What is a Homelab?
Introduction to Homelabbing
A homelab is a personal IT environment at home for learning, experimenting, and self-hosting services. Learn what defines a homelab and how to think about yours.
Why Build One?
Benefits of a Homelab
Learning new technologies, self-hosting services, data privacy, cost savings vs cloud, and building a personal dev/test environment.
Define Your Goals
Planning Your Homelab
Define what you want from your lab — media server, network lab, virtualisation platform, NAS, or all of the above. Planning guides decisions on hardware and software.
Choosing Hardware
Hardware Options — Mini PCs, Servers, NUCs
From Intel NUCs to Supermicro servers — understanding TDP, RAM, storage, and networking options at different budget tiers.
First Steps
From Zero to Running Lab
Step-by-step checklist: hardware acquisition, network planning, OS/hypervisor install, and first VM. The quickest path to a running homelab.