I just added a new piece of hardware to my Homelab. I spent quite some time looking at the new ASUS NUCs (RIP Intel NUC…), minisforum, and other off brand mini PCs. I couldn’t find anything within a reasonable price range to run some of the new stuff I want to play with: Zabbix, Wuzah, the list goes on. It looked like I was destined to drop anywhere from $800-1000 due to the price of RAM. Luckily, the folks over at Free Geek (https://www.freegeek.org/) had a decent price on a used OptiPlex that was compatible with some of my spare RAM. Here is the info, post upgrade.
| Desktop: Dell Precision 3450 |
|---|
| OS: Ubuntu 26.04 LTS |
| CPU: 11th Gen Intel Core i5-11600 @ 2.8 GHz / 4.3 GHz / 4.8 GHz Max (6 HT Cores) |
| RAM: 32 GB DDR4 @ 3200 MHz |
| Storage: 256 GB NVMe (PC711 NVMe SK hynix 256GB) |
| GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 750 |
I am a big fan of how well Free Geek Packaged this hardware, the only thing I had to do was open it up and blow the dust out (expected on a used PC imho). I am also a fan of how it only cost me $305 to get it! The next steps I think I will take with the home lab will involve moving some hardware around to find space for the OptiPlex on the rack shelf. I would absolutely purchase from Free Geek again!