Opinions on my first HomeLab Build (still in progress)

Hardware Build a PC
, ,
1

I’m researching about hardware for about a month. It’s really complicated for newcomers.
Experimented a bit with old hardware laying around my house, now I plan to build the real deal! Already ordered some parts, the HDs arrived today.
My build was thought based on the following priorities:

  1. Low energy consumption
    So I can let it running 24/7 without feeling guilty

  2. Low noise
    To not bother my family

  3. Horsepower available
    in case I want to experiment with stuff

  4. Expansibility
    in case i need in the future

  5. Modern hardware
    don’t want it to be outdated too soon
    Here’s my build:

  6. OS/Hypervisor:
    Still deciding between Proxmox and TrueNAS. Probably Proxmox with virtualized TrueNAS.
    I know virtualizing TrueNAS is less efficient, but I think that’s the only way I can use both platforms.

  7. Storage:

    • 3 HDs IronWolf for NAS 8 Tb each.
      I pretend to use ZFS + ZRAID1 (max storage 16 Tb)
    • 1 Samsung NVME 1 Tb for the OS/Hypervisor
      Thinking about mirroring it, but I couldn’t find anything about it

  8. Processor (not bought yet):

    • Intel core i7-12700k
      It has a very low idle consumption power while it stills have tons of horsepower when needed.
      It has 12 cores for virtualization. It’s perfect!
      The only problem is that it heats a lot. Not sure if I will need to buy cooling hardware.
      I pretend to undervolt it for better performance/efficiency.

  9. RAM
    I planned double 16 Gb of ECC DDR5 RAM, but I’m starting to realize I will not be able to find an ECC compatible motherboard, so probably I will change to non-ECC DDR5.

  10. Motherboard
    That’s the only part I’m still choosing. I know for a fact that homelabs with low power consumption runs with Supermicro or Fujitsu motherboards.
    But unfortunately, they are no available in my country (Brazil) and importing them is out of questions (100%+ of taxation). So I’m still researching about this topic.
    I’m open to suggestions.

  11. PSU
    It will be chosen based on the rest of the build

My idle power consumption target is 50 w at most (An incandescent light bulb).
3 hdd = 15w
NVMI = 3 w
2 rams = 10 w
idle processor = 5~10w?
Total: 38w

It still missing the motherboard and PSU.

1 Like