Homelab Overview
Table of Contents
Services
A list of services I currently run in my homelab.
| service | what | how |
|---|---|---|
| Immich | pictures + videos | podman |
| Linkding | bookmarks | podman |
| Audiobookshelf | audio books & podcasts | nixos service |
| Forgejo | git forge | nixos service |
| Homepage | dashboard | nixos service |
| Jellyfin | movies + tv shows | nixos service |
| navidrome | music | nixos service |
| Radicale | contacts + calendar | nixos service |
| SearXNG | meta search engine | nixos service |
Hardware
TL;DR
My homelab consists of an old, but more than adequate Mini-PC I bought off eBay, which runs all the services, and a Synology NAS that is only used to storage.
Fujitsu Esprimo Q556/2 (Mini PC)
Might be some of the best 100 bucks I ever spent on something. Got this Mini PC on eBay in mid 2024, at what I guess is a decent price in Germany (sometimes i am jealous looking for used ThinkPads etc at US eBay). Got my moneys worth already, but happy if it just keeps chugging along for a few more years.
I don’t really need anything more powerful, but next one will probably be a Dell Optiplex, b/c a 3070 got a very recent firmware update last time I looked, unlike this Fujitsu. Also built quality wise the plastic on this feels a little cheap, but for what it cost, I shouldn’t complain. I actually used this as a desktop PC next to my MacBook in the past, playing some Diablo 3 on OpenSUSE Tumbleweed - very good distro btw - and a few other old games like Half-Life 1 and 2 and WarCraft 3 TFT (the RTS GOAT).
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ax@ax-fuji
┌────────────────────────Hardware────────────────────────┐
PC ESPRIMO Q556/2
├ Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-7100T (4) @ 3.40 GHz
├ Intel HD Graphics 630 @ 1.10 GHz [Integrated]
├ 3.29 GiB / 15.47 GiB (21%)
├ 774.58 MiB / 8.78 GiB (9%)
└ 137.02 GiB / 224.00 GiB (61%) - ext4
└ 6.37 TiB / 7.22 TiB (88%) - ext4
2560x1080 in 29", 60 Hz [External]
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌────────────────────────Software────────────────────────┐
OS NixOS 25.11 (Xantusia) x86_64
├ Linux 6.12.63
├ 775 (nix-system), 115 (nix-user)
├ fish 4.2.1
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌────────────────────────Misc────────────────────────────┐
OS Age 166 days
Uptime 104 days(!), 4 hours, 33 mins
loadavg 0.02 0.02 0.00
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
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Yes I wanted to reach the 100 days of uptime once :)
The MiniPC is still on a desk with the monitor plugged in, but I use it completely headless via ssh.
Synology DS224+
Not much to say about this one.
I only use the Synology for storage, I did not even try any of the other service they provide - and they provide a lot of them. But soon after I bought this NAS, the news about Synology only wanting to support their own, quite overpriced disks went viral, and even if they backtracked on this decision, I did not and do not want to invest any more in their ecosystem.
Nonetheless after about 2 years of usage, this little box just does its job in a boring (good!) way - no issues so far.