This is my homelab as of 2026. Most of this hardware was inherited or cobbled together over time. It’s modest, it’s not perfectly organized yet, and I’m still figuring out what I want it to be. But it’s mine, and it’s where I learn.
Rack & Networking
The gear lives in a Tecmojo 12U rack. Networking is handled by:
- Netgear Nighthawk RAX70 — Router
- Netgear GS316EP — 16-Port Gigabit Ethernet PoE+ Smart Switch
Nothing fancy. The switch gives me PoE for when I want to play with access points or cameras, and the RAX70 handles routing and Wi-Fi. I’ll likely replace the router with something more capable down the line — this was what I had available.
The Machines
QNAP TS-253A (NAS)
This is my primary always-on box. It’s not powerful, but it sips power and runs 24/7.
- QNAP TS-253A (Intel Celeron, 2-bay)
- Running as a container host with a few services:
- Pi-hole — Network-wide ad blocking
- Homer — Simple dashboard for all my services
- Semaphore — Ansible UI for running playbooks
- Uptime Kuma — Uptime monitoring
It’s not a TrueNAS beast or a custom NAS build. It’s a little QNAP that does what I need it to.
Lenovo S500 SFF
This server runs this very blog (via Podman + Nginx).
- Intel Core i7-4790S @ 3.2GHz
- 8GB RAM
- 1TB HDD
The blog container is the only workload on it right now. I’ll expand its role once I’m more settled in my setup.
2x ThinkCentre M92p (Type 3237)
Two identical small-form-factor desktops. Currently not doing much — they’re sitting in the rack waiting for a purpose.
- Intel Core i5-3470
- 4GB RAM each
- 128GB SSD each
I’d like to turn these into a lightweight cluster or use them for specific monitoring/lab roles. They’re old but they still run.
Dell Latitude 3420
My daily driver laptop for homelab tinkering and portable use.
- Intel Core i5-1135G7 @ 4.2GHz
- 8GB RAM
- 256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe
ThinkPad X250
A backup laptop. Old, slow, but it boots.
- Intel Core i5-5300U @ 2.30GHz
- 4GB RAM
- 500GB SAS drive
Custom PC (Windows 11)
My gaming rig and general desktop. It pulls double duty — gaming when I’m off the clock, and occasionally running heavier workloads that the laptop can’t handle.
- Intel Core i7-9700K @ 3.6GHz (Turbo 4.9GHz)
- 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 2400MHz (2x8GB)
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8GB
- 2TB Samsung 990 EVO Plus (primary)
- 240GB Gigabyte SSD
- 1TB Seagate Barracuda
It’s over 6 years old at this point. Still runs everything I throw at it.
Physical Layout
Pi-hole, Homer, Semaphore, Uptime Kuma] GS316 --> Lenovo[Lenovo S500
This Blog] GS316 --> M92p1[ThinkCentre M92p #1] GS316 --> M92p2[ThinkCentre M92p #2] GS316 --> Latitude[Dell Latitude 3420]
What I Run
Right now the active services are light:
| Service | Host | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Pi-hole | QNAP | DNS ad blocking |
| Homer | QNAP | Dashboard / bookmark hub |
| Semaphore | QNAP | Ansible playbook UI |
| Uptime Kuma | QNAP | Uptime monitoring |
| This blog | Lenovo S500 | Hugo site via Nginx |
That’s it. The two M92p boxes are idle, and the laptops come and go. I have plans to build this out — monitoring, container orchestration, storage, maybe a K3s cluster across those M92ps — but I’m not there yet. I’m taking it one step at a time.
What’s Next
- Get the M92p boxes running something useful
- Proper monitoring and alerting
- Explore container orchestration (K3s or similar)
- Better storage strategy (the QNAP is fine but limited)
- Document everything as I go
This homelab is a work in progress. Most of it was inherited, some of it was bought cheap, and all of it is being learned on. That’s kind of the point.