r/minilab

Hey everyone, just wanted to share the final status of my 10-inch homelab rack setup. It fits right inside a standard Ikea Kallax shelf, and I finally got the ZimaCube 2 integrated at the bottom.

Here is a quick breakdown of how I configured everything:

The Hardware Stack (top to bottom):

• OPNsense Firewall: ZimaBoard 2 (8GB) handling edge routing and WireGuard VPN access.
• Compute Node (Proxmox VE): ZimaBoard 2 (16GB RAM) running core services like primary AdGuard Home, PostgreSQL database cluster, Nginx Proxy Manager, Vaultwarden, and Home Assistant.
• Compute Nodes 2 & 3 (Proxmox VE): 2x ZimaBlades (16GB RAM each). One runs Frigate NVR (hooked up to a Coral TPU) and the other is a "Game-Central" node (RomM, SMB shares, retro games).
• Secondary DNS: Raspberry Pi Zero 2W running secondary AdGuard Home (synced via adguardhome-sync for DNS failover).
• Storage & AI Node: ZimaCube 2 (Standard Edition) running ZimaOS Beta. It handles the NFS/SMB shared storage for Proxmox and runs local LLMs (mostly Gemma models) via llama.cpp + OpenClaw.

Upgrades on the ZimaCube 2: I added a 32GB DDR5 stick to get 40GB RAM total and dropped in a low-profile Intel Arc Pro B50 (16GB VRAM, AV1 encoding support). I went with the B50 because it runs entirely off PCIe slot power (no extra power cables needed) and offers an awesome VRAM-to-price ratio.

Software & Local AI: Instead of wiping ZimaOS from the ZimaCube 2 right away, I decided to keep it to test a ZimaOS Beta version provided by the IceWhale that includes native Intel Arc GPU driver support. This way, the ZimaCube 2 hosts the shared storage backend for the cluster and runs local inference with llama.cpp + OpenClaw. For the cameras, Frigate is still running on one of the ZimaBlades with a Coral TPU since I have 4 outdoor cameras and want to keep the load off the main CPU/GPU.

3D Prints & Links: Printed everything on my Elegoo Centauri Carbon. I did a couple of remixes myself to get the ZimaCube and the firewall cleanly integrated. Here are the links:

• Kallax 10" 7U Rack Frame (Top Section): Original Model on MakerWorld (Used as-is for the upper compute stack).
• Kallax 10" 2U Rack Frame (Bottom Section for ZimaCube): My Remix on MakerWorld (Modified this to handle the height and weight of the ZimaCube 2, includes the sliding tray rails).
• ZimaBoard 2 Mount (OPNsense Firewall - 2 Keystones): My Remix on MakerWorld (Added 2 keystone slots for clean WAN/LAN cable management on the front).
• ZimaBoard 2 Mount (Proxmox Brain): Original Model on MakerWorld.
• ZimaBlade Mounts: Original Model on MakerWorld.
• Vents / Blank Panels: Customizable Vents on MakerWorld.

Feel free to ask me anything! Whether you have questions about the physical assembly, the 3D printed mounts, network routing, or the local AI testing under ZimaOS Beta, I'm happy to help out and share details!

there is any interest on this?i have plenty of them
Features:
24 RJ45 CAT6A ports
Supports up to 10Gbps speed
Standard 19” rack mount
Easy installation and cable management
Durable metal construction
Compatible with CAT6 and CAT5e cables
i can sell them bulk as i have plenty

I’m excited to finally get started with my first homelab.

Picked up 3 × HP ProDesk Mini 400 G6 systems to build a small but practical home lab cluster.

Specs per node:
Intel Core i5-10500T
32 GB RAM
512 GB SSD
Wi-Fi + Bluetooth
Windows 11 Pro currently installed

My plan is to use these as a small 3-node lab for learning and hands-on practice with:

Proxmox / virtualization
Kubernetes
GitOps with Argo CD or Flux
Terraform and automation
Monitoring with Prometheus/Grafana
Home network segmentation and VLAN testing
Small self-hosted services

I’m pairing this with a new UniFi setup, so the goal is to build a clean home network + homelab environment.

Any advice for a 3-node mini PC cluster? Things you wish you did differently when starting out?

it started with a youtube video about pihole and i had a n150 LattePanda IOTA laying around and decided to try it out with and install proxmox. next thing, i'm lurking through reddit for inspiration and it turned into this. lazy description below. not the smartest in terms of budget, but it was fun to experiment

still in progress

LattePanda IOTA - Pi-Hole, nginx, vaultwarden, authentik, homarr, homepage (was curious about both dashboards), speedtest, kuma

Minisforum n150 Pro - Plex, radarr, sonarr etc..etc.. with RomM, ollama with intel arc a770(had it laying around) running Gemma4 (not horrible, not great), 5x28tb drives and some nvme drives for cache and os

Thinkcentre 920x - 64gb ram, 5x12tb drives, 3d printed NAS mod, SuperMicro AOC-STGN-I2S, nvme os drive using wireless m.2 a-e adapter thingie,..immich, nextcloud, paperless, etc..

i know for ai, there are better cards, a couple years ago, i bought the a770 when it first came out but haven't had the chance to do anything for it. then in tears, my 4070ti super died, so i opened the box to use this. i love how it looks. how it performs is a different story.

Right! I know I posted this homelab a few days ago but a few people were asking about the hardware and the photos were bad... so the photos are a bit better and here is all of the information!!!

so im running two labrax 10" homelabs! one being a 4U and the other being a 5U so lets start with the "Network Rack"

The First 4U Currently has a Unifi Cloud Gateway MODEL!!! this is a model as my UCG-ultra is currently on the way and its just taking ages to arrive for some reason, so I decided to model it from the dimensions so I could create a 1U 3DPrint, The 2nd Rack unit is a patch panel with 7 RJ45's and 1 HDMI Keystone jack! below that I have the netgear GS308! (Looking to upgrade to a USW-Ultra In The Near Future! And then below that I have 2 Raspberry Pi's 1 - Running Pi-hole and the other running a custom program called Dashberry that im building slowly but it will happen!! So Thats My First Rack!

In The 2nd Rack - 5U - The First 2 Rack Units have a 2U DeskPI 10" Screen that is connected to the Dashberry Raspberry pi! (Currently Running a Clock Application but will run the dash berry Application in the near future)
Below that I have a Thinkcentre m920Q Running Truenas The Specs Are 8GB Of ddr4 Ram (Will be upgrading soon) CPU - Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8500T CPU @ 2.10GHz And Connected To The Drives Below 4x 4TB Drives (16TB Total 8TB Usable) The Apps I have running on truenas are Following. cloud flared, Code-Server, File Browser, Gitea, Home-Assistant, Immich, MariaDB(For Managing FiveM Dev Servers), Open-Speed-Test, Phpmyadmin(For Managing MariaDB), Radarr, Tailscale, Uptime-Kuma & VaultWarden!!

All Models I have released for these 10" Server Racks Can Be Found Here - https://makerworld.com/en/@Frostyy05

Drives Are Powered Using This Link - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009175567876.html
Drives Are Connected To Mini PC Using This Link - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007358653670.html

Sorry If This Seems Like A Lot But Feel Free To Ask Anymore Questions!! And I Will Reply Promptly

I just bought two Lenovo ThinkCentre M920x Tiny units with the following specs:

• CPU: Core i3-8100 (3.6GHz)
• RAM: 16GB DDR4
• Storage: 256GB + 1TB SSD (added from my spares)

I also have a Raspberry Pi 5 (8GB RAM) with an M.2 HAT and a 128GB M.2 SSD.

The Plan:

I intend to install Proxmox VE on both Lenovos and set up an LXC on the Pi 5 to act as a QDevice. This will allow me to create a 3-node cluster (2 Proxmox nodes + 1 QDevice).

Currently, the Pi 5 is running several services in Debian 12 LXCs:

• DNS: Pi-hole
• Reverse Proxy: Traefik
• VPN: Wireguard
• Monitoring: Prometheus + Grafana
• Access: Bastion (SSH for remote access)
• Quorum: QDevice (coming soon)

What else should I run on these new servers? I’m open to any suggestions or ideas you might have!

Thanks!

Now I can quickly send Debian13 ISOs and legally acquired movies and shows to my NAS from my PC! Yay!

Going to be buying another drive soon. Wish me luck.

A while back at this point, I won a giveaway that /r/minilab, DeskPi, and GL.iNET were hosting here for a new 10" rack, a Comet KVM, and some other goodies! It took a little bit for everything to arrive and a little bit longer for me to actually do the migration (and then a bit longer on top of that to wonder if it was something that I felt was ready to share), but that's basically all squared away now. I've been using the rack as-is for about a week now and it's been quite nice!

I ended up reprinting my existing rack trays in black PETG to match the two powder coated trays that I also received (one mini PC mount, one standard metal tray that's hiding behind the eInk tag blanking plate), but honestly I'm not entirely sure that I like the look of the black on aluminum all too much. The other complication was that I didn't actually know what to put in the 4U of space that I wasn't actively using, which continues to vex me. I'm debating making a little mount for this 5" Raspberry Pi screen to put on that 2U blanking plate, but it feels like it's more a case of shoving stuff in for the sake of shoving stuff in. In all fairness, though, having too much space in a rack is a good problem to have.

In the future, I might see if I can laser cut some acrylic side panels or something for this to cover up the currently open-air sides, and something I was surprised to learn about the TL1 was that it actually supports RGB LED strips on the arms! I have strips set up internally but they're not yet hooked up to anything. I'm admittedly a little iffy about the strips because the cutouts in the metal for the wires were a little small, and I'm afraid that I might have pinched the cables a little. That'll be a problem for future me, though.

Hardware from top to bottom:

• Keystone patch panel from the Mod10 rack
• An old Netgear GS308v3 racked in this rack mount
• 1U vented, 2U, and 1U vented blanking plates from the Mod10
• The GL.iNET Comet Pro KVM racked in this rack mount (I've been moving this one back and forth between my mini PC and a more powerful PC I'm working with. I'm quite a fan of it)
• An HP EliteDesk 800 G3 Mini with an i5-7500T and 32GB pre-crisis RAM, racked in the DeskPi Rackmate mini PC rack shelf
• Two old hard drives, a 1TB and 2TB, racked in this rack mount (v2)
• A DeskPi RackMate T2 accessory shelf holding the guts of an old USB to SATA dock for the drives, with two Solum ST-GR29000 eInk shelf labels mounted on front using this rack mount.

All of this is racked in the DeskPi RackMate TL1 10U.

Dell surplus deployed as a security focused business network. Opnsense suricata on repurposed Win 10 retired optiplex. Precision. T7910 running unraid with logging docker stack, functioning iodrive2, and dual nic (lab and network). Poor cable management and jenky cooling on server. Deployed 5 years. Works well.. Always modifying. Current iteration most ambitious yet.

After ordering everything and assembling over time I believe I've finally gotten to a point that I'm happy with.

From top to bottom

-TP-Link TL-WA3001 WiFi 6 access point

-Philips Hue bridge

-Aoostar N1 Pro running OPNSense

-Netgear GS308EP POE switch

-Raspberry Pi 5 used for general raspberry pi desktop stuff, runs a vnc server for remote use

-Raspberry Pi 4B used for pihole

-Raspberry Pi 3B+ that's currently running retropie and connected to the crt next to the rack

-HP ProDesk 400 G3 running a plex server

-Netgear GS308E 1Gbit switch

-3D printed dual 3.5" hard drive enclosure, designed by Michael Klements on YouTube. Drives are connected to PC below

-Mini ITX PC with an i7-6700 and 64gb of ram used for running proxmox. Using proxmox to virtualize TrueNas, as well as various other containers for services.

On the back side there is an 8 port PDU

It's been a goal of mine to consolidate all of my equipment into one rack for a while. But I didn't have the motivation to undo and redo all my wiring until I started moving. The goal was to have one unit that I could undo a couple of cables and pick up the whole thing and move it. I'd say I accomplished my goal. Currently the only cables that extend outside the confines of the rack are the wan connection, the power cable for the PDU, and the lan connection going to my desktop.

Let me know what you guys thing and if there are any improvements you would suggest!

Now that Cagemaker PRCG is reaching the stage of optimization and I'm adding fewer and fewer features to the mix, there's one I've wanted to add for a while now:

Picking a piece of equipment from a list and having it whip up a cage for it right off the bat. No need to have to find dimensions from the manufacturer or measure the device itself, just pick the device and render a cage without having to make any other selections or option changes if you're working with a 10" EIA-310 layout rack.

Obviously there are so many things out there that I won't be able to have everything covered, but I would like to have the 50-100 or so most common/popular devices covered, such as the 5- and 8-port gigabit switches from Netgear and TP-Link that get used so often in minilab/homelab builds. Probably throw in some of the more popular stuff from Ubiquiti and Mikrotik and what not while I'm at it.

My plan was to basically walk down various types of gear from different manufacturers and sort by most popular and sponge up their dimensions, but I'm certainly open to recommendations for things to include. Any suggestions for gear I should absolutely include, even if it's not super-common or super-popular?