advice

  1. W

    Server Upgrade Advice - Need Sanity Check

    Hello - New to the forums here. My current homelab consists of various old computers but the main one I am concerned with today is my primary Unraid server. Budget is around $1700-2000 all in. HP z820 Workstation running UnRaid Dual socket Intel Xeon E5-2697-V2 (12c/24t each) - 14k passmark...
  2. P

    I need some advice as in what category should I post into?

    Hello there, This is my first post after just joining this discussion, so please forgive me and provide kind assistance if I have posted to the wrong subsection! I am new here but a real enthusiast and loving this community so far. I have a background in teaching coding and in education and...
  3. C

    UPS or/and server Issues - Advice much appreciated

    Hello all I am new here , so I hope i do not post this in the wrong space. also, thank you in advance! I've had a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) running for a while now, keeping the power on for my NAS (Network-Attached Storage), and something quite unusual happened a few weeks ago. The...
  4. C

    Chassis recommendations for GPU, H13SSL-N, and drives

    Hi all, This is my first server grade build. Here's what I'm packing: - H13SSL-N - AMD 9654 - NVIDIA A10 (Passive) - 4x HDD 3.5" drives (SATA) - 2x M.2 drives with heatsinks Budget: roughly $100-$350 (looking in the used market mainly) I have not yet decided on a server rack type enclosure...
  5. O

    Router Advice

    I'm in the market for a new router or AP setup to complete my home lab, catering to three machines and some sensors that need to communicate to HomeAssistant. My key needs include: Minimum of 4 10/100/1000 LAN Outputs (but more is better) Wi-Fi Capability (to connect my sensors) VPN Creation...
  6. S

    Enclosure or Nas build advice and direction please...

    I have a synology ds920+ in and have replaced several drives and have a collection of 8tb Seagate compute (yes i know some are smr, hourly i can still use them?) and Toshiba n300 drives and an ironwolf. I wanted to create storage that i can put together a collection of retro files on (all kinds...
  7. K

    Semi-budget homelab

    I am planning on making a homelab using older business mini towers as the servers to run services. The goals are to self-host everything, have 10 gig and learn. My infrastructure layout was a machine for each of these functions: dns, router, nas, IoT server, game server, and mail/web server. I...
  8. R

    Urgent help and advice needed please, power supply suffered massive failure and now some of my drives are gone

    THANKFULLY, this wasn't my main server but it was a secondary server that I back the main one up to and it needs fixed ASAP. It was a 4U Rosewill server (RSV-L4412U), using a Gigabyte ATX board and a Seasonic power supply. It's been humming along for years with zero problems and then today, the...
  9. mobycl1ck

    Hello! Need some guidance!

    First and foremost, I want to thank you all for offering such guides and wealth of information, I lurked for some time and I decided to register and ask some questions here. For now, I have a decision to make, I wanted a second opinion, as @Patrick so excitedly presented the TinyMiniMicro...
  10. A

    New here.

    Hello everyone I'm Lor and I'm new here. I trained as a computer technician and network engineer in the mid 90's when I was just out of college. I have regularly built and maintained home networks since then as the technology has improved but now I'm adding a dedicated server to the system...
  11. F

    Planning a replacement for HPE dl360p G8 - need advice

    I've had my dl360p G8 a little while now, probably about a year. ESXi 6.5 U3 2x Xeon E5-2630v2 48 GB RAM 4x 600GB 2.5" SAS HDD 2x 750w PSU Over the course of the year I've realised that whilst I really like this piece of kit, it's just too loud(whiiiiirrrrrrrrR) and power hungry (last months...
  12. O

    Home/Garden WiFi

    Hello, I am new to networking and want to learn more and heard you help with that stuff here? I am looking to install wifi in to my garden, but I am not sure what to use. I would like something that can work in conjunction with an AP inside my house as well. I was looking at Ubiquiti airMAX...
  13. H

    Advice on component purchases

    So I want to build a mid-size server stack. Never purchased server components in volume before. I need advice on purchasing at volume so I can stretch my dollar as far as it will go. I'm in Canada, and looking to buy ~100 Epyc 7702P's, 25 SuperMicro 2014TP-HTR barebone servers, and associated...
  14. A

    The next step, advice on home file server specs

    Hi - Yes I'm yet another noob here and hoping I can get some advice. I've tried to do some research but now I just feel overwhelmed with too many options. Current system at bottom of this post. I'm think I've found the case I that suites sliding under my desk (it's the only location I have for...
  15. N

    Need advice for Production Network Upgrade

    Hi, I'm working in an SMB with 30 people. (R&D, software, solidworks) We currently have cisco 2x SG500-52 switch + 2x SG500-24. All computers are connected to 1Gb and a samba server is sharing file over 4 * 1Gb aggregated link. The issue is that current ciscos are interlinked between each other...
  16. B

    File server + desktop solution Qs

    Disclaimer: I'm a super noob when it comes to NA/file servers/pretty-much-anything-network-related. PLease be gentle with me. I recently moved my work pc to the living room after a bit of maintenance and have become quite accustomed to gaming on 42in tv I scored from a second hand store (for...
  17. realtomatoes

    how'd you improve zfs performance?

    i got freenas running on a 2 vcpu 8gb vm on esxi with passthrough to the intel sata ports (2x 6gbps and 4x3gbps). it currently has 4x1tb 7200rpm drives in raid10. it serves the shared datastore to my vmwre lab via iscsi. since i only got 2 extra sata ports to expand and improve the performance...
  18. L

    starting fresh - need some purchase advice!

    Hi all, Trying to wrap my head around options for a home ESXi lab, which will be running mostly Windows VMs (6 - 10 VMs total, for stuff like SharePoint, Exhange, AD, other apps.). My hardware knowledge is pretty out-of-date, so I need a hand! My priorities are: running multiple...
  19. C

    Questions for expanding my network

    So I just registered, but I've been lurking for a while. Before I begin with the questions I'd like to thank all those who have contributed in the past. I've gotten quite a bit of good info! A bit over a year ago I built a FreeNAS box based on advice I read here. Here's the build: Supermicro...