This is the hardware the homelab posts on this site run on. People ask, and most of the fixes here only make sense once you know what they were fixed on.
Paid links: the product links on this page go to Amazon, and if you buy through one I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It does not change what is on the list — everything under “what I run” is what I actually run.
Each section has two halves. What I run is my own box. Starting smaller is the cheaper class of the same thing, for when you do not need a 16-core CPU to run a few containers — which is most people. I have not run every one of those myself; they are the budget version of the same job, not a recommendation from use.
1. Compute — the Proxmox host
What I run: a custom build on an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, an ASUS ProArt X670E-Creator motherboard and 128GB of DDR5.
Starting smaller: an Intel N100 mini PC runs Proxmox with a handful of LXC containers on very little power. A step up is a refurbished business mini PC with an i5 — more cores, still quiet.
Related: the Proxmox hub, and what the cores and sockets settings mean.
2. Storage — NAS and drives
What I run: a Fractal Design Define 7 XL case, an LSI 9300-8i HBA flashed to IT mode, four 20TB Seagate IronWolf Pro drives, and two 2TB WD Red SN700 NVMe SSDs.
Starting smaller: the older LSI 9211-8i does the same job of handing ZFS the raw disks, for less. Smaller 8TB IronWolf or WD Red Plus drives are where most people start, and a 1TB NVMe is plenty for VM disks at first.
Related: NVMe controller is down on Proxmox and a RAIDZ1 pool with one faulted disk.
3. Networking
What I run: a Protectli Vault 4-port running OPNsense, and a UniFi Enterprise 8 PoE 10GbE switch.
Starting smaller: a 4-port 2.5G firewall mini PC runs OPNsense the same way, and a 2.5G managed switch covers a homelab until 10GbE actually matters.
Related: “Detected Hardware Unit Hang” on a Proxmox NIC.
4. GPU — AI and gaming
What I run: an NVIDIA RTX 4090 24GB, passed through to a VM, with a 4K HDMI dummy plug so the card has a display to drive when nothing is attached.
Starting smaller: for local AI the number that matters is VRAM, and an RTX 3060 12GB is the usual cheap way in. The dummy plug costs a few dollars either way and is worth having before you start passthrough.
Related: GPU passthrough black screen on VM start and passthrough works but the NVIDIA driver will not register.
5. Power and the rack
What I run: a CyberPower PR1500LCDRT2U 1500VA pure sine wave rackmount UPS, in a StarTech 12U open frame rack.
Starting smaller: you do not need a rack. A tower pure sine wave UPS on the floor protects the same hardware. Whichever you buy, get pure sine wave — it is the one spec on a UPS worth paying for with server power supplies.
Prices move, and some of this is not cheap — check the current figure on the retailer’s page rather than trusting anything written here. If something on this list stopped working for you, the contact page reaches me.