r/minilab • u/FlyingToaster2000 • 20d ago
Hey r/minilab! 👋
We're the ZimaSpace Team! You may know us better through ZimaOS, ZimaBoard, and ZimaCube. We build personal servers and operating systems for people who love tinkering and self-hosting, making it easier to host your own services as part of everyday life.
Over the years, we've watched self-hosting culture grow into something incredibly diverse and active. Maybe it's time it had a day of its own.
So this year, together with r/minilab and a group of excellent self-hosting projects, we're launching the very first Self-Hosting Day 2026. We hope that, starting this year, September 25 can gradually become a day that belongs to the self-hosting community.
We'd love for you to share your setup, your journey, and your experiences, so more people can see what self-hosting can make possible and maybe find a reason to try it themselves.
Just share your self-hosting story in the comments below to join.
📅 Self-Hosting Day: September 25
🎉 Event Period: September 25 – October 25
🏆 Winners Announced: October 30, 2026 (EDT)
Self-Hosting Day belongs to the whole community. A huge thank-you to the r/minilab mods for organizing this together with us, and to everyone here for giving us a place to meet, exchange ideas, and share what we're building.
We're also honored to have AdGuard, Emby, PhotoPrism, OpenClaw, Karakeep, and Blinko joining us. Some of these names may already be part of your setup. Others might become your next discovery.
AdGuard
AdGuard helps block annoying ads and online tracking, protect your devices from malicious content, and make browsing faster, safer, and cleaner. Beyond your home network, AdGuard Ad Blocker, AdGuard VPN, and Private AdGuard DNS can also help protect the devices you take with you.
Emby
Emby organizes your movies, music, photos, and live TV, then streams them from your personal server to the screens and devices you use every day.
PhotoPrism
PhotoPrism is an AI-powered, privacy-first app for self-hosted photo and video management. With smart search, automatic classification, face recognition, maps, and broad media format support, it makes large libraries easier to organize and explore on your own server.
OpenClaw
OpenClaw is an open-source AI agent project built around privacy, model freedom, and local-first use. It lets users choose their own models and tools while keeping their data, and the technology they rely on, under their control.
Karakeep
Karakeep is a self-hostable "bookmark-everything" app for saving links, notes, images, and PDFs. AI-powered tagging, summaries, and fast search make it easier to organize what you save and actually find it again later.
Blinko
Blinko is an open-source note-taking project designed for quickly capturing and organizing ideas, helping you save thoughts the moment inspiration strikes.
Together, these projects, and everyone reading this post, show just how many different things self-hosting can make possible.
Now we'd love to hear your self-hosting story.
Just leave a comment below. There's no fixed template and no "right" kind of story. We want to hear about your real self-hosting experience.
Not sure where to start? Here are a few ideas:
Whether you've just built your first setup or have been tinkering for years, we'd love to hear your story.
To make the first Self-Hosting Day even more fun, we've teamed up with our partners to prepare plenty of prizes for the community.
Whether you share a story that inspires others, get a little lucky, or simply join early, there's a chance to walk away with something.
Together with the r/minilab mods, we'll select 5 winners from eligible entries, considering authenticity, usefulness, creativity, and community value. Here's what each winner will receive:
🥇 1st Prize × 1
🥈 2nd Prize × 2
🥉 3rd Prize × 2
We'll also randomly draw 100 winners from eligible participants who haven't won a Community Story Award. Each winner will receive one of the following software licenses:
It pays to be early! The first 100 participants to submit eligible entries, based on comment timestamps, will each receive:
1 × ZimaOS Plus Lifetime License
A special thank you to AdGuard, Emby, and PhotoPrism for supporting the first Self-Hosting Day and providing these generous prizes for the community! ❤️
Joining is simple:
🏆 All winners will be announced on r/minilab on October 30, 2026.
For the full event rules, prize redemption details, and shipping information, please visit: the Self-Hosting Day 2026 event page.
More than anything, we hope Self-Hosting Day brings us together to share what we've learned, discover hidden gems, and meet fellow self-hosters.
Spot a clever setup in the comments below? Ask how they got it running! See someone taking their first self-hosting steps? Recommend an app you can't live without. Know a simpler way to get something working? Pass it along!
A huge thank you to the r/minilab mods, AdGuard, Emby, PhotoPrism, OpenClaw, Karakeep, and Blinko for believing in this idea and bringing the first Self-Hosting Day to life with us.
The comment section is all yours. We can't wait to read your stories!
Best,
r/minilab & ZimaSpace
r/minilab • u/FlyingToaster2000 • Feb 17 '26
Somewhere between "Hey, this Pi-hole thing sounds cool" and "why do I own a six-node Proxmox mini PC cluster," 100,000 of you decided that this little corner of the internet was worth subscribing to. One hundred thousand humans/bots/one suspiciously articulate NAS who collectively looked at oft-overlooked hardware and had their homelab Goldilocks moment.
Every shared "it's not pretty but it works" SBC NAS/media server tucked behind a TV. Every 3D-printed rack ear that took forty-two revisions to get right triumphantly presented to the sub. Every posted "this is my minilab" with enough RGB to make a full 42U server rack blush. But especially every time someone helped an internet stranger figure out why their VLANs weren't VLANning or pointed them in the right direction. The civility of this place is astounding.
This community went from a speculative handful of people posting their builds, testing the waters for a niche homelab group to a place that became the community nexus for a mini-revolution. The project, support & mentions from creators like Patrick, Jeff and Tim really lit a fuse under the membership growth that hasn't yet slowed down. This in turn has opened doors for vendors, such as our friends at GL.iNet & IceWhale to offer some fantastic giveaways in this sub - all because you have built a community worth showing up for.
And thanks to our sister/cousin subs across reddit for the reciprocal linking and general acceptance of /r/minilab as a new kid on the block. It's great to be a part of a wider community.
None of that stuff happens for a dead subreddit. Vendors don't knock on the door of a community that isn't engaged. Creators don't shout out a sub that doesn't give them something interesting to look at. You did that.
What's next? Same thing we do every night, Pinky!
Seriously though—whether you joined yesterday or you're one of the OGs, here since the sub was smaller than the chance of securing a mini PC with a PCIe slot, thanks for making this place what it is. It's your builds, your questions, your cursed cable management, and your willingness to help strangers on the internet that got us here.
If you've got any suggestions, thoughts or fun ideas, please feel free to share them. It would be remiss of me not to highlight our two current giveaways - check them out, the odds are still fantastic!
GL.iNet x DeskPi: https://www.reddit.com/r/minilab/comments/1qspthq/glinet_deskpi_13_chances_to_win/
IceWhale's ZimaOS & ZimaBoard: https://www.reddit.com/r/minilab/comments/1qx55xv/zimaboard_2_giveaway_zimaos_feedback_share_your/
Thank you one and all again. May your minilab adventures be fruitful and continue to inspire us all!
r/minilab • u/Danoli77 • 13h ago
3D printed everything. Each was based on the Ocktron design and the rack trays were all custom modifications. Optimistic for a JetKVM for Christmas 😂
r/minilab • u/notafakename10 • 19m ago
First go at it, loads of fun
Got the rack, power plugs etc for $60 AUD, and the three G4 minis (all 8500T, 8Gb ram, 256gb nvme) for $260 AUD, all have been updated with 2.5gbps realtek LAN ports as well
Switch is a 2.5gpbs mokerlink
One of the G4s has an M2 -> 9x SATA in it which will eventually have an SSD array
Plenty more to come but having fun with it already!
r/minilab • u/Far-Pack2877 • 13h ago
Hey everyone!
I wanted to share my current mini lab setup. It’s still a work in progress, but I’m slowly building and improving it with a limited budget.
My current networking setup consists of:
Netgear BR200 – my main router, handling my local network
ASUS RT-AC51U – providing a separate Wi-Fi network for selected devices
Netgear GS108E – my managed switch connecting the devices in my setup
My internet connection comes from my ISP router, which connects to the BR200. From there, the network runs through the switch to my devices.
I’m also running a Windows Server 2019 machine for my own projects, hosting services and learning more about networking and server administration.
I’m based in Switzerland, and I’m building this setup on a budget, mostly by looking for affordable hardware and figuring things out as I go.
It’s nothing crazy compared to some of the setups you see here, but I’m happy with the progress so far.
What would you improve or add next? I’d appreciate constructive suggestions, especially for a small home lab like this.
r/minilab • u/MisterMahler • 1h ago
This may be a stupid question, but wouldn't it be nice, if I could put two mini-rack-inserts next to each other into a standard-rack?
According to this beautiful reference drawing, the holes are just 7.93mm off.
I feel like it would be a nice feature, to just move mini-lab equipment to a 19-inch rack.
r/minilab • u/Adonistm • 21h ago
My current home lab.
From top to bottom:
- GMKtec NucBox M6 Ultra AMD Ryzen™ 5 7640HS Mini PC
- Unifi Cloud Gateway Max
- 2x unifi USW Flex-2.5G PoE
- Ugreen NAS DXP4800 Pro + UPS
- Raspberry PI 5
r/minilab • u/ReidMitchell48 • 15h ago
Meet my little buddy, the green glow machine.
r/minilab • u/globaltrickster • 6h ago
So, I didn't notice that nowhere in the description did it say anything about the T0/T1 racks, and this 10in rack for the TP-Link TL-SG108 seems to not fit/line up with the holes for the T1.
Am I pretty much screwed and need to send it back?
It was a good price and I can't print my own.
Thank you
r/minilab • u/Taumille • 1d ago
After 2 years of homelabing and almost 30 users accross 24 services, I finally bought a rack to store my machines !
It's now a lot cleaner than the previous hanging wires setup and so far I'm really happy of this Tecmojo 10" 9U rack which just costed me 60€ :)
Hardware : - Topton intel N100 6-bay NAS running Proxmox - 2*10TB Western Digital Ultrascale HE10 - Orange Pi RV2 (RISCV !) running OpenWRT as my router to the internet connected to a random 1GB switch from Amazon
I have the chance to get a bunch of Linux capable single board computer with my work and I will probably add them to this setup soon :)
r/minilab • u/OwenHall170 • 1d ago
r/minilab • u/surajtiwari020 • 1d ago
r/minilab • u/Independent-Pay-1873 • 1d ago
I know that thinkcentres come with room for an hdd inside however for design and convenience purposes I would like rack that fits my think centre on the left or right and has a slide out slot for a singular hdd to the side of it. Does anyone know of any available prints of something like this or any way to achieve this? Thank you!
r/minilab • u/Old-Confection-5129 • 2d ago
I really wanted the mini rack I think but this just made more sense for me right now based on the components I had already. Finding the dual Optiplex holder and the mount for the switch was key.
TL;DR: Baby needed the room. Rack got shrunk. Wife got a nursery, I got a 3D printer and a minilab.
Last year my wife and I found out we were expecting our first. Problem was, my rack had taken over the second bedroom/office, aka the future nursery. We eventually ended up moving anyways for bigger space.
Before: 18U cabinet with a SuperMicro running TrueNAS, a Dell R620 (salvaged from my last job's datacenter decom) running k3s with a few Pis, a 4U Windows box for twitch streaming and DaVinci Resolve server, and UniFi switches. It definitely warmed the room and made a great white noise machine (reminds me of working at the colo again). I ended up rigging an exhaust fan with hoses running out the window.
So I made my wife a deal: I'll downsize, but I get a 3D printer to print 10" rack gear plus future baby stuff 😀. She said yes real quick lol.
It wasn't a 1:1 migration though. I downsized the TrueNAS box and retired the Windows media server completely.
After: DeskPi T2 + T0 Plus (not sure if this is considered a minilab 😅)
2X PDU
4inch usb controllable fan
UCG Fiber + UniFi switches (USW Pro XG 8 POE + USW Flex 2.5G 8 POE)
Arris Surfboard S34
4x Pi 4 for DNS, Home Assistant, and management (with a GeeekPi touchscreen displaying an overview of my homelab dashboard via Grafana)
Philips Hue Bridge
3x Lenovo M710q running Talos
UGREEN DXP4800 Pro running TrueNAS
Not racked:
CyberPower CP1500PFCRM2U UPS
U6 Pro AP
I know, I still need to do some wire management and cleanup. Shout out to u/Sh0rtCut457 for the idea of replacing bulky power bricks for the Lenovos using a USB-C PD. Works like a charm.
Next up: a compact GPU box for local AI ( will replace my nas in the rack and will just move my nas outside of the rack). Mainly want to automate my second brain/personal/work notes with local models instead of sending everything to the cloud. Also, just want to experiment with different local models. Torn between a DGX Spark and an AMD Strix Halo mini PC. Anyone running either?
Here are all the 3D printed parts that I had used in my mini rack plus more things that i liked for future reference.
r/minilab • u/2BoopTheSnoot2 • 2d ago
Minisforum currently has a barebones M1-1390 on sale for $399. That's 32 threads for $399, and it runs on DDR4 SODIMMs so if you've got any of that sitting around it could be put to use. I'm waiting for mine to arrive and plan to make it another proxmox node for my mini rack.
r/minilab • u/Danoli77 • 2d ago
r/minilab • u/ASCANDER87 • 2d ago
- MikroTik hEX S (2025)
- Raspberry Pi 4B + Yubikey Nano (local CA)
- CRS310-8G-2S-IN (2.5Gb/s | 10Gb/s switch)
- Mac Mini (M1 | 16gb RAM)
- Minisforum A2 with Proxmox (Ryzen 9 9955hx | 96gb DDR5 RAM | 2x10Gb/s NIC | 2x2tb M2 nvme in mirror + 4tb for storage)
- Terramaster F8 with TrueNAS (16gb DDR5 RAM | 10Gb/s NIC | up to 8xM2 nvme disks)
r/minilab • u/Anti-Hero25 • 2d ago
Anybody with a Pi looking for a fun tool for documenting their system? CTRoadmap has ARM64 support now. V0.9.0 also comes with a System Snapshot tool to inventory your host machine & LAN. Would love some feedback from ARM users if anyone is interested. Thx.
r/minilab • u/Gillsonss • 3d ago
Hey gang! I'm planning my first homelab/NAS build and could use some advice from people who've done this before.
I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to storage hardware, but I really like the idea of building something compact, clean and aesthetically pleasing rather than just putting everything in a conventional tower or buying a prebuilt NAS.
I'm putting together a small 10-inch rack, ideally 6U, with a Dell OptiPlex Micro 3040 running the server applications and four 3.5-inch 4TB HDDs.
I'm already designing/printing a custom 2x2 HDD caddy to fit inside the rack. The drives will have individual SATA connections, with a separate power supply for the HDDs. I'd really like to keep everything self-contained in the rack, with clean cabling and no separate NAS or DAS enclosure.
The software I'd eventually like to run includes:
My current machine is a Dell OptiPlex 3040 Micro with 8GB RAM. It has two rear USB 3.0 ports and two front USB 3.0 ports.
The simplest solution I've considered is using four USB-to-SATA adapters, such as the Simplecom SA236, with one HDD per USB port. Each drive would have its own power supply, or potentially a shared power supply if I can work out a safe way to distribute power.
Would connecting four drives this way cause a noticeable bottleneck? I'm particularly interested in simultaneous transfers and whether this is a sensible setup for a NAS running 24/7. I'm aware USB storage can have reliability and SMART-reporting issues with ZFS, but I'm trying to understand how significant those issues are in practice.
I've also seen people use M.2-to-SATA controller cards to connect four, six or even more HDDs to tiny PCs.
For example, I've seen builds using Dell OptiPlex Micro systems and Lenovo ThinkCentre Tiny PCs with an M.2 SATA controller, separate HDD power, and custom 3D-printed drive cages.
Some examples I've found:
Would something like a Lenovo ThinkCentre M720q/M920q, HP EliteDesk Mini, or a newer OptiPlex Micro be a better starting point?
If I went down this route, I'd ideally use an ASM1166-based M.2-to-SATA controller, connect all four drives directly over SATA, and power them separately. However, I'm not sure which mini PCs have the right M.2 slots, whether the controllers work reliably with TrueNAS, or how to handle the physical mounting and cable clearance.
I understand a conventional NAS or larger SFF PC might be easier, but part of the appeal is building a compact, tidy little server that looks good in the rack. I'm happy to spend a bit more if it materially improves reliability.
Thanks! Any advice, build logs or specific hardware recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
