Home Lab Equipment List: Everything You Need

This is the reference checklist: every component category a home lab needs, what each one is for, and what to skip until you need it.

Most home labs grow over months, not days. You do not need everything on this list to start. When you are ready to expand, this page tells you what fits and why. For the order to buy things in and what each step costs, read the home lab starter guide. For complete parts lists with totals, see home lab builds at every budget.

Compute

Compute is the foundation. Everything else in your lab exists to support, connect or protect it.

Mini PCs (Best Starting Point)

Mini PCs have replaced enterprise rack servers in most home labs. An N100 or N150 box idles at an estimated 6 to 10W, a small fraction of a used rack server, and runs quietly.

Entry-level compute:

• Beelink Mini S13 (N150): four cores and four threads, 16GB of DDR4 on one SO-DIMM (Intel rates the N150 at a 16GB maximum), a 500GB M.2 SATA SSD plus a second M.2 slot for an NVMe SSD at PCIe 3.0 x1, and dual 2.5GbE. The default first home lab purchase for Proxmox, a few lightweight VMs and a set of containers, and its two ports can carry a pfSense or OPNsense router VM.
• Beelink EQ14 (N150): the same N150 chip and 16GB of DDR4 (16GB maximum), with a 500GB SATA SSD (Beelink’s retail units ship with SATA III), two M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 slots and dual 2.5GbE on the version we link. Beelink also sells dual-1GbE versions, so check the exact version. Choose it over the S13 if you want two M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 slots for NVMe drives, two HDMI ports and a built-in power supply.

Power-user compute:

• Minisforum MS-A2: Ryzen 9 9955HX (16 cores, 32 threads), up to 96GB of DDR5, dual 10G SFP+ plus dual 2.5GbE, two M.2 slots plus one U.2, and a PCIe x16 slot wired PCIe 4.0 x8 for low-profile, slot-powered cards. This is the power-user node for dense Proxmox work, fast storage traffic or PCIe passthrough of a NIC or HBA; full-size GPUs need a tower. Skip it for basic Docker stacks and Home Assistant, where an N100 or N150 box does the job with less heat, noise and cost.

For a full breakdown, see best mini PC for home server and best mini PC for Proxmox.

What About Enterprise Rack Servers?

Decommissioned Dell PowerEdge and HP ProLiant servers are easy to find used, but they are loud, need a rack and draw far more power. Run the numbers before buying: if a server idles at 200W, it costs about $315 a year at $0.18 per kWh (close to the US residential average in EIA’s latest data). A mini PC at 10W costs about $16 a year.

Enterprise servers make sense only if you specifically need ECC RAM, IPMI or iDRAC out-of-band management, or more than 128GB of memory. For learning and running services, mini PCs win.

Storage

Storage splits into two decisions: the device that serves your data and the drives inside it.

NAS Devices

A NAS centralizes storage so every device on your network (Proxmox hosts, desktops, laptops, media players) can reach the same files, with redundancy.

• Synology DS225+: two bays, an Intel Celeron J4125, 2GB of memory (expandable to 6GB), one 2.5GbE and one 1GbE port, and no M.2 slots. The current simple DSM choice for mirrored storage.
• Synology DS925+: four bays, an AMD Ryzen V1500B (4 cores, 8 threads), 4GB of ECC memory (expandable to 32GB), dual 2.5GbE and two M.2 NVMe slots. It has no PCIe slot, so it cannot take Synology’s 10GbE card, and its only expansion unit is the DX525.

Under DSM 7.3, Synology’s 2025 Plus, Value and J models accept third-party 3.5-inch hard drives and 2.5-inch SATA SSDs. M.2 storage pools and cache still need drives from Synology’s compatibility list.

See the full best NAS for home lab roundup for other options, including QNAP, TerraMaster and DIY builds.

Drives

Your NAS is only as good as the drives inside it. Use NAS-rated CMR drives; SMR drives cause problems in RAID arrays.

• Seagate IronWolf 8TB: CMR, 7200 RPM, 256MB cache, rated for 1 to 8 bays with rotational vibration sensors, a 3-year limited warranty and 3 years of Rescue data recovery (ST8000VN004).
• WD Red Plus 8TB: CMR, 5640 RPM class, 256MB cache, rated for NAS systems with up to 8 bays, with a 3-year limited warranty (WD80EFPX). WD rates it at 3.4W idle against Seagate’s 7.8W for the 7200 RPM IronWolf 8TB, so it runs cooler.

Either drive is a solid choice. For drive selection and the CMR vs. SMR distinction, see best hard drive for NAS and CMR vs. SMR for NAS.

SSDs for caching and VMs: if your NAS supports NVMe caching (the DS925+ does, with drives from Synology’s list), a 500GB to 1TB NVMe cache can help random I/O for Docker containers and VM storage. For direct-attached Proxmox storage, a standard consumer NVMe SSD works fine.

Networking

Networking is the layer most beginners underestimate. A managed switch with VLAN support lets you separate IoT devices, lab traffic and home traffic, which is the most useful upgrade for a maturing lab.

Switches

• TP-Link TL-SG108E: 8-port gigabit Easy Smart switch with 802.1Q VLANs (up to 32), QoS and IGMP snooping, fanless, rated at 2.7W maximum. A fine first managed switch when your router handles routing and firewall rules.
• TP-Link TL-SG108-M2: 8-port 2.5GbE unmanaged switch, fanless, rated at 8.45W maximum. The right buy when your NAS and mini PCs have 2.5GbE ports and you want the speed without configuration.
• TP-Link SG2008P: 8-port gigabit managed switch with four PoE+ ports and a 62W PoE budget, fanless, managed through Omada SDN. It powers access points and IP cameras directly.
• UniFi USW-Lite-8-PoE: 8-port gigabit switch with four PoE+ ports and a 52W PoE budget, fanless. It joins the UniFi controller if you run a UniFi gateway and access points. Amazon sells it only as a 2-pack; Ubiquiti’s own store sells single units.
• MikroTik CRS305-1G-4S+: four SFP+ 10G ports plus one gigabit RJ45, rated at 18W maximum. A compact way to connect a NAS, Proxmox host and workstation at 10G.

For the complete guide, see best network switch for home lab and best 2.5G switch.

Access Points

If you run VLANs on your switch, your access point needs to map multiple SSIDs to VLANs. Consumer routers in AP mode rarely do this well. A dedicated access point from UniFi or TP-Link Omada, powered over PoE from your switch, avoids the need for a separate power adapter. Check the access point’s rated draw against your switch’s PoE budget.

Power Protection

A UPS is not optional once you have a NAS with spinning drives. An unclean shutdown during a write can corrupt a RAID array. A UPS gives your NAS time to shut down cleanly and protects your gear from sags and surges.

UPS Units

• CyberPower CP850PFCLCD: 850VA/510W, sine-wave output, five battery-backed and five surge-only outlets, USB for automatic shutdown. Enough for a mini PC, a switch and your router and modem.
• CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD: 1500VA/1000W, sine-wave output, six battery-backed and six surge-only outlets, LCD, USB. The standard tower UPS for a mini PC, NAS and switch; CyberPower rates it at 10 minutes at half load (500W), and a small lab runs much longer.
• APC BR1500MS2: APC’s Back-UPS Pro at 1500VA/900W, line-interactive with sine-wave output, six battery-backed and four surge-only outlets, a USB data port and USB-A and USB-C charging ports. The APC alternative if you prefer its software.

Sizing matters. See how to size a UPS for your home lab to add up your real load before buying. As a rule of thumb, we suggest a UPS rated for at least 1.5 times the total wattage you plan to plug in.

For the full breakdown, see best UPS for home lab.

Power Monitoring

You cannot manage power you do not measure. A smart plug with energy monitoring between your UPS and the wall shows what the whole lab draws.

• Kasa KP125M: Matter-certified smart plug with real-time and historical energy monitoring in the Kasa app. Through Matter it also works with platforms such as Home Assistant for dashboards and alerts.

Racks and Mounting

Most labs do not need a rack on day one. A rack becomes worth it when you have several devices that benefit from organized mounting, airflow and clean cable management.

When to Get a Rack

You need a rack when:

• Cables between devices are tangled and hard to trace
• You have a patch panel, switch and rack-mount gear that could stack vertically
• Your NAS and compute sit on a shelf with poor airflow
• You are adding devices and running out of surface space

Options

• NavePoint 6U open-frame wall rack: holds a patch panel, a switch and a shelf without using floor space. The linked version is 16 inches deep and rated for 200 lb; NavePoint also sells deeper versions. Tower UPS units such as the CP1500PFCLCD do not rack-mount, so they sit below it. The right first rack for apartments and closets.
• StarTech 4POSTRACK12U: a 12U four-post open-frame rack with 22-to-40-inch adjustable mounting depth, casters included and a 1,200 lb stationary rating. The right choice when deep equipment needs front and rear support. Measure your deepest chassis before buying.

A 24-port keystone patch panel and a set of short (6-inch to 1-foot) patch cables keep cable terminations organized.

Software Stack

The best part of home lab software: the core stack is free.

Hypervisors

Proxmox VE is free and open source. Version 9 is current and is built on Debian 13. It runs VMs (KVM) and containers (LXC) from a web interface, and it is the default hypervisor for home labs. Install it on your mini PC’s internal SSD and point VM storage at your NAS over NFS or iSCSI.

VMware ESXi is free again. Broadcom made the entry-level vSphere Hypervisor available at no charge with ESXi 8.0 Update 3e in April 2025, for non-production use, with limits that include no vCenter connection and a maximum of 8 vCPUs per VM. Much of the home lab community moved to Proxmox while the free tier was unavailable.

NAS Operating Systems

Synology DSM ships on Synology hardware. It has a web interface, Container Manager for Docker, snapshot-based backups, and built-in apps for photos, surveillance and file sync. Little configuration is needed beyond the initial setup.

TrueNAS Community Edition (formerly TrueNAS SCALE) is free and Linux-based, with ZFS storage, iSCSI targets and an apps system built on Docker (TrueNAS replaced the Kubernetes backend with Docker in version 24.10). It is the right choice for DIY NAS builds on your own hardware: more powerful than DSM, with a steeper learning curve.

Containers and Services

Docker and Docker Compose are the standard for running self-hosted services. Most home lab services ship as Docker images, including Pi-hole, Home Assistant, Jellyfin, Plex, Nextcloud, Gitea, Uptime Kuma and Traefik.

Portainer or Dockge give you a web interface for Docker containers. Portainer has more features; Dockge is lighter and built around compose files. Either beats managing everything from the command line for most people.

Home Assistant is a home automation platform that doubles as a lab dashboard. It integrates with smart plugs for power monitoring, with UPS status through NUT, and with network device tracking.

Cabling and Accessories

Bad cables cause intermittent problems that waste hours to diagnose. Buy decent cables and label everything.

Ethernet

• Cat6 patch cables for gigabit and 2.5GbE links. IEEE 802.3bz runs 2.5GbE over up to 100 meters of Cat5e, so Cat6 has headroom. Buy a multipack of 1-foot, 3-foot and 6-foot lengths; slim or flat cables are easier to route in tight spaces.
• Cat6a for 10GBASE-T copper links, especially longer runs.
• Bulk cable for in-wall drops: solid-core cable terminated with keystone jacks (Cat6a if you want 10GBASE-T headroom). Stranded cable is for patch cords only.

SFP+ and DAC Cables

For 10G links between SFP+ ports, such as on the MikroTik CRS305 or the Minisforum MS-A2:

• 10G DAC (direct attach copper) cables are passive and need no transceivers. They are the simplest option for short runs between devices in the same rack or on the same shelf.
• SFP+ transceivers with fiber handle longer runs and runs between rooms.

Other Accessories

• Label maker: a Brother P-Touch makes readable labels that help you trace cables without pulling them. Label both ends of every cable.
• Velcro cable ties: not zip ties, because Velcro can be repositioned.
• Keystone patch panel: a 24-port blank panel with keystone jacks gives wall runs a clean termination point.
• Short patch cables: 6-inch cables between the patch panel and switch reduce excess cable between adjacent ports.

Common Mistakes

Buying a rack before you have rack gear. A rack with two devices in it wastes space and money. Use a shelf until you need vertical organization.

Ignoring power draw. A lab that draws 200W continuously costs about $315 a year at $0.18 per kWh. Check your draw with a smart plug before and after adding hardware. Some people discover their cheap used server costs more to power each year than it cost to buy.

Skipping the UPS. A UPS costs far less than the hardware and data it protects. One power event that corrupts your NAS array costs more in time and data than the UPS ever would.

Overbuying network gear. You do not need 10G networking to start. Gigabit is fine for learning, and 2.5GbE is our default recommendation for most home labs. Buy 10G when you have a specific throughput bottleneck you can show, not because it sounds better.

Running everything on one flat network. VLANs are not difficult once you have a managed switch. Separate IoT devices, lab experiments and trusted devices. A compromised smart bulb should not be able to reach your NAS.

Not labeling cables. It is tedious for 5 cables and essential for 15. Start the habit early.

Wrap-Up

Here is the equipment list in buying order, the same order our starter guide uses:

You can spread this over months, and each stage is useful on its own. For phase-by-phase costs, see the home lab starter guide. For a tighter budget, see home lab under $500. For GPU and AI workloads, see best GPU for local LLMs.

Bookmark this page as your reference checklist.