Planning out Your HomeLab
Diving into everything HomeLab-related in 2026 might seem daunting, with so many different routes available, and so much technical jargon that may or may not be relevant.
If your main goal is to host a Linux server at home, whether it be for music, movies, game servers, what have you, this planning process is a great way to get started.
Let's start with demystifying some terminology.
A 'HomeLab' is just an IT environment, that allows for experimentation with either hardware, software or networking configurations.
Think of it as your virtual playground. You can code, spin up applications, automate, and much more. What you put into this, is what you can get out of it, so the world is your oyster with a HomeLab.
A HomeLab can be hosted on whatever you'd like, from an old janky laptop with no screen, to a Raspberry Pi 5, and everything in between. If it has compute power, it is likely suitable for a homelab.
Next up, lets talk about Servers.
When someone says server, you might picture seven-foot tall enterprise racks with blinking lights and loud fans and cables routing every which way.
While those are technically servers, those aren't necessarily ideal for a HomeLab, but I can get into that later. A Server is really just any computer that can reliably serve up data to another computer. This can be a mini PC, old laptop, Raspberry Pi, or anything that is able to fulfill its role as a server.
Ideally a server is running an operating system that was meant for this function, but you can actually have a Windows home PC act as a server. Not ideal, but I have seen it done.
Items to consider regarding hardware:
RAM requirements will depend on your use cases. I would recommend AT LEAST 8 gigabytes of RAM but I have seen some low-requirement Raspberry Pis doing great with 4 gigabytes. If you want to be on the safe side, at least 8 gigabytes is a good bet, and assuming the RAM is swappable on the device, you can always upgrade later. (Sorry Raspberry Pi fanboys.)
If there are graphic-intensive processing requirements, (ie game-server, transcoding, Large Language Models) consider a GPU that can handle the load. Old gaming laptop? Likely a beefy GPU. Newer mini PC with Intel chipset? Built-in iGPU functionality that can do some pretty heavy lifting. Things to consider and research.
Once you have decided on your hardware, you'll need to decide on what Operating System to run as your Server OS. I prefer Ubuntu Server or Debian, but different strokes for different folks.
Personal opinion: For Homelabs, I think people massively over-estimate how much compute power they actually need and this can sometimes lead to pricey homelab bills for gear that may or may not get fully utilized. In most cases, a modest homelab (unless you plan on hosting your own ChatGPT) can thrive on a cheap mini PC or an old laptop. No need to go broke this early in the learning process.
Installation is not as scary as people may think. I can outline the actual installation and setup of the Operating System in the next post, but for the sake of not posting walls of text, I think I will end this one here.
Stay Curious, and as always feel free to reach out.