I treated my home server like a spare PC, and it cost me my entire homelab — here is a clear breakdown of what happened and why it matters right now.
The details below put the news in context: the key points first, the background after.
Are you just using your home server as if it was a spare desktop? If so, you’re using it wrong. Your home server is capable of so much more, so here are three things to help you change how you think about your home server.
If you’re anything like most homelabbers, then your first home server is likely a reused old PC. At one point, it was probably just a spare computer sitting in a closet in case you needed it, but then you finally found a use for it as a home server.
The problem is, so many people keep thinking about it as “just a spare PC.” That’s what’s holding you back from utilizing the system to its fullest potential.
A normal computer is something you sit down and use occasionally, or maybe daily, but it’s only really being used when you’re physically in front of it using it. A server is the exact opposite.
Servers are systems that are designed to be used without being in front of them. I have quite a few servers in my office, and I can count on one hand how many times I’ve actually plugged peripherals into them to use them directly. I’m almost always using them indirectly, and that’s how servers were made to be used.
So, if you still treat your server as a normal PC and plug a monitor and keyboard into it to use it, then you’re using your server wrong. Or, if you run services on it that are only accessible on the server itself, you’re using it wrong.
Servers are made to be remote. They’re made to just sit in a closet and run silently for months or years at a time undisturbed. So, change how you think about that home server and stop thinking of it like a spare PC and start thinking about it like it’s a piece of equipment—because that’s exactly what it is.
There’s a good chance your home server is running some LXC or Docker containers, or maybe even virtual machines. Regardless of what your server is running, if it only has a few services on it, then you’re underutilizing it.
My first home server only had a few things running on it. Primarily it ran Plex and related apps, and nothing more. I was wasting the hardware at that point.
These days, my servers run so much that I couldn’t get by without them. From my audiobook platform to Plex, my websites, game servers, and so much more, my home server is a do-it-all mastermind.
In fact, I’m writing this article inside of Obsidian, which is backing up to my Obsidian LiveSync system that runs on my server, and then backs up offsite using Duplicati, which is also running on my server.
Your home server doesn’t have to be ultra-powerful to do a lot. In fact, I could probably do 95% of what I do on my server on a system with a several-year-old i3 processor and 16GB of RAM.
Sure, certain things, like heavy-duty Plex transcoding, big Minecraft servers, or other resource-intensive tasks like development benefit from having additional resources, but most tasks simply don’t need that.
So, regardless of what the specs are of your home server, you should turn it into the hub of your homelab.
The last big thing that happens when you treat your home server like a spare PC instead of a server is backups become an afterthought. The problem with this line of thinking is not having backups set up is actually a huge problem with a server.
I ran without backups for years because I thought I didn’t need them. I knew in my head that I should set it up, but I just never sat down to do it. “I have solid equipment, and I’m safe, so it’s not actually that big of a deal,” is what I said to myself.
The problem is, it was a big deal. One day, an update hit one of my servers and it changed the path mapping of my NFS shares and that took my homelab down. No problem, that’s a fast fix, right? Yes, except there was some stray mapping that actually kept the old mapping working somehow and I ended up deleting multiple virtual machines.
I know, I should have known better. But, we all make mistakes. Since I had no backups configured, I lost everything that was deleted. The very next day (because this happened at 11 PM) I set up backups everywhere. Now, every server in my homelab backs up to Google Drive nightly.
So, to turn your home server from a spare PC into a real server, make sure you have backups set up. Whether it’s backing up to another device in your homelab, to an external hard drive, or to the cloud—just make sure it’s backing up somewhere.
The GEEKOM A7 Mini PC’s 2026 refresh comes with a lot of nice features. For starters, it ships with Windows 11 Pro pre-installed and activated. It also features a 40Gb/s USB4 port on the back, alongside 2.5 Gigabit Networking built-in. Add to that the ultra-compact size and plethora of ports, and this mini PC is ready for whatever you need.
The Dell OptiPlex 7060 mini desktop PC is a great choice to run your homelab or office. It features an 8th Generation i5 processor, which allows it to run Windows 11 Pro out of the box. It ships with 16GB of DDR4 RAM and a 256GB SSD, as well as being user-serviceable if you want to upgrade it in future.
While some people stop at one home server, for many others, it’s just the gateway to a bigger and more robust homelab. But, it all starts with making sure you have a solid foundation. If you set your first server up properly, then any future server you get benefits.
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