Home lab starter checklist (2026, UK prices)
A small home lab is a low-power machine or two on your home network for running self-hosted services: media, backups, home automation, a password vault, or just somewhere to learn Linux and Docker. This checklist covers what to get first and why, with rough UK prices for new or good refurbished kit in late 2026. Prices move, so treat them as a guide to budget, not a quote.
Start with the High priority rows. Two rules matter more than any hardware choice: keep at least one copy of your data off-site, and do not expose services directly to the internet while you are learning.
A typical home network. Your lab kit (mini PC, NAS and switch) sits on the wired side of the router. Image: Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
Checklist
| Item | Why it matters | Rough cost (GBP) | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mini PC (Intel N100 class, or refurbished office small-form-factor PC) | Runs your services 24/7 on 6–15 W at idle, so about £15–£35 a year in electricity, far less than an old gaming tower | £120–£220 | High |
| Two matching hard drives (4 TB or larger) | Mirrored in a NAS or the mini PC so one drive failing does not lose your files | £160–£240 for the pair | High |
| Off-site backup (cloud storage or a drive kept elsewhere) | A mirror is not a backup: theft, fire, ransomware or a bad command takes out both drives at once | About £5 per TB per month, or £60–£90 for a spare drive | High |
| Free hypervisor or server OS (Proxmox VE, Debian or Ubuntu Server) | Lets you run several services in containers or VMs and rebuild one without touching the rest | £0 | High |
| Cat6 Ethernet cables | Wired links are faster and far more reliable than Wi-Fi for anything that serves data | £10–£25 | High |
| Gigabit switch (5 or 8 ports) | Most ISP routers only have three or four spare ports, and a switch keeps lab traffic off the router | £20–£50 | Medium |
| Small UPS (600–900 VA, line-interactive) | Rides out short power cuts and lets the NAS shut down cleanly instead of corrupting data | £80–£150 | Medium |
| Private remote access (Tailscale or WireGuard) | Reach your services from outside without opening ports on the router | £0 | Medium |
| Password manager | Every service gets a long unique admin password, and you can share access safely | £0–£40 a year | Medium |
| Smart plug with energy monitoring | Shows what the lab really costs to run, so you can spot a device that never idles | £10–£15 | Low |
Rough total for the High and Medium rows: about £390–£725, plus off-site backup. Many people start with only the mini PC, one external drive and a cloud backup, and add the rest later.
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