Homelab Incoming
I always wanted to have a homelab where I can tinker around with
Yesterday, I did some extensive research on what to get! I was reading plenty of posts/blogs, about how to start and what to get. For beginners it’s recommended to start small, like a Raspberry Pi, Pi Zero, or similar devices, and if you like the hobby, then you expand and go big.
While this is good advice, I ignored it because I want to run more services, for example I want play around with a Kubernetes setup. I already have a Raspberry, but I want something bigger and more powerful, obviously a fully fledged server rack with plenty of space to expand would be the dream lol, but my small room in London doesn’t have the capacity and it would be way too loud.
What did I get
So I decided to go for something small, but still powerfull enough, and I have ordered a refurbished Lenovo ThinkCentre M720q Tiny Core i5-8400T 1.7 with 32 GB RAM and a 512 GB SSD for £300.00, which I believe is a good deal? Those are specs, copied from BackMarket:
| Specification | Details |
|---|---|
| Brand | Lenovo |
| Model | ThinkCentre M720q Tiny |
| Year of Release | 2018 |
| Operating System | Windows |
| Colour | Black/Grey |
| Dimensions (H × W × D) | 3,5 cm × 17,9 cm × 18,3 cm |
| Weight | 1360 g |
| Processor | Core i5-8400T |
| Processor Brand | Intel |
| Processor Cores | 6 core |
| Processor Release Year | 2018 |
| Processor Speed | 1.7 GHz |
| Memory (RAM) | 32 GB |
| Storage | 512 GB SSD |
| SSD Capacity | 512 GB |
| HDD Capacity | 0 GB |
| Storage Type | SSD |
| Graphics | Intel UHD Graphics 630 (Integrated) |
| Graphics Memory | Integrated |
| Graphics Memory Type | Integrated |
| HDMI Port | Yes |
| USB-A Port | Yes |
| USB-C Port | Yes |
| VGA Port | No |
| Ethernet | Yes |
| Headphone/Audio Jack | Yes |
| Wi‑Fi | Yes |
| Bluetooth | No |
| Webcam | No |
| Microphone | No |
Let the tinkering begin
