this is the final one!

hey!

so i have been researching for different choices for a homelab. these are some of my findings. i should remark that probably there is a better option. regardless, i would like positive comments and positive criticism-type vibes―i know it is probably not the most scalable option, but it is a good way to start and learn―as the name says this is a homelab.

i have received advice from colleagues and from other redditors. the technicality of this advice ranged from beginner-friendly to very professional choices, i.e., have a high-level knowledge―which―honestly, experience will only bring. recommendations such as threadripper systems, odroid h4+, rpi5, pcie lanes, no ecc, weak iommu, business towers/sff workstations...i mean, the number of things in the list could continue.

to be honest, i don't know half of what these things are; and maybe i could consider half, given that it sounded logical to investigate.

well, i did some of that research. my findings, they made me realize how insanely insane this could get!

of the set of terms i could understand, i found that most of the things are too low in the abstraction level (for example, the odroid h4+―literally is a caveman pc). the things that are in the low abstraction level require crucial technical knowledge of systems engineering. unfortunately, this is something i have never done. i always been a pen-and-paper type of person. computers for me have always been used for daily purposes and programming in python and occasionally other languages. just recently i switched to linux :)

the business towers don't give me the ability to learn about computer components; learning about modularity and swappable parts can give you great knowledge to later build systems that, for example, use the odroid thing. trivial tasks such as upgrading a cpu, or adding more storage (ssds, or hdds) are steps towards that. especially if you pair it with a linux distro.

with all this in mind, i have chosen to literally begin building my first pc, which i intend to use as a home lab. in figure 1 you can see the details of the build. i know there are some weird and questionable choices, such as 1x16gb ram memory xd xd xd

Processing img uwy1uhltqkgg1...

to conclude, i got this idea of combining some stuff that is in the low-level of abstraction plus a plug-and-play type of situation. building a pc is just that: you plug in the pc parts and install a distro, and then it is just flowing in that river.

i am thinking of using ubuntu server for this. but again, any recommendation to this system would be strongly appreciated!

just keep in mind that the prices that are displayed in figure 1 are not the actual prices i will pay. but the cost is around the same if you sum the total plus-minus 50 dollars. this is my budget, so i am limited to some upgrades; hence, i could not get another ram stick :(

i am in europe (spain), so if someone knows where i could buy some components it would be great.

thanks for the feedback. i hope everyone has a smooth sail!