Hi,

I need help with my first homelab hardware. Maybe you experts can help me with that. I looked at this tutorial about building your own Openshift one node cluster using an Intel NUC, though I’m unsure, if I really should buy one of these.

I have set a budget of 1000€ (I’m located in germany). The tutorial suggests the Intel NUC10i7FNK, which I can get for 450€ new here (would buy 64GB RAM and a 2TB M.2 SSD for that). And I would follow the tutorial in getting a dedicated router for my lab environment.

Can I get more for my money (also in terms of upgradability) with some other product? Or should I just get that suggested NUC? I don’t need it to be that small (can be a tower), but I don’t want real server hardware, since the lab will run in my home office.

Thanks in advance for your help. My brain hurts from comparing products, searching for their availability, etc.

EDIT:

I’ve now decided to buy the NUC10i7FNK. It seems to be a sensible choice and the tutorial says, that it has enough beef for my first goal of building my own Openshift cluster for experimenting.

Thanks to all of you! You helped me to get to a good decision in this wide field of home lab equipment.

  • @xantoxis
    1•11 months ago

    Loving the NUC. You’re paying about what I paid and getting twice the RAM and twice the SSD space, so, from where I’m sitting, it looks like a good deal. I’ve got 4 VMs running on mine–and one of those is running about 8 containerized apps–so I’d say you should have room to do whatever you want with that bad boy.

    If you’re doing any kind of media center, I would definitely prioritize high speed Internet and hardwired connections as well. I hardwired my whole house for my project.

    I added a 4TB external drive to mine, which should easily fit within your budget, and I’d recommend it if, again, you’re doing media stuff.

    • @[email protected]OPEnglish
      2•11 months ago

      Currently I’m not focussing on media stuff, more on experimenting with different technologies, that I use for work (like Openshift, Docker, Puppet, Ansible). Having dedicated hardware, that gets me further than some small VMs on my PC will be great for that.

      Though I might move to media stuff in the future. Heard a lot about jellyfin, for example. Though then I need to upgrade my home network too. It still is limited to 100mbit. But I already have wired connections through most of the house.

      Thanks for your fast answer

      • @xantoxis
        1•11 months ago

        hth. In truth my setup is also to experiment with automation and it’s a fun hobby, so more power to you! Getting to watch some very fast streaming TV is a bonus.