SumGuy's Ramblings
The art of wasting time.
Docker, self-hosting, AI/LLM, Linux, and DevOps — explained by someone who learned the hard way. No fluff, no enterprise jargon, just practical stuff that actually works on real hardware.
Recent Posts
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IPMI / iDRAC / iLO for Headless Home Lab
Remote management 101: IPMI, iDRAC, iLO basics, network isolation, security, and redfish. Why BMC matters when you can't reach the power button.
9 min read -
Power Math: Watts, Heat, and Your Electric Bill
Calculate true energy costs: watts, kWh, BTU output, and 5-year TCO for homelab hardware swaps. When efficiency pays back.
8 min read -
Cheap Managed Switches That Don't Suck
Used enterprise-grade managed switches under $100: Aruba, Brocade, MikroTik picks, VLAN setup, wattage, and gotchas for home lab networks.
10 min read -
Quiet Home Lab: Fan Swaps and Undervolting
Noctua fans, IPMI curves, and undervolting techniques to make rackmount servers bedroom-quiet without thermal compromise.
9 min read -
UPS Sizing Without Overpaying APC
Master UPS sizing math: VA vs watts, runtime calculations, battery replacement costs, NUT monitoring, and when EcoFlow beats enterprise hardware.
11 min read -
Raspberry Pi 5 vs Mini PC for Home Lab
Raspberry Pi 5 vs Mini PC: when ARM wins, real costs with NVMe HATs, power consumption, performance, and ecosystem trade-offs for your home lab.
10 min read -
Mini PCs for Home Lab: N100 vs N305 vs Ryzen 7000
Head-to-head benchmarks: Intel N100/N305 vs Ryzen 7000 mini PCs. Power consumption, NVMe slots, RAM, transcoding, virtualization. Which one to buy.
9 min read -
Used Enterprise Servers in 2026
Dell R630/R730, SuperMicro buyer's guide. Real noise, heat, idle power. What to avoid. eBay sourcing tips.
10 min read -
Tasmota: When ESPHome Isn't Enough
Tasmota vs ESPHome: broader device support, MQTT-native approach, and when legacy Sonoff/Shelly gear demands Tasmota instead
10 min read -
Home Assistant + InfluxDB for Long-Term History
Store years of sensor data with InfluxDB. Skip the 10-day limit, query historical trends, build Grafana dashboards for your home lab.
8 min read -
Reolink + Frigate: A Practical NVR Build
Build a DIY NVR with Reolink PoE cameras and Frigate. RTSP URLs, sub-stream tricks, storage math, doorbell support, and a complete working config.
10 min read -
Frigate Beyond Coral: GPU and OpenVINO
When Coral USB isn't enough: GPU and OpenVINO detector performance, config gotchas, hardware picks for home lab NVR
10 min read
