I’ve had several versions of my home production network over the years. Due to rising electricity costs in the Netherlands, I decided to build my latest setup using energy-efficient hardware.
Previously, I used servers with Xeon processors, but now my servers are based on laptop hardware. This helps keep power consumption low while still delivering good performance. Modern laptops often feature many CPU cores and support large amounts of memory, making them an excellent choice for homelabs.
I’m also a big fan of Ubiquiti UniFi products, and my UniFi hardware is quite energy-efficient as well.
Compared to my older self-built NAS systems, which consumed significantly more power, my UniFi NAS devices are much more efficient thanks to their ARM processors.
Hardware
UDM Pro SE
- USW Aggregation
- UNAS Pro
- U6 Pro
- G4 Instant
- Minisform MS-01, I9-13900H, 96GB, 1TB NVMe (3x PVE)
- Minisform MS-01, I5-12600H, 32GB, 1TB, 4TB NVMe (1x PBS)
- CyberPower UPS
Unifi
My network is built using Unifi devices, and for storage, I rely on a U-NAS Pro unit with a couple of 22TB drives.”
Minisform
The Minisforum MS-01 is a compact, high-performance mini workstation/server designed for professional and homelab use. It’s packed with powerful features like 2.5gbe ethernet, SFP+ that make it suitable for virtualization, containerization, and other homeLab stuff.
Software
- Unifi Network
- Unfi Drive
- Unifi Protect
- Proxmox Virtual Enviroment (Type 1 Hypevisor)
- Proxmox Backup Server
- Ubuntu Server
- Windows
- Windows Server
- MacOS
- iOS
- Kubernetes
