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At what point do you begin growing your homelab?
(alien.top)
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I've been downsizing.
A few years ago I had three Xeon E5 rack servers with 64GB of RAM each and a bunch of HDDs.
I then cut it down to three mini PCs with 16GB of RAM each.
Just recently I cut it down even further to just my single Linux desktop running Kubernetes in the background.
Why? I realized that my interests are all on the software side and more hardware doesn't contribute much to improving my experience either building or using the lab.
I also tend to make improvements in my software stack when resources are more restricted and my lab became so much more reliable and efficient over the years.
I downsized as well for the same reasons. Less equipment means less care and feeding. My main desktop is powerful enough to have a few VMs running in the background while I play games.
There is a mini-pc I use for my workbench that I use to show references for any other hobbies and it also controls my CNC when needed.
My CAD work and games require a powerful workstation so all my money went into that. Also, electric bills can start to add up when servers are running 24x7. Plus, they can be loud.
I am going to invest in another mini-pc soon to act as a another router and firewall, but that is about it.