.

However when trying to build a performant but energy efficient system, things become a little bit more critical. Especially when you really start taking a look at see how much power you are going to need on the 12v and especially 5v rail.

Let’s explore!

Continue reading Calculating power requirements →

Explaining the selected hardware

Home Server Cluster 2025 index

When hardware is in a list like in the article that lists all hardware used, it’s hard to explain exactly why that hardware was chosen, what it’s advantages are, disadvantages, etc.. That’s what this article will be about!

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The hardware the nodes will use

Home Server Cluster 2025 index

Nowadays you have lots of options when building a PC, you can choose between Intel and AMD, within their lineup they have various generations and types (mobile, desktop, prof, server, etc.) and then you have various motherboard vendors, lots of different cases, power supplies, and the list goes on, what combination will get you what you need?

It’s hard to say what *you* need, below is what I think that, at the time of writing, is ideal for my situation to get a good combination of Performance, power usage and expandability.

Continue reading Fully designed hardware for the nodes →

Partly a cluster, partly not?!

Home Server Cluster 2025 index

Over the years I have been using Proxmox and I’ve grown to like it a lot. I know there are a lot of other solutions out there but Proxmox takes the right boxes for me such as being heavily integrated with ZFS and allowing you to run Clusters even with dissimilar hardware, etc. so I will keep using it moving forward.

Cluster with no shared storage?

One of the things I have transitioned to a few years back on my current Proxmox cluster is not running my VMs on storage that is RAID backed up or at least not on all nodes. Instead I use a different strategy which running in a cluster enables.

Continue reading To Cluster or not to Cluster, that is the question →

Hardware won’t live until the end of time

Home Server Cluster 2025 index

Hardware has a finite amount of time that it will stay working. It varies from component to component but still, in the end it will die.

A CPU or RAM stick, when cooled properly and running 24/7 can probably last you between 10 and 20 years without a problem.

But something like a fan or harddisk (HDD) that has spinning motors, those will have a much more finite lifespan. In my person opinion and experience, it can be expected to last at least 5 years but beyond that wear and tear is going to start taking more and more of a toll. Disks will start to fail more and more often but there is also the energy usage factor to consider, let’s dive into that!

Continue reading Don’t run hardware until the end of time! →