Server

One of the biggest surprises when I got into homelabbing was just how cheap enterprise hardware can be. Servers that cost €15,000 new, sold for €50-150 on the second-hand market a decade later. Network switches that ran the backbone of a company’s infrastructure, available for less than a pizza. 10-gigabit networking gear that was out of reach for home users a few years ago, now completely affordable second-hand. The reason is simple: businesses refresh their hardware on a predictable cycle — typically every 3-5 years. When they do, the old gear gets sold off, donated, or scrapped. Most of it still has years of useful life left. ...

Every homelab starts somewhere. Mine started with a conversation with a friend in bar who had a server sitting in his garage collecting dust and no interest in running it anymore. “You want it?” That’s how I ended up with an HP DL380 G6 — and honestly, it’s been both one of the best and most humbling pieces of kit I’ve ever worked with. The specs This is what’s running everything: ...