So I was wondering, what is exactly the use case of owning a server rack with huge CPUs and 256GB of DDR4 RAM with 1PB of storage?
Obviously, I'm kind of exaggerating here, but it does seem that most homelabs are big server racks with at least two CPUs and like 20 cores in total.
Why would I want to buy a server rack with all the bells and whistles when a low-power, small NAS can do the trick? What's the main advantage of having a huge server, compared to an average Synology NAS for example?
Honestly, I only see disadvantages tbh. It consumes way more power, costs way more money and the processing power it provides is probably only relevant for (small) businesses and not for an individual like me.
So, convince me. Why should I get a homelab instead of a regular NAS?
I started with a basic as shit NAS and was happy with it.
Then i wanted Hardware Acceleration for my Plex Server because i wanted to stream high resolution content when i was out of the house.
I then rebuilt my old Gaming Rig into a server.
After i realized that i now have much more power to use i started to host a bunch of services; AdGuard, Plex, Sonarr, Radarr, Prowlarr, Overseerr, Homarr, Lidarr, SabNZBs, Kavita, Kaizoku, HomeBox, HomeAssistant, Nextcloud, FoundryVTT, PaperlessNGX, Audiobookshelf, Romm and Whisper for my HomeAssistant.
That's stuff i would've never even had the chance to host on something simple like a little NAS.
Oh and most homelabs are NOT racks with 2 cores.... in my case, old gaming PC with Ryzen 5 2600X, 16Gigs of Ram and GTX1660 Super
Same, my game desktop was so powerful (i9 with 24 cores and 64 RAM DDR5) I converted it to Proxmox, pfSense with a Wi-Fi adapter that creates an access point, I have much more control of my local network and services I host, it's fun and the power usage isn't that much.
Any reason you chose pfSense over opnSense ? I heard opnSense was better or something.
I really want to go down that rabbithole aswell and get myself some real network appliance with 10gig ethernet and take control over my network. I currently have a Fritz!Box by AVM that i bought myself so not via my ISP so it's already fairly controlled and configured by only me... but it has it's limitations; I can't setup PXE boot for example.