How much should a first homelab cost when a 32 GB kit of DDR5 laptop memory sells for $564? A year ago the usual answer was a new N100 mini PC and some spare change. The memory and flash shortage broke that plan, so we priced three complete kits again at $300, $700 and $1,500, with the switch, cables and UPS included where they belong.
Each kit uses hardware that already has a deeper CFG guide behind it, and the notes on running it come from our own pve01, a Lenovo Tiny that runs much of the CFG test lab. We checked every price on October 19, 2026, and they will move before Black Friday, so check the live listing before you order.
| Kit | Total | Compute | What it runs | Idle draw | Power per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $300 single node | $278.97 | ThinkCentre M920q (Renewed) | Proxmox, a few LXCs, Home Assistant | 12-15 W (quad-core, STH) | about $19-24 |
| $700 cluster | $692.94 | 3x OptiPlex 3060 Micro (Renewed) | 3-node Proxmox cluster, k3s HA | 36-45 W (estimate) | about $58-72 |
| $700 always-on server | $663.82 | Beelink Mini S13 | Home Assistant, Jellyfin, DNS | 7-11 W (N150 class) | about $11-18 |
| $1,500 10G node | $1,469.61 | Minisforum MS-01 | 8-12 VMs, a TrueNAS VM, 10G | 25-29 W | about $40-47 |
The idle and power columns use review measurements, not our own wall meter, and the method is in Step 5. Read the table as a starting point: the kit you need depends on whether you want to learn clustering or run services the household relies on.
Step 1: Buy in the right order
A homelab grows one layer at a time, and the order you buy in matters more than the brand. This is the order we would follow, whatever your budget:
- Compute node with 16 GB of RAM or more
- Switch and short Cat6 patch cables
- UPS with a USB port for clean shutdowns
- Watt meter to check the real draw
- Bulk hard drives for a NAS
- 2.5G or 10G networking
The UPS comes before the hard drives because a sudden power cut can corrupt guest filesystems and damage SSDs that have no power-loss protection. A UPS with USB lets the host shut itself down before the battery runs out. Hard drives come last because they are the most inflated layer right now: two 4 TB NAS drives cost $389.98, more than a renewed compute node. Our RAM price forecast explains when that may ease, and if you have DDR4 in a drawer, the DDR4 reuse builds save the most money.
Step 2: Start with the $300 kit
The $300 kit is one node, one switch and a set of cables. It is enough for you to learn Proxmox properly. In 2026 the node is a renewed business mini PC rather than a new one, because new 16 GB boxes no longer fit the budget once you add a switch.
Lenovo ThinkCentre M920q (Renewed): the $300 node
The M920q Tiny with an i5-8500T, 16 GB of RAM and a 256 GB NVMe drive is $239.99 renewed. The i5-8500T is a six-core, 35 W chip with UHD Graphics 630, which Jellyfin’s Intel guide places in its mainstream tier for hardware transcoding. ServeTheHome measured 12 to 15 W idle on the quad-core version, and our mini PC guide covers its optional riser and the 64 GB it runs in practice, twice Lenovo’s official 32 GB.
| Part | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Compute | ThinkCentre M920q, i5-8500T, 16 GB, 256 GB (Renewed) | $239.99 |
| Switch | TP-Link TL-SG108E 8-port with VLANs | $24.99 |
| Cables | Cable Matters Cat6 3 ft, 5-pack | $13.99 |
| Total | $278.97 |
Add a Samsung BAR Plus USB stick for the installer if you do not have one, which brings it to $310.96. The UPS is the next purchase: the CyberPower EC850LCD at $119.95 is named in the NUT driver list, so the node can shut down by itself. The cheaper APC BE600M1 at $83.99 is not listed by model; NUT’s generic APC Back-UPS USB entry covers most of that family, but we have not confirmed this one.
On 16 GB the node runs Proxmox, a DNS filter and a reverse proxy in LXC containers, a Home Assistant OS VM (2 GB and 2 vCPU minimum) and one Docker VM. Our VM density guide puts this class at four to six light VMs, and the RAM guide shows where the 16 GB goes. It is not a NAS, because it has one M.2 slot and a single 2.5-inch bay (shared with the PCIe riser) and no 3.5-inch bays; that job belongs to a 4-bay NAS later.
Before you rely on a renewed unit, check these on the first boot:
- NVMe health with smartctl -a: power-on hours and percentage used
- BIOS supervisor password not set
- VT-x and VT-d enabled in the BIOS
- Power brick wattage matches the model
Amazon’s Renewed Guarantee allows a return within 90 days, or a year on Renewed Premium listings, but only where the product page says so, so read the listing before you buy. If you pick a different listing, such as an OptiPlex 7060 Micro or an M920x, check that the CPU is a 35 W T-suffix part. The M920q and the 3060 Micro only ship with those. If the M920q sells out, the Dell OptiPlex 3060 Micro with the same CPU and RAM is $189.99 renewed and brings the kit to $228.97. A new Beelink Mini S13 with 16 GB and two 2.5G ports costs $349, which takes the kit to $387.98; it is the better pick if you want a warranty more than you want to save $109.
Step 3: Grow into the $700 kit
At $700 you have to choose between two different goals. Three small nodes teach clustering, quorum and failover, while one efficient node runs services the household depends on. Pick the one that matches what you want to learn. The hardware does not overlap much, so you cannot easily turn one into the other later.
Three OptiPlex 3060 Micro nodes: the cluster kit
Three renewed OptiPlex 3060 Micros give you a real Proxmox cluster with three votes for quorum, or a k3s cluster with three server nodes. Each node has six cores and 16 GB, so you get 48 GB across the cluster. We would not run Ceph on them, because each has one NVMe drive and 1G networking, and our Ceph hardware guide explains why that is too thin.
| Part | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Compute | 3x OptiPlex 3060 Micro, i5-8500T, 16 GB, 256 GB (Renewed) | $569.97 |
| Switch | TP-Link TL-SG108E | $24.99 |
| Cables | Cable Matters Cat6 3 ft, 5-pack | $13.99 |
| UPS | APC BE600M1 600VA | $83.99 |
| Total | $692.94 |
The BE600M1 has a USB port, but it is not individually listed for NUT. Swap in the EC850LCD if you want a model NUT names, which takes the total to $728.90. Ask the seller for three units from the same batch before you order, because mixed BIOS versions make a cluster harder to debug. The home Kubernetes cluster guide is the next read once the three nodes are on the switch.
Beelink Mini S13: the always-on server kit
Maybe you want Home Assistant, a media server and DNS filtering to stay up for the whole house. Then we would spend the money on one quiet node and the parts around it. The S13 has an Intel N150, 16 GB and two 2.5G ports, and N150 boxes idle at around 7 to 11 W in the reviews we found. Jeff Geerling measured 9.3 W idle on a GMKtec N150, and the S13 itself has no published wall-meter test, so treat its figure as an estimate.
| Part | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Compute | Beelink Mini S13, N150, 16 GB, 500 GB | $349.00 |
| Switch | TP-Link TL-SG108S-M2 8-port 2.5G | $59.99 |
| Cables | Cable Matters Cat6 3 ft, 5-pack | $13.99 |
| UPS | CyberPower CP850PFCLCD | $169.95 |
| Zigbee | SONOFF Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus MG24 | $35.90 |
| Meter | P3 Kill A Watt EZ | $34.99 |
| Total | $663.82 |
The N150’s iGPU decodes AV1, which helps Jellyfin, and our Home Assistant mini PC guide covers running Home Assistant OS beside it. The Zigbee coordinator guide explains why the dongle should sit on a short USB extension. If you only want Home Assistant and no server, the Home Assistant Green at $219 is simpler.
Step 4: Go to the $1,500 kit
The $1,500 kit gives you one strong node with room to grow into 10G, rather than more small boxes. This is also where you should stop and do the math on barebone systems, because the shortage has turned the old advice around.
Minisforum MS-01: the 10G node
The MS-01 with an i9-13900H, 32 GB of DDR5 and a 1 TB drive is $1,179. It has two 10G SFP+ ports, two 2.5G ports, three M.2 slots and a PCIe slot that is x16 in size but x8 electrically. It takes low-profile, single-slot cards, so an HBA fits later, and Minisforum lists GPUs only up to an RTX A2000 Mobile. ServeTheHome measured it at 25 to 29 W idle, and its two SO-DIMM slots take 64 GB officially, with owners running 96 GB.
| Part | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Compute | Minisforum MS-01, i9-13900H, 32 GB, 1 TB | $1,179.00 |
| Switch | MokerLink 8x 2.5G plus 1x 10G SFP+ | $79.68 |
| 10G link | 10Gtek SFP+ passive DAC | $16.99 |
| UPS | CyberPower CP1000PFCLCD | $179.95 |
| Cables | Cable Matters Cat6 3 ft, 5-pack | $13.99 |
| Total | $1,469.61 |
At 32 GB it runs 8 to 12 light VMs, a TrueNAS VM (8 GB minimum) and a monitoring stack. Going to 64 GB is where the shortage hurts: a 64 GB DDR5 SO-DIMM kit in stock costs $949 to $1,219 today. Our MS-01, MS-A2 and MS-03 comparison covers the AMD alternative, and the DAC versus fiber guide explains the 10G cable choice.
The barebone trap is real. A barebone MS-A2 at $799, plus a 32 GB DDR5 kit at $564 and a 1 TB SSD at $149.99, costs $1,512.99. The prebuilt MS-A2 with 32 GB and 1 TB is $1,299, so building it yourself costs $213.99 more. While memory prices stay this high, buy prebuilt with the RAM you need.
If you want storage more than compute, swap the MS-01 for an S13 and add a UGREEN DH4300 Plus with two WD Red Plus 4 TB drives in a mirror. With the 2.5G switch, the CP850PFCLCD UPS and cables, that kit is $1,382.90. The DH4300 Plus is an ARM NAS, and TrueNAS needs an x86_64 CPU, so it will not run TrueNAS or VMs; our 4-bay NAS guide lists the x86 boxes that do.
Step 5: Work out the power bill
Your homelab runs 24 hours a day, so idle draw matters more than peak power. At the US residential average of 18.31 cents per kWh in July 2026, every watt of constant draw costs about $1.60 a year. This is how the kits compare on that basis:
- M920q: 12-15 W idle (STH, quad-core unit), about $19-24 a year
- Three OptiPlex Micros: about 36-45 W, our estimate at three times the M920q figure; STH measured just over 13 W on six-core 7070 Micros
- Beelink S13: about 7-11 W, from other N150 boxes
- MS-01: 25-29 W (STH), about $40-47 a year
These cover the compute only; a switch and a UPS add a few watts each. STH also found that a six-core 65 W CPU in the OptiPlex 7060 Micro idles at just over 18 W, which is why we point you to T-suffix parts. Our own pve01 runs a 65 W non-T i7-6700 and reports 14 W of CPU package power with 7 VMs running, from the RAPL counter. That counter leaves out the DIMMs, chipset, board, SSD and power brick. If you want the real figure at the wall, the Kill A Watt in the always-on server kit is the cheapest way to get it. Our UPS guide sizes the battery from that number.
Go deeper by layer
Every kit above leaves decisions for later. These are the CFG guides we would read next, grouped by the layer you are changing:
- Compute: mini PCs, Proxmox towers, used rack servers
- Storage: NAS drives, RAIDZ2 widths, NVMe for Proxmox
- Networking: 10G switches, OpenWrt routers, firewall boxes
- Power: power station or UPS, powering a mini rack
- Rack: 10-inch mini rack, rack accessories
Once the first node is up, the Proxmox post-install steps are the first thing to do, before any VM goes on it.
What our own Tiny node taught us
Our pve01 is a ThinkCentre M910x, an older Tiny with a 6th-generation i7-6700, 64 GB of RAM and a single 1 TB SATA SSD. It runs 7 VMs with 52 GB assigned to them, and it had been up for 11 days when we checked it for this guide. That is a lot of work for a 1-litre box, and running it this way shows where the small nodes run out of room:
- One onboard 1G port: no separate storage or cluster network
- One SATA SSD by our choice: the box has M.2 slots we never filled, so the VM disks have no mirror
- 64 GB, twice Lenovo’s official 32 GB maximum, and assigned RAM is already past 80%
If we were starting again, we would buy a second NIC with the node. On the M920q that means an optional riser and card, sold separately. We would also plan backups to a NAS from day one rather than after the first scare. Once a second node joins, that single 1G port carries VM traffic, backups and cluster traffic together, so the 10GbE build under $400 is the upgrade we would plan next.
