ENTRY
I had been running a rudimentary home lab since 2011 with a single-core 8TB UNRAID server and a couple of wireless access points. When our first lockdown hit in March I started looking at options to upgrade my home server and stumbled across serverbuilds. The first thing that occured to me was that it was going to take some time and effort to source the parts for the UNRAID server I wanted but I was intrigued to some quick-start options with the HP290.
Being Canadian the VIPOutlet deals were not really deals but I found a cross-border shipper that still made it more attractive than anything local. I was fortunate to snag 2 HP290s in May but then found out my order was being split in 2 so I had to pay the cross-border fees twice!
Anyway, I now have my 2 HP290s that have been running well for 6 months:
- pfSense router with a 4-port NIC and 16GB Intel Optane memory
- Plex server running Ubuntu with 12GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD
Since my early start with the 290s I’ve also added 3 Aruba IAP207, an Aruba S1500 24-port POE switch and built my UNRAID server (and still plan to post the build info as well!) Next up, security cameras.