4 reasons I am still using Windows 10 on my old laptop
… Windows 11 has many pros , but reliability and updates aren't among them. …
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I stopped buying expensive Ethernet cables after learning what actually matters
… After all, if I'm investing in good networking hardware, why not connect everything using the best cables available? The more expensive options promised superior shielding, gold-plated connectors , higher reliability, and better overall performance. …
A used Lenovo M720q destroys the Raspberry Pi 5 in every way that matters
… No need to worry about any ARM compatibility concerns like those on the Pi. …
Home Assistant freed me from the smart home brand wars, and now I buy whatever works
… There’s also the hardware question. Running Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi, mini PC, NAS, or virtual machine is not difficult once you’re comfortable with that world. However, it’s still another device or service to maintain. Backups matter. Storage matters. Power reliability matters. …
My entire homelab runs on an 8-year-old laptop most people would throw away
… I had the same assumption and was planning to use used enterprise-grade hardware for my setup. Then I thought of giving my 8-year-old Dell laptop, which was lying around, a try before spending on new hardware. Turns out the hardware depends entirely on the use case. …
Forget Synology and DSM, this free NAS distro can revive old PCs as NAS servers
Ayush Pande Apr 29, 2026, 10:01 AM EDT Ayush Pande is a PC hardware and gaming writer. …
I stopped treating old phones like e-waste and started treating them like tiny servers
… It has the hardware, software, and reliability features needed to store data safely and run services around the clock. …
Running OpenClaw in Proxmox taught me that elegance doesn't always beat reliability
… Reliability counts for a lot with software like this. …
Synology felt like an appliance until I built a custom NAS with TrueNAS and realized what I was missing
… It works and works well with the hardware inside the metal and plastic shell. …
Your NAS doesn't need to be all-SSD, and TrueNAS proved it to me
… That narrative changed entirely by the time I got around to deploying TrueNAS on my existing hardware and started using it the way a home server should be used. …