Home Lab – SuperMicro Home Lab Components

Table of Contents

Component List

I pretty much followed this guide, except for a few small changes since some of the parts were discontinued or changed model number.

Quantity	Name	Details
1	SAMSUNG 870 EVO Series 2.5″ 2TB SATA III V-NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-77E2T0B/AM	2TB SSD, in hind sight, I should have bought an 8TB. I’ll have to install a new one later..
1	Supermicro SSD-DM032-SMCMVN1 32GB SATA DOM	SATADOM installs right on the motherboard, and you will install the esxi image onto this drive. 32GB is plenty.
1	SUPERMICRO MBD-M11SDV-8C+-LN4F-O Mini ITX Server Motherboard	8 cores, and its pretty beefy, and you can overclock it. I have quite a bit running and i’m only around 60-70% utilization. And up to 512gb of memory should be plenty. Also this model comes with an active fan on the cpu!
2	Noctua NF-A6x25 PWM, Premium Quiet Fan, 4-Pin (60mm, Brown)	Honestly these don’t fit great, it is a snug fit. I would probably have went with just 1, or maybe a single larger fan. But they sure are quiet!
1	Supermicro CSE-721TQ-350B 350W Mini-Tower Chassis	The tower
1	256GB 4x64GB DDR4-2666 PC4-21300 2Rx4 RDIMM ECC Registered Memory by NEMIX RAM	I bought 256gb of memory. Obviously you could get 4 sticks of 128 and just max it out, but my thought process is that if I actually exceed the 256, then it’s probably time to add a second server and get more cpu anyway.
Multiple	Ethernet cables monitor/keyboard for configuring and installing esxi on the supermicro surge protector/battery pack	You’ll obviously need some extra components that you might already have laying around..

Optional Component For Rack Enclosure

Quantity	Name	Details
1	NavePoint 9U Wall-Mount Network Cabinet Enclosure, 600mm Depth, Hinged Back, Swing Gate Server Cabinet, Locks, Pre-Assembled, Reversible Glass Front Door, 1 x L Brackets, 2 Fans, Cable Management	9U was plenty big for my setup, again it would theoretically give you enough for a switch, power strip, 2 SuperMicro Mini Towers and at least another 1 or 2 U for something else.
1	NETGEAR 24-Port Gigabit Ethernet Unmanaged Switch (JGS524) – Desktop or Rackmount, and Limited Lifetime Protection	24 ports is quite a bit if this is all you have in your lab, but It would be good for future expansion
1	AC Infinity MULTIFAN S7, Quiet Dual 120mm USB Fan, UL-Certified for Receiver DVR Playstation Xbox Computer Cabinet Cooling	Not required, the rack comes with 2 fans. I found them to be pretty loud so I bought these fans, and they’re MUCH quieter.
1	AC Infinity Turbo Fan Power Adapter, for MULTIFAN Series USB Fans	Adapter for the fans
1	StarTech.com 8 Outlet Horizontal 1U Rack Mount PDU Power Strip for Network Server Racks – Surge Protection – 120V/15A – with 6 Ft Power Cord (RKPW081915), Black	8 Outlets for power in the rack
1	Amazon Basics RJ45 Cat-6 Ethernet Patch Internet Cable – 5 Feet (1.5 Meters), 10-Pack	Ethernet cables

The Build

I built this a month or so ago so I’ll have to go back and get some pictures of the internal components, for now, follow the guide here: https://jorgedelacruz.uk/2020/10/05/supermicro-analysis-of-the-best-home-lab-server-2020-supermicro-m11sdv-8c-ln4f/

I don’t have exact steps for the build, but if you’ve built a computer before, its basically the same thing. Ram goes in the ram slots, sata cables to your ssd.. All pretty easy.