My lab

What I actually run.

The hardware behind the videos and the posts, with the reason each piece is there. Nothing on this page was sent to me for free unless the note says so; where a link is an affiliate link it is marked, and it costs you nothing extra.

Cluster parts list on Amazon Hosting & services I use

Proxmox cluster

Three identical nodes in a 10-inch rack, Ceph on the second 10GbE port with jumbo frames, management and VM traffic on the first. Built August 2026; the five-part build series is on YouTube. Full parts list on Amazon →

Cluster nodes

3x Lenovo ThinkCentre M720q Tiny

i5-9400T, 32 GB RAM, 2 TB NVMe each. Quiet, cheap second-hand, and they take a PCIe riser.

Write-up Video

Per node, via the nandfarm M720q/M920q riser

YuanLey YS-X540-2T dual 10GbE NIC

One port for Ceph, one for everything else. The reason the cluster does not need LACP.

Write-up

10-inch rack

DeskPi RackMate DP-0082

The black one. Rack trays and mounts for the Tinies are 3D-printed in PETG after the PLA ones softened in the summer heat.

Write-up Video

KVM over IP

GL.iNet Comet X

Fills the top U of the rack. The whole cluster was installed through it without ever plugging in a monitor.

Write-up Video

Storage and backup

The daily-use NAS is deliberately separate from the lab, so breaking the cluster never touches the family's films.

Home NAS, Fygo OS bare metal

CWWK M11 mini-ITX NAS board

8x SATA, dual 2.5GbE, dual NVMe, i5-8265U. 64 GB RAM, 4x 3 TB HDD, 2x 1 TB NVMe cache.

Write-up

Lab backups

Proxmox Backup Server

Deduplicated, scheduled, verified. The one service I would never run the cluster without.

Write-up

Network

UniFi for the access layer, Sophos XG Home as the gateway and internal DNS, everything on VLANs.

Core switch

Ubiquiti EdgeSwitch ES-48-Lite

48 ports, fanless-quiet, GVRP configured. Old, still fine.

Firewall, gateway, internal DNS

Sophos XG Home

Free for home use. Every subnet gets .254 as its gateway.

Write-up

Travel router

Cudy TR3000

Reviewed in September 2026; the VPN-router-in-a-bag for hotel Wi-Fi.

Write-up Video

Studio

Where the videos get made.

Edit workstation

Ryzen 7 5800X, 64 GB, RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB

DaVinci Resolve, Elgato capture card for the lab machines.

3D printer

Creality K1 Max

Prints every bracket and tray in the rack.

Write-up

Changes often

This page tracks the lab as it is, not as it was in a video. The post behind each item explains the decision at the time; the referral links page has the hosting and services I use next to the hardware.