The $200 Home Lab Challenge ft. Hardware Haven - Part 1

[@m3lv1lle]

This has a beautiful and nostalgic scrapyard wars vibe but its about homelabs instead of Gaming PCs. I love it, please make it a series.

[@JeffGeerling]

++

[@Megawoolf13]

​@@JeffGeerlingis a raspberry pi 4 still viable as a nas?

[@Jabe_VeX]

I can't believe my 2 favourite home labbers collabbed

[@ElementalITcc]

love the concept. BTW, that netgear nas has an Atom D525 in it, so you CAN install any OS you want. You also said that it has 2x 1TB drives, but the listing stated 2x 2TB WD Red for 4TB total.... that's worth the price you paid by itself, and if the NAS works, you can install proxmox on it and have a pfsense VM as it has 2 rj45 ports.

[@dezmond91_hu]

Proxmox on D525? I have N3150, but it's still iffy... Sure you can spin up multiple OS'es, but the performance won't be stellar

[@ElementalITcc]

@@dezmond91_hu proxmox uses almost no resources. it is just a way to utilize the dual nics (pfsense vm - also uses almost nothing) and the 2 HDD's as a backup for the main proxmox server. this is part of a larger network... use the NAS because you have to - but make it do as much as possible. This one device solves for 2 of his spins - ZFS and NAS.

[@Kirmo13]

3.... 🥁 2...... 🥁 AAAAANNNNDDDD!! 3! That got my dying 😂

[@vincentaguilar6249]

The collab I didn’t know I needed. Great video as always!

[@questionablecommands9423]

"Facebook is good for two things..." Fine, have my "subscribe."

[@Yuriel1981]

Just watched Colton's video. Had to immediately come over here! This is a genius idea with a scrapyard wars vibe. Love this series already! Lol

[@guy_autordie]

Brett, that was the coolest thing I've ever seen!

[@RaidOwl]

OMG I know right?!?

[@guy_autordie]

@@RaidOwl It was amazing. Gladly I was already sit down

[@ChrisDaveGG]

Dude I've watch a bunch of your videos over the past two years, but it's been mostly hardware reviews / tutorials. Getting to see your personality in this video was awesome. The comment you made - the two good things about facebook had me cracking up.

[@NightHawkATL]

Great video! Can't wait to see the outcome! I feel like I am constantly doing this in my every day hunt for computers anyways lol.

[@che-weihsieh975]

Imagine the two of them meeting each other on Facebook Marketplace

[@Kohega]

This is a collab I love

[@zackwalker6397]

That was the second coolest thing I have ever seen. The first coolest thing I have ever seen is a $75M+ buyout for my team to suck 😭

[@RaidOwl]

Jimboooooooo

[@JonathanTalksHW]

Just watched yours after I watch Colton’s video and I’m stoked to see what you both are doing on the part 2!

[@TeddyPetcu]

Man, this video was fun! A lot of fun, especially when the wheel choice was the off-the-shelf NAS.

[@RaidOwl]

Haha that crushed my soul

[@yarin.suissa]

11:40 lol the guy is living in the GTA San Andreas neighborhood joking aside, just stumbled on your channel and so far i'm loving it!

[@RaidOwl]

Just good ole suburban America 🫡

[@devnol]

I actually made a homelab with a ~200$ budget not too long ago and I followed a very similar process. Really cool to see it done properly and in a gamified manner. Also you can never have too much scrapyard wars. Subbed and can't wait for part 2!

[@bokami3445]

I'm really digging this challenge you guys have going. i'd like to see you guys make this something somewhat regular, like every 6 months, do a challenge with a different goal. Looks like you've got you're work cut out for you... Good Luck.

[@TradersTradingEdge]

Great idea and super fun to watch. Well done guys!

[@austincawley988]

I did enjoy that paper to parts transition!

[@quackoramic]

My homelab cost me $85 and works fine for what I do with it! Just some small Docker containers and my Unifi portal is all I need for now

[@TheCreat]

It's wild to me that a UPS is a core home lab item for you. I guess it's because of how reliable your grid is and/or past experiences with it? I've been home-labbing for about 2 decades now and I think I had 2 power outages in that time, with only one being longer than a few seconds. Never had a UPS and still don't think I need one.

[@fredbloggs5822]

The UPS was a waste of money. You really don't need one for a home lab, especially in this challenge, there is nothing "mission critical".

[@RaidOwl]

I very much disagree

[@fredbloggs5822]

@@RaidOwl Well, obviously, or you wouldn't have wasted your very sparse funds on one!

[@postnick]

I'm running ZFS on one SSD in porxmox it's FINE, everything is FINE! Just no protection, so I backup frequently to a NAS with ZFS.

[@dieterbeckers8819]

Brett, that was THE coolest thing I've ever seen!

[@jacobnoori]

This challenge has massive potential!

[@RaidOwl]

Big tru

[@regiomontano771]

Have a good vacation sir, can't wait for part 2

[@maynardcrow6447]

Ive bought a old chenbro server with a 1220 V2 8gb ram. Then bought 5 old 2tb sas drives and 2 60gb SSD in z1 for boot drives and made a nas using freenas all costing a lil over $200. Still works after 3 years.

[@Antassium]

5:30 I died 😂😂😂

[@RaidOwl]

RIP 🙏🏼

[@BeardedLearza]

finding the challenge is interesting, looking to start building a home lab setup so I'm finding this series good for research building one on a tight budget.

[@MrPir84free]

In my experience using cheaper to better UPS's for the home, to include at work, and such, the cheaper UPS's aren't worth the money; the cheaper units that retail for a new price under $100 to 150 - can do more damage than good; generally one should want the pure sine wave or simulated sine wave output, but those tend to be pricier. A good UPS however, can reduce the number of issues that one has with their electronics, especially computers and server equipment. Been there, done that. More prevalent in areas with huge growth, like many homes being built; in areas with frequent power outages, or in areas with large numbers of apartments, etc. With any UPS, if you received it in any condition but new, you probably should pull the battery and make sure it's not swollen, split open, leaking, bulging, or obviously damaged. I've seen examples of each since I started using UPS's for personal computers since about 1993 or so. The worst was a commercial UPS that where the inverter itself was a 5 foot cube, with four 5 foot cubes as distinct battery banks, and one swollen battery inside blew up; other batteries inside showed signs of bulging/swelling. Was inside the server room when the battery blew. The battery that blew up was literally the size of a truck battery inside an enclosure. It went with an audible bang, a spark show visible against the wall, and a good puff of smoke.. The entire UPS system was 25 foot long, by 5 foot high by 5 foot wide. The last two smaller UPS's I repaired ( 120v consumer type models ) - one had swollen batteries, and one had both batteries split open with zero acid left inside. Both would have been a fire risk to use as is. Pop open any used UPS and check the batteries first before using them. Again, even if the unit works, check the batteries. Swollen batteries and split batteries are actually VERY common as UPS's age.. Heat eventually destroys the electronics. If it stops working, check the batteries. In the smaller server room UPS's, 1500 to 3000 VA, which are quite expensive, we had about a 50/50 chance of fixing the UPS by replacing batteries, the first time, usually because the inverter or charging side has gone bad. This is typically after 2 to 4 years. By the time that a second set of batteries was needed, chances are that the electronics have failed. These units new range in price of $1K to 3K each. The smaller the UPS, the less chance to fix the UPS by replacing batteries. With new UPS's, at times, all that was needed was to pull the batteries out, and charge with a vehicle type charger.. The average (ANY) UPS, including consumer models, is good typically for 2 to maybe 4 years tops, before the batteries or UPS need replaced. If lucky, a new set of batteries is all it needs for another 2 to 3 years. Personally, I would not bother with replacing batteries on anything smaller than 900 VA. VA is short for Volt Amps, and is a rating on the "apparent power" of the UPS. The good news is- as more and more homes get solar or wind power with battery backups, well, you'll have the good inverters coming with it. R.O. spent $32 on a gamble that the UPS was good; new, on Amazon, it'd be $68; new 350VA UPS's from other brands can be had for $50 or so. Tripplite is a really good brand however; so probably more worth the risk than most cheaper brands. As the protected side does not work, it's likely the inverter does not work, or perhaps a fuse has blown inside the unit. APC and Tripplite are my preferred brands. As far as condition is concerned, there is new, refurbished (aka renewed ) and used. New is always the best; sometimes renewed means something, sometimes it does not. Used usually means - it's on e-bay because, often, the owner had a problem with it, despite what the owner denotes elsewhere. Ask how old the unit is; if you hear anything older than 2 years, it's probably got bad batteries or bad electronics.

[@Psoewish]

Brett, that was the coolest thing I've ever seen

[@RaidOwl]

Wow thanks!

[@ilovefunnyamv2nd]

interesting. I'm basically doing the same for my parents. I don't know raspberry pis are to blame, but it time to upgrade their NAS from an external hdd

[@DereckR]

Now this sounds fun!

[@caspersmith7112]

you kill me with the ending

[@antoniocheca]

Love this challenge video!

[@druxpack8531]

You could have just connected the NAS to the pc using usb or Direct using a LAN cable.

[@FowlerAskew]

Your local PC prices are incredible, most people near me want $100 for a workstation with no RAM or hard drives That being said, I've gotten UPS deals out the wazoo. I've picked up APC 550, 600, 650, and 800 models, each for less than $10, then put a $20 battery in each one and they work perfectly

[@martinjungmusic]

Love the challenge. But charging this old UPS while you're on vacation is kind of a fire hazard...

[@RaidOwl]

Don’t worry, I put it in water in case that happened 👍🏼

[@subhangmokkarala]

Well I've watched just now on hardware haven Btw is the judge gonna be mryeester

[@lindsaykid9947]

Brett I loved the transition... just don't do it ever again

[@RaidOwl]

I can’t count

[@pen25]

so i just picked up a brand new acer Aspire XC-1660G-UW92 at walmart for 99 bucks on clearance. i got it to build a nextcloud server. im thinking 10th gen i3-10105 with 64g of ram should do fine for a homelab

[@DanielC-om7fc]

20:41 I'm french....and NO, not french at all... or i don't understand the joke here 🙂

[@nerdyneighbor]

Lol "cool transition in 3. 2....and 3"

[@RaidOwl]

Counting is fkn hard bro

[@RickJohnson]

I gotta ask - what U desk is this? I need to upgrade and that setup is perfect!

[@RaidOwl]

Just some desk legs and desk tops from Amazon

[@goryramsy]

Okay, I wouldn't leave that battery thing unattended. Fire safety reasons and such.

[@dakiletsplay16]

How does that "no more than one computer Allowed" works? Does it means you'll only be allowed to use the nas as your homelab?

[@RaidOwl]

Yep

[@bluesquadron593]

You can run zfs on one drive. Still have some benefits for doing that.

[@RaidOwl]

Yeah but I didn’t wanna take the easy way out

[@gabrielsanchez1675]

Helllo, I'm in México and I have DDR3 ECC unbuffered memory available, also have an off the shelf NAS I don't use, its is kind of shitty, but hey, rule is that you should include it, not run entirely on it.

[@questionablecommands9423]

Instead of a server+UPS, I think I would've gone for a used laptop.

[@RaidOwl]

Woulda been a solid option

[@questionablecommands9423]

@@RaidOwl Inadvertently spent 3hrs on eBay tackling how I would homelab on $200.

[@dawn1berlitz]

i wouldnt be able to convert my personal home server ot full SSD for under 200 as 2tb drives are still not cheap

[@JasonsLabVideos]

HAHA !! Epic

[@Matthew-vm7qi]

Has anyone ever told you that your voice is a cross between Paul's Hardware and Norm Mcdonald?

[@RaidOwl]

Nope!

[@whackyass]

Marketplace and racism 😂

[@TubeDupe]

I am probably ignorant, what is a home lab?

[@user-pm9zj7zf5u]

MikroTik and a raspberry pi. I win

[@TazzSmk]

ZFS + SSD only = the ultimate disaster, it's genuinely sad to see people going for SSD-only homelab, and throw ZFS onto it and end up with terrible performance and 40x faster SSD wear just because some dumbass thought ZFS is a good option for homelab beginners -_-

[@darthkielbasa]

Faceoff with your community in round 2

[@RaidOwl]

Oh snap…yall ain’t ready for that kinda smoke 😎

[@SimmanGodz]

I think youre cool, but leaving an unknown UPS plugged in while your out of the country? Yikes!

[@RaidOwl]

I left it in until I left then asked my mom to plug it back and test it when I got there. I didn’t have any footage of that since I was rushing but agreed.

[@glen3486]

why a ups... waste of money with 200$ budget

[@RaidOwl]

Nah

[@bawb]

Winnner has to go up against @CraftComputing!

[@YHK_YT]

Brett, that was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen

[@RaidOwl]

Agreed!!