The $200 Home Lab Challenge ft. Hardware Haven – Part 1

I actually made a homelab with a ~200$ budget not too long ago and I followed a very similar process. Really cool to see it done properly and in a gamified manner. Also you can never have too much scrapyard wars. Subbed and can't wait for part 2!

How does that "no more than one computer Allowed" works? Does it means you'll only be allowed to use the nas as your homelab?

"Facebook is good for two things…"

Fine, have my "subscribe."

This challenge has massive potential!

Brett, that was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen

It's wild to me that a UPS is a core home lab item for you. I guess it's because of how reliable your grid is and/or past experiences with it? I've been home-labbing for about 2 decades now and I think I had 2 power outages in that time, with only one being longer than a few seconds. Never had a UPS and still don't think I need one.

Imagine the two of them meeting each other on Facebook Marketplace

Ive bought a old chenbro server with a 1220 V2 8gb ram. Then bought 5 old 2tb sas drives and 2 60gb SSD in z1 for boot drives and made a nas using freenas all costing a lil over $200. Still works after 3 years.

In my experience using cheaper to better UPS's for the home, to include at work, and such, the cheaper UPS's aren't worth the money; the cheaper units that retail for a new price under $100 to 150 – can do more damage than good; generally one should want the pure sine wave or simulated sine wave output, but those tend to be pricier. A good UPS however, can reduce the number of issues that one has with their electronics, especially computers and server equipment. Been there, done that. More prevalent in areas with huge growth, like many homes being built; in areas with frequent power outages, or in areas with large numbers of apartments, etc.
With any UPS, if you received it in any condition but new, you probably should pull the battery and make sure it's not swollen, split open, leaking, bulging, or obviously damaged. I've seen examples of each since I started using UPS's for personal computers since about 1993 or so. The worst was a commercial UPS that where the inverter itself was a 5 foot cube, with four 5 foot cubes as distinct battery banks, and one swollen battery inside blew up; other batteries inside showed signs of bulging/swelling. Was inside the server room when the battery blew. The battery that blew up was literally the size of a truck battery inside an enclosure. It went with an audible bang, a spark show visible against the wall, and a good puff of smoke.. The entire UPS system was 25 foot long, by 5 foot high by 5 foot wide. The last two smaller UPS's I repaired ( 120v consumer type models ) – one had swollen batteries, and one had both batteries split open with zero acid left inside. Both would have been a fire risk to use as is. Pop open any used UPS and check the batteries first before using them.

Again, even if the unit works, check the batteries. Swollen batteries and split batteries are actually VERY common as UPS's age.. Heat eventually destroys the electronics. If it stops working, check the batteries.

In the smaller server room UPS's, 1500 to 3000 VA, which are quite expensive, we had about a 50/50 chance of fixing the UPS by replacing batteries, the first time, usually because the inverter or charging side has gone bad. This is typically after 2 to 4 years. By the time that a second set of batteries was needed, chances are that the electronics have failed. These units new range in price of $1K to 3K each. The smaller the UPS, the less chance to fix the UPS by replacing batteries. With new UPS's, at times, all that was needed was to pull the batteries out, and charge with a vehicle type charger.. The average (ANY) UPS, including consumer models, is good typically for 2 to maybe 4 years tops, before the batteries or UPS need replaced. If lucky, a new set of batteries is all it needs for another 2 to 3 years. Personally, I would not bother with replacing batteries on anything smaller than 900 VA. VA is short for Volt Amps, and is a rating on the "apparent power" of the UPS. The good news is- as more and more homes get solar or wind power with battery backups, well, you'll have the good inverters coming with it.

R.O. spent $32 on a gamble that the UPS was good; new, on Amazon, it'd be $68; new 350VA UPS's from other brands can be had for $50 or so. Tripplite is a really good brand however; so probably more worth the risk than most cheaper brands. As the protected side does not work, it's likely the inverter does not work, or perhaps a fuse has blown inside the unit. APC and Tripplite are my preferred brands. As far as condition is concerned, there is new, refurbished (aka renewed ) and used. New is always the best; sometimes renewed means something, sometimes it does not. Used usually means – it's on e-bay because, often, the owner had a problem with it, despite what the owner denotes elsewhere. Ask how old the unit is; if you hear anything older than 2 years, it's probably got bad batteries or bad electronics.

Your local PC prices are incredible, most people near me want $100 for a workstation with no RAM or hard drives
That being said, I've gotten UPS deals out the wazoo. I've picked up APC 550, 600, 650, and 800 models, each for less than $10, then put a $20 battery in each one and they work perfectly