this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2025
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247
Rate my one year old homelab. (media.piefed.social)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.social to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
45 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

How it started: mp80
I bought a MiniPC (Blackview MP-80) to run Home Assistant and some lights etc. to go with it.

It's now exactly one year later this is what my setup looks like now:
BMAX B2 Pro --> Home Assistant OS Blackview MP-80 --> Proxmox --> Nextcloud-AIO & Immich
ODROID H4+ --> Proxmox --> TrueNAS

How it's going: odroid
With the heatwave in Europe I've now installed cooling to keep my HDD's from heating up.

I know it's Janky as hell, but I love it. The plan going forward is to buy a 3D Printer so that I can 3D Print a custom 10" rack, and I'll build my own cooling and temperature monitoring system with ESP32 and create a dashboard for it in Home Assistant and sorting out networking.

It's a work in progress, having a lot of fun learning and adding new things.

top 45 comments
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[–] Part4@infosec.pub 2 points 7 hours ago

I’ll build my own cooling and temperature monitoring system

I bunged mine in the fridge, just drill a hole out of the side for the cables then use rubber sealant.

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 23 hours ago

A+

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Just needs a 10" cardboard box with proper holes

[–] matdave@lemmy.ml 4 points 17 hours ago

Does she have a sister?

[–] SilentKnightOwl@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Don't get too carried away, it's just a homelab

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

but, think of it... RACING STRIPES!!!! or FLAMES!!!

You use bamboo skewers to mount the things off the bottom and dampen vibration. mabey use an internal flap and bent the disks out the front and the PSU out the back. If you have enough cardboard, you could even bend it a bit and do like a jet engine with the fan sticking out the front.

cardboard papercraft homelab... I almost want to get rid of my 42 U rand and make a voltron now.

[–] SilentKnightOwl@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

There would definitely be flames if you forgot the proper holes!

Lol a jet engine shaped cardboard case held together with bamboo skewers would actually be pretty rad

[–] Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.social 3 points 1 day ago

Not gona lie, I'm very tempted it'll get me lots of Internet points, and definitely a few haters

[–] AllHailTheSheep@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago

a proper hobbyist setup, well done!

[–] loomy@lemy.lol 10 points 1 day ago

11 out of 10

[–] bluesheep@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

10/10

What's the black pcb on top of the odroid?

[–] Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.social 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Thanks!!

It's a 10 Euro fan controller, that I'm temporarily using till I can build my own with ESP32 fancontroller

[–] bluesheep@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

Aaah, that explains the potmeter. Thanks!

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's great but that fan is an overkill. 😂

[–] Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.social 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Very much so, but I do enjoy gross overkill.

I'll build them into a future case then they won't be as overkill

[–] oranki@piefed.social 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing!

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago

There's nothing that could possibly go wrong with this strategy. 😂

[–] Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.social 34 points 2 days ago (2 children)

A lesson I learnt along the way:

HDD's on your desk are loud AF when you're constantly writing to a database
Solution: Everything except backups and Media run on SSD's

[–] JustEnoughDucks 1 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Some drives are worse than others and higher capacities get worse and worse, in my experience, Seagate drives are extremely loud.

If you get helium drives (like wd red plus > 8TB i think),or 2nd hand hgst/ WD enterprise drives) they are significantly quieter.

But, having an ssd is cheaper probably. I have an SSD for the boot drive and all databases, configuration folders, etc... In docker so general IO is fast, then media, documents, pictures, etc... On the big HDDs.

[–] Ptsf@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Depends on the drive too, I have some insanely loud Ironwolf drives and you would never guess they're from the same manufacturer as my practically silent Exos X18s.

[–] Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.social 2 points 1 day ago

The other HDD I have is a WD Gold, it's definitely the louder of the two, both of them are ~5 years old. Now that I moved the databases off of them, they are quieter than my work laptop, so they don't bug me.

But oh boy, it really did sound like a train yard at one point.

[–] bigboitricky@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

I adore every piece of this

My OG system had the whole side panel on the case ripped out where I stuck a fan because the CPU fan died, that was over a decade ago I love your setup <3

[–] nesc@lemmy.cafe 20 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Nice, 8/10. Don't buy bambu lab, they will suck you soul.

[–] Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.social 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Thanks <3

I'm going to go with the Sovol SV06 Plus ACE , I'm a big advocate for Open Source, so anything that requires proprietary software isn't really an option for me.

I live in a tiny apartment, so my biggest hurdle with getting a 3D printer right now is space.

[–] nesc@lemmy.cafe 2 points 2 days ago

I'm waiting for one of those right now as well!

[–] Bluefruit@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yea not super thrilled with bambu lab for the privacy concerns but the printer itself is good. I just use it in lan only mode and block any outgoing network traffic on my router.

But there are other brands that are good. Ive heard prusa is nice but never tried them.

[–] nesc@lemmy.cafe 2 points 22 hours ago

I have bambu printer they are good, but my printer stopped printing until I've allowed it to phone home for a bit, this repeated twice already.

[–] justme@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Nice setup. I also started with a mini PC but couldn't find a reasonable way to add drives, how are yours attached? In general I would love to find some reasonable prices DAS/JBOD options

[–] Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.social 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Thanks. ODROID allows 4 drives with sata, it's a really nice solution.

You could attach even more with using nvme

https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-h4-plus/

[–] justme@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 7 hours ago

Damn. I was looking for agrees for someone like that, now I'm stuck with a microATC board that is great but doesn't fit in a 10" rack, why are there no 12" racks? ^^

[–] tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

Lol, brilliant.

At first you are thinking "this is going to be so nice and compact and tidy" and then....

Love it though

[–] Damage@feddit.it 10 points 1 day ago

All homelabs are 5 star

[–] chug-capture-ahoy@piefed.social 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I think u friki and i like u a lot. Hehehhe you should see mine, is all made of old repurposed garbage. Wtb Corsair peripherals ftw!

[–] HelloRoot@lemy.lol 6 points 2 days ago

10/10 best value

[–] sundray@lemmus.org 4 points 2 days ago

Function over form, I love it!

[–] dis_honestfamiliar@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's beautiful but I don't understand why two pair of cables go into the fan (is that a PSU?) and only one yellow wire comes out. Also where the motherboard. Need answer

[–] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

The black box is the mini PC (note the Ethernet cable going into it) and the yellow/red/black cable is a single SATA power cable, that is daisy chained. Going from the PC to the drive and then going back to the fan control board

Edit: looks like it's actually 3 SATA cables. Not daisy chained

[–] Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.social 1 points 1 day ago

It's 3 SATA power cables yes, plugged into the H4+ https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-h4-plus/

[–] dis_honestfamiliar@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

And is that an Ethernet cable going into what looks like PSU? (I found the Ethernet cable you mentioned)

[–] Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.social 2 points 1 day ago

It looks like a PSU, but it's actually just a case for the odroid H4+ https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-h4-case-type-1/

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

Yeah, it's fine ... wait, IronWolves in a living space? Paired with that acoustic desk it must be like a train yard, but with more vibrations :D.

Edit: wrote this before I saw your comment acknowledging the same.
Well, with HDD there is the noise of the drive itself (the constant one & the searches, spin-ups), and the vibrations which can get acoustically amplified. For the former you need a case, any case, maybe a case in a case (ventilated ofc), for the latter I've always (since late 90s) had my HDD on full rubber, no non-rubber connection to the case.

My current NASies all use these (in desktop cases, I don't like server hardware if it isn't necessary, like with disks):

(They cost like 2 monies with shipping.)

So if going the 3D-print way, as you mentioned, I would def add the suggestion of incorporating thicc rubber pads or rubber straps into your design, like these ones (I've used them a lot decades ago, the only commercial option for silent PC enthusiasts at the time, but I've built then myself too):

(It's rigid, the disks won't fall out.)

[–] toketin@feddit.it 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Hi, which is the name of this kind of cases? I'm looking a similar way in order to add an external HDD on my local server which is a Lenovo Thinkcentre SFF, so with 3 disks of space (1 hdd 3.5" + 1 2.5" + 1 nvme). Thanks!

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

The key search words in your (Chinese? better than rewarding Amazon with even more extra fees) store of choice I wound suggest:

3.5" to 5.25" Internal Hard Disk Mount Rubber

But don't get the ones where the inner mount (of the 3.5" drive) is the same piece or bolted/screwed into the outer mount (5.25").

The ones in my pic have fairy big rubber nips in between (each secured on both sides), 4 at the bottom (that support the weight of the disk too), and two on the sides.

Also such 5" brackets you can mount anywhere rally, even on the outside of the case, lol.
In one case without the 5.25" bays (at my parents, quick job) I mounted two disks on such mounts on that metal mesh between the PSU compartment and the main compartment.

[–] Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.social 2 points 1 day ago

The one is a Iron Wolf, the other is a WD Gold, both of which are ~5 years old, they were LOUD when I had a database running on them. They are now a lot quieter than my work laptop so they don't bug me anymore.

Thanks for the advice, I really like these solutions I'll definitely look into them

[–] Pilferjinx@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Ooo. That hdd solution looks like a mic shock mount. That's brilliant.