I built my first homelab from secondhand gear, and it taught me more than a new NAS ever could
NAS units are great. They're small, energy-efficient, and easy to get running right out of the box. If the only thing you want is a backup solution for your files, and you're not picky about cost, they're a good option. However, if you want a real homelab, you're much better off picking up some secondhand components instead—your machine will be more powerful, and you'll learn more in the process.
Fixing hardware is a valuable skill
New hardware doesn't teach you much
No matter how expensive your setup is, something will eventually go wrong.
One of the most valuable things I learned by using old, self-refurbished hardware was how to troubleshoot my equipment effectively. Is that clicking the sound of a fan going bad, or is a hard drive about to die and take all of my data with it ? How can this old GPU be fixed up so I can use it for transcoding? Is a bent CPU pin a dealbreaker?
Using secondhand gear teaches you how to deal with everything from questionable parts to weird boot issues. By fixing those problems, you'll learn how to diagnose almost every problem a computer can throw at you.
If you just buy a new NAS, you skip the most valuable lessons about what is actually happening under the hood.
You learn to squeeze more out of hardware
You choose the OS and every app
Since I was working with an older Intel i5, I had to be very selective about the software I used. I couldn't just run a heavy operating system and a pile of apps and assume it would run smoothly.
A NAS is convenient because it's mostly click-and-go, you don't have to make too many decisions like that. Typically, the most you can do is log into your NAS and fire up a few containerized applications with Docker.
When you build your own system from scratch—especially if it is older hardware—you get unavoidable, valuable lessons in operating systems, background processes, and storage file systems. You learn exactly when a container is a better choice than a VM (which is most cases), and why a hypervisor OS like Proxmox should be your starting point for any home lab.
That extra effort isn't for nothing either. Once you get a handle on things, a 5-year-old gaming PC will usually outperform even top-shelf NAS units and cost less.
You can build a scalable system
Incorporate extra parts as your needs grow
Ismar Hrnjicevic / How-To Geek
Working with older components also taught me how to build around what I already had instead of just replacing everything when it wasn't enough.
Unfortunately, NAS units don't have much of an upgrade path at all, if any. Sometimes you can add more drives, and if you're willing to tinker, you might be able to add more RAM. If you need anything extra, you're probably out of luck. The only takeaway is, "I have to replace this completely, it can't do what I want."
Eventually, all computers will become so outdated that they need to be replaced, but secondhand components usually give your homelab a longer lease on life than you'd expect. The Intel i5 was my starting point, but when I originally picked it up, it only had 4GB of RAM. I upgraded the RAM to 16GB (a lot at the time), tossed in an ATI Radeon 4890 for processes that could use a GPU, and the system soldiered on for many years.
Regardless of what you're self-hosting, picking up second-hand PC components will teach you how to build a system that is adaptable. Need faster networking or an extra port? You can add a NIC . Want more storage? You can pick up two used server drives and set them up with RAID for redundancy.
You'll be able to self-host anything
A NAS will feel limited by comparison
Jordan Gloor / How-To Geek
Once you pick up the ability to build, troubleshoot, and manage as a homelab, you'll be able to self-host almost anything.
NASes do support other applications and services besides the simple backup options, but your choices are pretty limited. It usually isn't super easy to just add a non-supported service and run it on your NAS. You're mostly restricted to using the apps and services that you're offered by your NAS unit's operating system.
On the other hand, the home lab you cobble together from second-hand parts has taught you the ins and outs of the hardware and software that make up a homelab. Firing up a new service that was just released is often as simple as creating a new container, cloning a GitHub repo , and running the appropriate script.
Build your homelab yourself
Cobbling together a homelab for the first time is much harder than buying a NAS, but it is an adventure that pays off in the long haul. Every technical challenge will require you to learn something important that using a NAS completely misses.
That first generation i5 I started with powered some of my self-hosted services for more than 12 years, and survived RAM swaps, the widespread adoption of SSDs by the general consumer market, 20 or so different Minecraft servers, and one spilled coffee. Most NAS units that age would have been decaying in a landfill by that time.
Today, my self-hosted services live on a mixture of SBCs and yet another refurbished PC, and whatever replaces it will probably be refurbished components too.
