{"id":685,"date":"2026-03-07T09:50:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T00:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fleishmi.com\/?p=685"},"modified":"2026-03-15T02:10:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T17:10:31","slug":"how-i-saved-thousands-on-my-homelab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fleishmi.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/07\/how-i-saved-thousands-on-my-homelab\/","title":{"rendered":"How I saved THOUSANDS on my Homelab"},"content":{"rendered":"

S<\/strong>o, when I launched fleishmi.com<\/code>I said I would document how I got this thing online and give you a review of ClassicPress, which I am still using months later.
\nI’m a little late and a dollar short, but being short of money is\u00a0exactly<\/strong> how I got to where I’m at.<\/p>\n

First, I want to start off with this: I didn’t acquire these parts overnight. Not the heart of the mass storage, of course. That is, naturally, the storage itself.<\/p>\n

Over the years, I have had several computers and external hard drive units either purchased or given to me. I had an old 27 inch iMac which had a 1TB HDD (hard disk drive), a friend gave me an external 1TB HDD (he said “fix it or it’s yours because it’s useless to me.”). I also had several desktop computers that all had 1TB HDDs in them. In total I have 7 1TB HDDs laying around, with data, gathering dust. Having worked as a systems developer engineer and done work for Nissan Heavy Automotive Industries on their Synology NAS in Tokyo, I felt like I could take on the challenge of making my own NAS.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for me, I didn’t (and still don’t) have thousands of US dollars in order to have an\u00a0actual<\/em> Synology NAS.<\/p>\n

So…. I went to Hard Off.<\/p>\n

No, it’s not some sleazy sex parlor, you pervs.<\/p>\n

Hard Off is Japan’s premiere recycling outlet, much like Good Will, Salvation Army, and whatnot in the US. I did not expect to find a Synology NAS just collecting dust in the junk pile. What I found was far more valuable than gold.<\/p>\n

For just $20 US, I found a large Galleria case that has 5 hard drive bays. The case was large enough for an oversized motherboard, a power supply, and all the cooling I could ever want. So, i got that case.<\/p>\n

Next, I found that which you should NEVER try to build a series PC out of in a junk bin – a motherboard with a CPU. The CPU, according to the server’s NeoFetch: Intel Celeron G530 (2) @ 2.400GHz<\/code> That’s right. A dual core Celeron! “You couldn’t possibly think this is a serious processor to run a MASS STORAGE DEVICE AND A SERVER off of, RIGHT?!!”<\/p>\n

Normally, yes. But for the purposes of this project, $8 US got me the motherboard and the CPU installed.<\/p>\n

Next, is the RAM.<\/p>\n

From over the years, I have accumulated a good collection of 100% usable RAM. I have around 64GB on hand, but in denominations that would only allow me to max out to 32GB on the $8 motherboard.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Which the motherboard rejected!<\/p>\n

Turns out, 16GB was the max. So, I settled on it.<\/p>\n

I had to purchase more SATA cables off of Amazon, so that set me back another $2 US for 4 2-pack bundles of varying<\/p>\n

From there, it was only a matter of connecting the HDDs to the system, using a 512GB laptop SSD as my OS container, and setting it all up within software.<\/p>\n

I had a pro power supply on hand which I installed last. Fired up the machine and…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

IT LIVES!!!<\/h1>\n

Suffice it to say, I was extremely surprised, and thrilled, that the thing worked!! After the RAM fiasco, I was half-way certain that the motherboard was dead – after all, I spent less than $10 on the stupid thing. That’s what I get.<\/p>\n

But oh no no no, the thing\u00a0WORKS!!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Next, comes the hard part –\u00a0THE SOFTWARE!!<\/strong><\/p>\n

After doing some digging, I had the option of using NextCloud as the backbone of the system.<\/p>\n

For my plans, I decided against it. My goal was simple from here:<\/p>\n