--- title: Your first home lab shouldn't be a NAS — here's why a... description: A used compact business PC like the Dell Vostro (~$50 on eBay) outperforms entry-level NAS enclosures for running containers and VMs in a home lab. NAS devices... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/your-first-home-lab-shouldn-t-be-a-nas-here-s-why-a-used-business-pc-does-it-better-qmjuqrimk twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Your first home lab shouldn't be a NAS — here's why a used business PC does it better | daily.dev og:description: A used compact business PC like the Dell Vostro (~$50 on eBay) outperforms entry-level NAS enclosures for running containers and VMs in a home lab. NAS devices... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/your-first-home-lab-shouldn-t-be-a-nas-here-s-why-a-used-business-pc-does-it-better-qmjuqrimk og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/QMJuqrImK.png og:image:alt: Your first home lab shouldn't be a NAS — here's why a used business PC does it better og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Your first home lab shouldn't be a NAS — here's why a used business PC does it better **[XDA Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers)** · 6 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A used compact business PC like the Dell Vostro (~$50 on eBay) outperforms entry-level NAS enclosures for running containers and VMs in a home lab. NAS devices are limited by soldered CPUs, minimal RAM expansion, and single-point-of-failure risks when hosting multiple services. Installing Proxmox on a used PC enables a multi-node cluster with LXC containers and VMs, splitting workloads like Frigate NVR, Jellyfin, and Immich across dedicated hardware. The recommended approach keeps the NAS purely for storage while offloading compute-heavy self-hosted services to cheap repurposed PCs, achieving redundancy and flexibility at low power draw (~30W per PC). ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [I turned a $80 Dell Vostro into a Proxmox server that outperformed my NAS setup](https://daily.dev/posts/i-turned-a-80-dell-vostro-into-a-proxmox-server-that-outperformed-my-nas-setup-ioebtafqp) · XDA Developers · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [I replaced enterprise gear with a $50 compact PC, and my power bill thanked me](https://daily.dev/posts/i-replaced-enterprise-gear-with-a-50-compact-pc-and-my-power-bill-thanked-me-vki77qudz) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Don't throw away your old PC—it makes a better NAS than anything you can buy](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-throw-away-your-old-pc-it-makes-a-better-nas-than-anything-you-can-buy-oub5twucf) · Hacker News · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [I rebuilt my home servers from scratch, and this is the OS setup I wish I'd started with](https://daily.dev/posts/i-rebuilt-my-home-servers-from-scratch-and-this-is-the-os-setup-i-wish-i-d-started-with-sm4o4gxgw) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Your old PC can become a DevOps learning machine, and college is the perfect time to start](https://daily.dev/posts/your-old-pc-can-become-a-devops-learning-machine-and-college-is-the-perfect-time-to-start-gbbhggssb) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#self-hosting](https://daily.dev/tags/self-hosting), [#homelab](https://daily.dev/tags/homelab), [#proxmox](https://daily.dev/tags/proxmox) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/your-first-home-lab-shouldn-t-be-a-nas-here-s-why-a-used-business-pc-does-it-better-qmjuqrimk) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Your first home lab shouldn't be a NAS — here's why a used business PC does it better","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/your-first-home-lab-shouldn-t-be-a-nas-here-s-why-a-used-business-pc-does-it-better-qmjuqrimk","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/your-first-home-lab-shouldn-t-be-a-nas-here-s-why-a-used-business-pc-does-it-better-qmjuqrimk"},"datePublished":"2026-07-18T17:32:36.971Z","dateModified":"2026-07-18T17:42:30.882Z","description":"A used compact business PC like the Dell Vostro (~$50 on eBay) outperforms entry-level NAS enclosures for running containers and VMs in a home lab. NAS devices...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/c31f3c35c063ca79e4a1bc1e3cbf6d4b?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/c31f3c35c063ca79e4a1bc1e3cbf6d4b?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"XDA Developers","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"XDA Developers","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--kCg6yyAP--/f_auto,q_auto/v1774964407/logos/xda-developers?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/your-first-home-lab-shouldn-t-be-a-nas-here-s-why-a-used-business-pc-does-it-better-qmjuqrimk","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"self-hosting,homelab,proxmox","timeRequired":"PT6M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"XDA Developers","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Your first home lab shouldn't be a NAS — here's why a used business PC does it better"}]} ```