My 2026 homelab tour—UniFi routers, multiple NAS servers, and so much more

Credit: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek Published Aug 3, 2026, 8:45 AM EDT Patrick Campanale has been in the tech space for well over a decade, specializing in PC/gaming news and reviews, as well as maker-focused products to build small businesses. With a start in technology back in 2010 surrounding the Palm/webOS ecosystem, Patrick spent his formative years developing mobile applications as well as blogging for various publications, eventually leading to starting his own website in 2014. After running a technology blog for a few years, he stepped out of that role and into the world of high-end custom PC manufacturing and building, with a focus on YouTube video production and overclocking. Then, six years ago, Patrick joined the 9to5Toys team as an editor/writer/reviewer with over 14,000 articles being published there there, ranging from deals and roundups to in-depth reviews on the latest technology, video games, 3D printers, and more. In his free time, Patrick loves to create projects from wood using various robots and methods, including leveraging the technologies of CNCs and lasers. If Patrick isn't working on a computer or playing video games, he's likely in his 2-car garage workshop creating something unique. In addition to all this, Patrick is also a youth pastor at his local church where he feels God has called him to serve, and he loves every minute of it. Sign in to your How-To Geek account I've been homelabbing for over five years now, and my homelab has taken many forms. In mid-2026, it's something entirely different than it was when I started in early 2021. Here's a tour of the hardware that makes my homelab possible, and why I use it. My homelab is the brain of my house I literally use it every single day Credit: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek When I started my homelab back in 2021, I never expected it to be nearly as big a part of my life as it is now. It all started with just a single system to run my Plex server, and that's it. I never really wanted it to be any more than that. However, over the years, and especially over the past year, my homelab has grown into a central part of my entire house. My homelab runs my smart home with Home Assistant and Scrypted bringing non-HomeKit devices into HomeKit for me. I couldn't control my smart home the way that I do without my homelab. It also handles DNS filtering with Pi-hole, self-hosting websites, Plex and Audiobookshelf, development environments, and so much more. Really, my homelab is the brain of my house. Without it, things just wouldn't work right. My network is the foundation of everything Without it, my homelab would fall apart I want to start out my homelab tour with the foundation—my actual network backbone. I'm lucky enough to have AT&T Fiber at my house, and soon I'll have Google Fiber as an option. I have a 1Gb/s symmetrical plan, meaning I get 1Gb/s in both directions (940Mb/s, really). I've essentially bypassed my AT&T modem, though. All it does is take the fiber that comes into the house, authenticate it, and translate it to Ethernet that I plug my UniFi Dream Router 7 into. I have the Dream Router 7 in IP Passthrough mode, so the AT&T router is doing no DHCP or routing. From there, I have a UniFi Flex Mini 2.5G switch to connect all of my 2.5Gb/s devices, and UniFi's older US-48-500W 48-port PoE switch (that I picked up cheap second-hand) to power my access points and cameras around the house. This network backbone allows me to have a fully managed network, VLANs, organized IP allocations, a customizable firewall, and more. Plus, I'm able to get full speed to all my devices with my Gigabit switch, and the 2.5G switch lets the devices on my local network transfer data 2.5x faster than normal Ethernet. One powerful custom-built Proxmox server handles my virtual machines Development, game servers, and more need a place to breathe and run Credit: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek I used to not run any virtual machines in my homelab. I just ran everything I needed to in Docker, as virtual machines ran slowly on my old server. So, in early 2025, I took some hardware from a gaming PC I wasn't using and turned it into a beast of a Proxmox server. I did this before RAM became unobtainable, and I'm glad I did. My Proxmox server has 4TB of NVMe storage, 96GB of DDR4 RAM, and the Core i9-13900K processor. I chose Proxmox as the operating system because it gives me the freedom to easily create as many virtual machines as I want. Right now, I only have a few virtual machines that I personally use running on the server, but it ebbs and flows depending on what I'm doing at the time. Home Assistant is my primary virtual machine on the server, but I also have a development VM for when I need something besides my MacBook for building apps or websites. Then, I have a few VMs that I host for a friend on there. The hardware sits idle often, so he is able to use it for his development needs over Tailscale. We both have fiber internet, so it's almost as if it was local on his network for his needs. I used to have multiple Proxmox nodes in several mini PCs, but I found that I was underutilizing the mini PCs and just consolidated to a single Proxmox node. I no longer have high availability for my virtual machines, but downtime on the desktop node is so rare that I can accept it at this point for a simpler overall setup. Quiz 8 Questions · Test Your KnowledgeInteresting and unique NAS use casesTrivia challengeBeyond basic backups — how well do you know the surprising things a NAS can do?MediaHome LabBackupNetworkingAutomationBegin Which popular open-source media server software is commonly self-hosted on a NAS to stream personal video libraries to any device?AVLC Media PlayerBKodiCPlexDInfuseCorrect! Plex is one of the most popular apps for turning a NAS into a personal Netflix-style streaming server. It organizes your media with artwork and metadata and can transcode video on the fly for different devices and connections.Not quite — the answer is Plex. While Kodi and VLC are great media players, Plex is specifically designed as a client-server platform that lets you stream your NAS library to phones, smart TVs, and browsers from anywhere in the world.Continue What is the name of the widely recommended data protection strategy that involves keeping three copies of data, on two different media types, with one copy offsite?ARAID redundancy ruleB3-2-1 backup ruleCDouble-parity protocolDMirror-and-sync methodCorrect! The 3-2-1 backup rule is a cornerstone of data protection strategy. A NAS plays a central role by acting as the second on-site copy, while cloud sync or an offsite drive satisfies the third copy requirement.Not quite — the answer is the 3-2-1 backup rule. RAID is often mistaken for a backup, but it only protects against drive failure, not accidental deletion or ransomware. The 3-2-1 rule is the gold standard precisely because it covers multiple failure scenarios.Continue A NAS running a hypervisor or container platform like Docker can host a Pi-hole instance. What does Pi-hole primarily do?AMonitors hard drive temperatures across the networkBBlocks advertisements network-wide at the DNS levelCEncrypts all outgoing internet trafficDManages IP address assignments via DHCPCorrect! Pi-hole acts as a DNS sinkhole, blocking known ad-serving and tracking domains before they ever reach your devices. Hosting it on a NAS via Docker means it runs 24/7 without needing a dedicated Raspberry Pi.Not quite — the answer is that Pi-hole blocks ads at the DNS level. Rather than installing an ad blocker on every single device, Pi-hole protects your entire network, including smart TVs and phones, by intercepting ad domain requests before any data is loaded.Continue Many NAS manufacturers offer dedicated surveillance software packages. What is the primary function of these applications?AMonitoring CPU and RAM usage across the local networkBManaging and recording footage from IP security camerasCScanning network traffic for intrusion attemptsDAutomating firmware updates on connected IoT devicesCorrect! Synology Surveillance Station and QNAP's QVR Pro are examples of NAS-based NVR (Network Video Recorder) solutions. They let you manage multiple IP cameras, set motion-triggered recording, and review footage without paying for a cloud subscription.Not quite — the answer is managing and recording IP camera footage. A NAS can replace a dedicated NVR appliance entirely, storing days or weeks of footage locally. This is a compelling use case since it avoids ongoing cloud storage fees while keeping footage on hardware you control.Continue Which self-hosted application, commonly run on a NAS, automatically downloads TV show episodes and movies by integrating with torrent or Usenet indexers?ARadarr and SonarrBBazarr and LidarrCOverseerr and RequestrrDProwlarr and ReadarrCorrect! Radarr handles movies and Sonarr handles TV shows — together they form the backbone of a self-hosted media automation stack. They monitor release groups, grab new episodes automatically, and pass files directly to your Plex or Jellyfin library.Not quite — the answer is Radarr and Sonarr. While Bazarr handles subtitles and Prowlarr manages indexers, Radarr and Sonarr are the core apps for automating movie and TV downloads respectively. They integrate with your NAS download client and media server for a seamless pipeline.Continue A NAS can be configured as a VPN server so that remote users can securely access the local network. Which VPN protocol, known for being modern and extremely fast, is supported by newer NAS operating systems like Synology DSM?APPTPBL2TP/IPSecCWireGuardDOpenVPNCorrect! WireGuard is a modern VPN protocol praised for its lean codebase, high speeds, and strong encryption. Synology added WireGuard support to DSM, making it easier than ever to securely tunnel into your home network from anywhere without exposing your NAS directly to the internet.Not quite — the answer is WireGuard. PPTP is outdated and considered insecure, while OpenVPN and L2TP/IPSec are reliable but more resource-intensive. WireGuard achieves better throughput with less overhead, which matters on the modest CPUs found in many NAS devices.Continue Nextcloud is a self-hosted platform frequently deployed on a NAS. Which major commercial cloud service does it most directly aim to replace?AAmazon AWS S3BGoogle Drive and Google WorkspaceCMicrosoft Azure Active DirectoryDDropbox BusinessCorrect! Nextcloud provides file sync, document editing, calendar, contacts, and video calls — a direct alternative to Google Drive and Google Workspace. Running it on a NAS means your data never leaves your own hardware, which is a major privacy and cost advantage.Not quite — the answer is Google Drive and Google Workspace. Nextcloud replicates the full productivity suite experience: shared folders, collaborative document editing, and mobile sync. When paired with a NAS, it becomes a powerful private cloud that rivals Google's offering without any subscription fees.Continue Some photographers and videographers use a NAS as the central hub for a collaborative editing workflow. Which protocol, natively supported on macOS and optimized for high-bandwidth file access, makes a NAS behave like a fast local drive for video editing?AFTPBWebDAVCSMBDAFP or SMB with MultichannelCorrect! For video editing workflows, SMB Multichannel (or historically AFP on older Macs) allows a NAS to deliver the kind of sustained throughput needed to scrub through high-bitrate footage without copying files locally first. Pair this with a 2.5GbE or 10GbE network and a NAS can rival a dedicated SAN for small creative teams.Not quite — the answer is SMB with Multichannel (or AFP on legacy Macs). FTP and WebDAV are too slow and latency-prone for real-time editing. SMB Multichannel bonds multiple network connections to boost throughput, which is why NAS vendors like Synology specifically market this feature to creative professionals editing 4K and 6K footage.See My Score Challenge CompleteYour Score/ 8Thanks for playing!Try Again I’m retiring my old Unraid server It's had a good life Credit: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek Since I started my homelab back in 2021, I've had my trusty Lenovo RD440 server. It has run Unraid basically since I got it, and I've done many upgrades over the years. I added a second Xeon processor, I picked up more RAM, upgrading it to 64GB of DDR3 ECC RAM, and it's had many storage upgrades. As it sits today, the server has 92TB of raw storage, 80TB after parity, and 3TB of NVMe cache. However, it basically just runs as a storage server and does no processing for me anymore. While I used to run all my Docker containers and what few virtual machines I did have on it, now, it just holds my Plex storage. The only problem with the RD440 is that it uses a ton of power and outputs a lot of heat. Well, it's also kinda noisy, too. Outside of that, it's still a beast of a system. Starting tomorrow (from the day I'm writing this article), I'll be migrating away from my trusty dusty RD440 to a newer, sleeker system that will produce far less heat and take a lot less power to run: my Ugreen NAS. My Ugreen NAS is becoming the center of the homelab DIY is fun, but pre-built is stable I've had my fun with DIY NAS systems, and now it's time for me to enter the era of pre-built NAS servers. I've loved my DIY Unraid NAS, don't get me wrong. But, there's something about using an official system from a reputable company running official software. My main NAS going forward (starting tomorrow) will be the Ugreen iDX6011 Pro. This is a beast of a NAS, and I'm lucky to have something so powerful in my homelab. It has the Intel Core Ultra 7 255H processor and 64GB of LPDDR5X RAM. My storage configuration will give me 40TB of usable space across two 20TB drives and one 22TB drive using RAID 5. I also have a RAID 0 NVMe pool in it with two 2TB drives to give me 4TB of usable space. The Ugreen server won't just house all of my Plex and Audiobookshelf media, but it will serve as my Docker host for my entire homelab. Every Docker container that I run will run on the Ugreen. It has more than enough power to handle it, and it's proven itself to be a rock-steady system in my homelab over the past several months of pulling light duty. Now, it's time for it to pull its weight. Ugreen iDX 6011 Pro AI NAS 9/10 Brand UGREEN CPU Intel Core Ultra 7 255H Memory 64GB LPDDR5/x Drive Bays 6 The Ugreen iDX 6011 Pro AI NAS is one of the most powerful NAS servers in the Ugreen lineup. With Intel's Core Ultra 7 255H 16-core processor and 64GB of LPDDR5/x RAM onboard, there's more than enough power to handle anything you can throw at this system. Add to that dual Thunderbolt 4 ports, dual 10GbE LAN ports, an OCuLink expansion port, and more, and you have a very solid network attached storage system. A second NAS keeps files and backups separate Separating the jobs in my homelab helped me regain my sanity I won't just have one NAS in my homelab, though. I'll have a second running for a completely different task. The Ugreen DXP4800 GT will act as my backup storage server for my entire house. The DXP4800 GT will be getting some of the drives that I'll be pulling out of the Unraid server. Notably, it'll get four 8TB drives for a total of 24TB of usable storage in RAID 5. I'm still considering putting one or two NVMe drives in it for read/write cache, but I'm undecided at this time on that front. I won't be running any Docker containers or services on the DXP4800 GT, really. I might have a backup Pi-hole instance on it, or use it to test a few other services, but its goal in my homelab is purely as a backup storage server. My wife has both an iMac and MacBook Pro, and I have a MacBook Pro—all three will Time Machine to the DXP4800 GT. I also have over a decade of photos and videos that I will keep stored on the DXP4800 GT. The DXP4800 GT won't be my only copy of the data that lives on it, however. I've learned my lesson there, and back up important data off-site to Google Drive in order to ensure I don't have to worry about data loss from failed hardware. Basically, if I need a file stored in my homelab or a backup of a system run, it'll be on the DXP4800 GT. If I have media to store and play back, it'll live on the iDX6011-Pro. UGREEN NASync DXP4800 GT $560 $590 Save $30 9/10 Brand Ugreen CPU AMD Ryzen Embedded R2514 Memory 8GB DDR4, expandable to 64GB The Ugreen DXP4800 GT is the latest NAS from Ugreen, featuring dual 10Gb Ethernet, two NVMe slots, and a whole lot more. Shipping with 8GB of DDR4 RAM, you actually can replace it yourself and upgrade it to have up to 64GB of RAM should the need arise. Plus, UGOS continues to mature and is becoming a very solid NAS operating system. Mini PCs and Raspberry Pis are my experimental playground I don't have to worry about taking down a server to test something new In addition to the two NAS systems and main Proxmox node I have, I also have five mini PCs and three Raspberry Pis. I know, it's a lot of hardware and infrastructure, but it's all necessary in some part of my job. At How-To Geek, I'm always testing something new. A new operating system, new Docker container, new Linux trick—something. I really don't want to do this testing on my production hardware, because that can take down mission-critical services for my household. So, I have a handful of mini PCs that I can easily install an operating system on or mess around with, without having to worry that my smart home or cameras will stop working. I've used them to test high-availability Proxmox setups, powering mini PCs over USB-C, and so much more. I also have three Raspberry Pis, which I've had for many years now. While I used to run a 3-node cluster of the Pis with Portainer, now they sit on my shelf waiting for the next project I'm going to use them in. I write weekly project idea posts for Raspberry Pis, so having a few on hand to test the projects out is extremely useful for me. ACEMAGIC M5 mini PC Brand ACEMAGIC CPU i7-14650HX Graphics Intel UHD Graphics Memory 32GB DDR4 Storage 1TB NVMe Operating System Windows 11 Pro The ACEMAGIC M5 mini PC is perfect for setups that need a high-performance desktop with a small footprint. It boasts the Intel i7-14650HX 16-core 24-thread processor and 32GB DDR4 RAM (which is upgradable to 64GB). The pre-installed 1TB NVMe drive can be swapped out for a larger one though, and there's a second NVMe slot for extra storage if needed. Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Brand Raspberry Pi CPU Cortex-A72 (ARM v8) Memory 2 GB With the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, you can create all kinds of fun projects, and upgrade gadgets around your home. Alternatively, install a full desktop OS and use it like a regular computer. A UPS gives me time to shut everything down safely Unsafe shutdowns can lead to data loss Credit: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek My entire homelab is plugged into two things: a UPS and an energy-monitoring smart plug. I have a large power strip (that has 14-gauge wire in the cable) where all of my devices plug in. From there, that power strip goes to my 1500VA UPS. This UPS (uninterruptible power supply) only has a few minutes of runtime, given how much hardware I have running in my homelab at any given time. But, in the event of a power outage, it gives me the time I need to SSH into my servers and shut them down properly so that way they're not just powering off randomly. Also, once I have everything shut down, it gives me about 30 minutes of network uptime before it also shuts off, which has, so far, survived the few power outages that we've been hit with here in Middle Tennessee. The UPS itself is plugged into an energy monitoring smart plug, so I can see exactly how much power my homelab is using (and what it costs me to run). This energy monitoring smart plug has actually helped me save a lot of money in power since I installed it, because I had no idea what my homelab was using in electricity until I started measuring it. My home office is the base of operations It's all right where I work every day My homelab lives right in my office. It's just to the left of my desk, where I work every single day. This is nice because if I need to maintenance something, it's right there. However, it produces a lot of heat. So much heat that I had to pick up a window-mounted air conditioner to keep my office from being 80 to 85 degrees every single day. The rest of my office is somewhat of a maker's dream, though. It all supports my homelab in some way. I have several 3D printers and two UV printers to keep my servers company. At any given time, you could expect to see at least one 3D printer running or have a completed job on its build plate. I also run my daily work from my M1 Max MacBook Pro docked with a Thunderbolt 5 dock, and I do my gaming on my Ryzen 9 7900X/RTX 3080 desktop that sits under my desk. My office is the base of operations for my homelab, while my homelab is the base of operations for my home. My homelab is finally organized—but it’s not finished I never imagined my homelab getting to this point, but here I am Credit: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek It's taken me a long time to get my homelab where it is. When I started out over five years ago, I used to watch homelab YouTube videos and dream of having setups like I saw on there. Now, I do. The thing is, my homelab is never really finished. I'm always testing new equipment, playing with something different, or rearranging things in some way. For several months, I had that mini PC Proxmox cluster running. About a month ago, I shut the cluster down and switched to the setup I have now. I used to just have my big RD440 for storage, now that's being retired for a smaller and more compact system. My homelab is always evolving, and I can't wait to see where it goes next. Your homelab probably doesn't look like mine—and that's okay If you read this article and thought, "He has all the cool stuff and I don't!" that's okay! I was right there with you just a few years ago. Honestly, even now, I look at other people's homelabs and think "I want that!" If I could offer one piece of advice, it's to enjoy where you're at in your homelabbing journey. Whether you're running one 15-year-old desktop as a server, or you have a fleet of systems like a mini data center, just enjoy where you're at and keep at it.