The Cheap and Simple HomeLab Guide

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Ever wondered what you could do with that old computer collecting dust in your closet? Or maybe you’re just tired of paying for a bunch of streaming and cloud services every month. Good news: you can turn almost any old PC into a powerful homelab—a sort of personal tech playground—right in your own home.

Whether you live solo, with roommates, or with family, a homelab is a great way to add some cool tech to yourlearn new skills, save money, and take control of your digital life. This series will walk you through the basics, step by step, using hardware you probably already have or can grab cheap online. We’ll save more advanced stuff (like remote access, extra security, and home automation) for future posts. For now, let’s keep it simple and fun.

What is a Homelab, Anyway?

Think of a homelab as your own mini data center. It’s a place to run fun stuff like media servers, photo sharing apps, or even home automation — all without paying someone else for the privilege. You get to experiment, break things, fix them, and learn as you go.

If you start digging into the topic of homelabs you will find many examples of what people build, from small and simple to really complex setups. These complex setups will often have a lot of functionality that is not really necessary for someone who's just starting or looking to keep things simple. So this series is really about starting simply. With that in mind, we’re going to focus running a single homelab server, easy to use service management, and one very typical use case to get started. At the end of this series we’ll explore some of the other possibilities that you can do next with your homelab.

Why Bother With a Homelab?

Think of a homelab as your personal playground for all things digital. It's a space where you can explore, build, and really take charge of your tech world—all while having a ton of fun. Whether you're just starting out or you're a tech whiz, there's something exciting waiting for you. Here why so many people are into setting up their own homelab:

• Save Money: Tired of monthly fees for streaming, cloud storage, or other online services? Host your own!
• Learn New Skills: Setting up a homelab is a great way to get hands-on with Linux, networking, and server management. No experience required.
• Privacy & Control: Keep your data at home and out of the hands of big tech companies.
• Make Old Hardware Useful: Don’t toss that old PC—give it a new life as a server.
• Fun Projects: From media centers to game servers, there’s a ton you can do

This Series: What to Expect

This guide is all about making things simple. We’ll focus on using Ubuntu LTS (a rock-solid, beginner-friendly Linux distribution), CasaOS (an easy app manager), and free, open-source tools. Everything will run on your home network, so you don’t have to worry about exposing your stuff to the internet.

The Cheap and Simple HomeLab Guide

• Finding Your Hardware What you need and what you might already have laying around your house.
• Preparing Your Hardware Make a bootable OS installer on a USB drive, and prepare your hardware to use it.
• Installing Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS Install Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, a solid well supported and popular Linux distribution. This is what will run everything else.
• Installing CasaOS Add CasaOS, a sleek and easy to use app manager for your homelab services.
• Installing Jellyfin Jellyfin let's you view all of your movies and TV shows from the comfort of home, without paying for streaming services.
• Automating Media with Sonarr & Radarr Download your movies and series automatically so you don't need to rip them off disks.
• Expanding Your Homelab An overview of possible next steps.

You Don’t Need to Be an Expert

Don’t worry if you’ve never touched Linux or set up a server before. We’ll walk you through every step, explain the “why” as well as the “how,” and share tips for avoiding common mistakes. We will point you to lots of resources out there to help guide you. The homelab community, and the ubuntu community are filled with welcoming and knowledgeable people who are willing to help so you’re never alone.

Ready to Get Started?

Yeah? Awesome! In the next post, we’ll take a look at the hardware you may already have and see if it’s up for the job (spoiler: most old PCs are). We’ll also talk about where to look, and what to look for if you don't already have old hardware laying around.

The Cheap and Simple HomeLab | Next: Finding Your Hardware