Optimal Hardware on a Budget
When i first looked into setting up a homelab and went down the home automation route, I really wanted high end hardware capable of running a massive amount of VMs and not worry about allocating RAM, CPU and storage. While I was able to get my hands of some HP DL360’s (Enterprise Server Hardware) I soon realized the cost of running even one of those units in the form of my energy bill. Now THAT was an UNPLEASANT surprise.
When looking into buying or repurposing hardware for something like this, we need to really look at what they would like to do with the hardware. If you’re reading this, then you’ve likely already started down the road of a home lab/home automation but needed a starting point. Below are a few pointers to consider which I’ll condense and summarize what I MYSELF have found to work well without busting the budget:
- First and foremost, take some time to plan out what you’d like to do with your home lab and how it ties into your home automation. The first pitfall I ran into is that I can’t feasibly run 30 VMs in a lab setting and expect it to run well. I had to be realistic about what the hardware itself was capable of and made some compromises down the road after having to rebuild once, twice… possibly on my 3rd iteration.
- Decide on what is an acceptable cost for energy consumption. I can tell you running my first enterprise grade server hardware was an eye opening experience. Running just ONE of those machines jumped my energy bill. In fact, it was so much that after a couple months I was able to shut those servers down and purchase something much smaller (Dell Optiplex Micro Form Factor) for the money I would save just on energy. Also don’t forget to factor in some cooling. I’m fortunate to have an unfinished basement that stays around 60 all year long. I guess maybe that’s not fortunate, but the basement is always cool!
- Older hardware is usually cheaper, but less efficient. Newer hardware is more expensive upfront, but usually sips a fraction of the energy. While it may seem like that upfront cost on newer hardware is tough to eat, you’ll likely save money over time on energy. Not to mention it’s usually faster in terms of CPU and RAM.
- There is a sweet spot between generations of machines where costs for RAM and disk are at the lower end of it’s lifecycle. For example when I started out, DDR3 memory was already relatively cheap compared to DDR4 which was still MSRP for a premium. Fast forward a bit to now and DDR4 is cheap in comparison to DDR5, while DDR3 is now what I would consider expensive again for what you’re getting. Disks sort of fall into this category between a standard HDD and SSD.
- Splitting a single server into two is easily possible. I used to run two separate hypervisors on Dell MFF hosts. One for “production” and one for test/lab. I could spin trash up on the test/lab and leave the primary host alone without interrupting my Home Assistant or reverse proxy should I need to burn down the host.
- Money spent on RAM and disks, in my opinion, is money well spent compared to a faster CPU. Yes, CPU cycles are important, but unless you’re running mission critical software it’s less likely to be a bottleneck. There is plenty of disagreement on this topic, so please experiment and come up with your own conclusions. Also, please don’t run mission critical software on consumer level hardware.
Good Talk, Have a Preference on Hardware?
I sure do and I’m glad you asked! I find that there are 2 really good options for beginner home labs:
| 1. Micro Form Factor Desktop PCs from HP, Dell or Lenovo. White box mini PCs and Raspberry PI also fall into this category. | These PCs typically have much lower power requirements than a full desktop. My home lab is running off a Lenovo M900 series with 64GB of RAM and multiple TB of disk space. Processor that’s in it is an i7 and it handles all my workloads just fine! Pros: Lower Energy Consumption while still being able to stack multiple units with a minimal footprint. Costs on Ebay and Amazon are usually cheap and can be had for less than $300 US. Cons: Lack of expansion ports and limited by what disks can be slotted. |
| 2. Aging Laptops that still have some life left in them with a working battery | Mostly the same as above with the added benefit of having a built in “UPS” of sorts. Pros: Built in battery with lower energy consumption. Can also find these reasonably prices through big retailers. Cons: Usually clunky hanging out on a shelf and also limited to what can be slotted in. |
Fantastic, What If I Have Hardware Already?
No problems there, install your hypervisor and go for it. Experiment with configurations and upgrade as you go. There isn’t anything that says you can’t shut the machine down if you’re trying to keep your energy bill in check. Granted, your home automation will suffer, but if you’re looking at this from a pure test lab, go for it. I encourage you to do so for the sake of learning and growth!
How About A Quick Summary?
Of course! My machine of choice is bigger name Micro Form Factor PCs. They’re low energy consumption with decent power in the form of CPU, RAM and disk. The last iteration I’ve been running is a Lenovo M900 series. After looking at the specs, it was capable of slotting 64GB of RAM. Gigabit Ethernet was onboard and does just fine sending data back forth.
Spare laptops are also a good beginner lab. The built in battery will keep the host running through a power outage without the additional hardware of a dedicated UPS. They also are usually good on power consumption.
Using what you have on-hand is also fine, then upgrade as you go!
Stay Geek – Northstar Geek