Editing Building a Homelab (section)

== Compute ==
Assuming you don't go for a [[Cloud Labs|Cloud Lab]], then for your compute layer, you have two very simple options; build or buy.

Much like when procuring a PC, if you choose to buy from a known (or unknown!) vendor, you may be able to get a decent price for the overall solution, though the level of flexibility after you have unwrapped it may be limited. The biggest advantage to building your own is that you can choose every single component which goes into your hosts, individually. This can of course be a pain if you want to make sure you have every component fully supported by your favourite hypervisor and version, but then again with great power comes great complexity! :)

=== Vendor Style ===
Here you have three very simple options. Rack mount, Tower, or Small form factor. There is one other bonus option which is Laptop/Notebook, and if you need this, you will most definitely know it (for example SEs and Road Warriors love to carry a demo lab with them at all times!
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 95%"
|+Popular / Recommended Vendor Servers
|-
! Small Form Factor & Barebones PCs !! Vendor Towers !! Vendor Rack Servers
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| style="vertical-align:top; width: 33.3%;" |
* [[Intel NUC]]
** [[Intel NUC6I7KYK]]
* [[Gigabyte BRIX]]
* [[Shuttle XH61V]]
* [[Shuttle XPC SZ170 R8 V2]]
* [[ASRock C2750D4I]]
* [[Supermicro Xeon D-1500]]
| style="vertical-align:top; width: 33.3%;" |
* [[HP MicroServer]]
* [[HP ML110]]
* [[HP ML305]]
* [[HP ML310]]
* [[Dell PowerEdge]]
| style="vertical-align:top; width: 33.3%;" |
* [[HPE ProLiant DL20]]
* [[HPE DL380]]
* [[Dell PowerEdge]]
* [[SuperMicro SuperServer]]
|}

=== Whitebox Servers ===
AKA Roll your own!
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 95%"
|+Popular / Recommended Cases
|-
! Whitebox Desktop/Tower Cases !! Small Form Factor Servers !! Whitebox Rack Cases
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| style="vertical-align:top; width: 33.3%;" |
* [[Corsair Obsidian 900D]]
* [[Corsair Carbide 400R]]
* [[Fractal Design Define]] R3 / R4 / R5
* [[Phanteks Enthoo Primo]] Black
| style="vertical-align:top; width: 33.3%;" |
* [[SilverStone SG10]]
* [[Antec ISK-600m]]
| style="vertical-align:top; width: 33.3%;" |
* Supermicro SC505-203B
|}

Lastly, once you know what case size you like, you need to decide what kind of motherboard will fit into it! Here are a few examples which have been tried and tested by the community:

A full list of tested [[Whitebox Homelab Motherboards]] is available here:
*[[Whitebox Homelab Motherboards]]