Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, The Gear Nest earns from qualifying purchases. This adds no cost to you. Buying mini PCs for Proxmox under $400 got harder in 2026. A DRAM and NAND shortage pushed prices on entry-level boxes 40 to 80 percent above where they sat a year ago, and cheap Chinese chassis now…
The best budget NVR options of 2026 for home security cameras — Reolink, Amcrest, Annke, Ubiquiti and Uniview compared on channels, PoE, storage and price.
Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, The Gear Nest earns from qualifying purchases. This adds no cost to you. A 10-inch mini rack home lab setup solves a problem most builders don’t realize they have until the cables win: mini PCs, a small switch, and a patch panel scattered on a shelf, none of it labeled,…
Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, The Gear Nest earns from qualifying purchases. This adds no cost to you. Most budget NAS builds break in the same place: the drives. You spend two months picking the perfect 2-bay or 4-bay enclosure, watch a dozen YouTube reviews, then drop a desktop hard drive into the bay because…
Six budget 2.5GbE switches under $200 compared on ports, 10G uplinks, fanless design, warranty, and value for home labs, NAS, and multi-gig home networks.
Budget mini PC home lab picks for 2026 under $300: tested Intel N100, N150 and AMD Ryzen 7 mini PCs for Proxmox, Plex, Home Assistant and Jellyfin labs.
Looking for a budget PoE switch under $150? Compare 6 picks for home labs, IP cameras, and Wi-Fi APs — verified manufacturer specs and honest tradeoffs.
A power outage shouldn’t mean corrupted ZFS pools, dead NAS drives, or a fried network stack. If you’re running a serious home lab — even a modest one — a rack mount UPS isn’t optional. It’s insurance. The problem? Rack mount UPS units can get expensive fast. This guide cuts through the noise and compares…
Power over Ethernet security cameras are a game-changer for home lab enthusiasts. You get reliable wired connections, centralized power management, and no need to hunt for outlets near every mounting point. But here’s the thing: not all budget POE cameras are created equal. Some skimp on night vision, others lock you into proprietary ecosystems, and…
Building a reliable Plex media server doesn’t require emptying your wallet. If you’re searching for a budget NAS for Plex server that can handle your streaming needs without breaking the bank, you’re in the right place. Today’s affordable network-attached storage devices pack enough punch to transcode your media library and serve multiple streams simultaneously—all while…