5 of the best accessories for your home lab

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Key findings

  • Invest in a UPS to avoid data loss during power outages. Some even have additional features like surge protection.
  • Add additional GPUs to your home server for video editing, gaming, AI workloads, and faster processing.
  • Consider purchasing a dedicated switch for a faster LAN connection and investing in network cards for higher network speeds.



From compact and affordable SBCs to enterprise server-grade hardware, there are plenty of devices that can serve as the core of your home lab. But setting up your tinkering station is just the first step in a long, ever-evolving process. Once you've got the perfect operating system up and running on your home server, you may want to outfit your setup with additional peripherals, so we've put together a list of the best products that can add some pizzazz to your home lab.

5 UPS

Don’t let power outages disrupt your home lab operations!

Some power cables lie on a PC case


For those unfamiliar, uninterruptible power supplies are useful devices that keep your computer equipment running even during power outages. If you suffer from frequent power outages, a UPS can be vital for your home lab. Not only does a UPS prevent data loss due to random power outages, but some of the higher-end models also have additional features like surge protection and voltage regulation to protect your home lab from sudden voltage fluctuations.

4 Graphics cards

Necessary for gaming, video editing and AI workloads

Assuming your home server has some spare PCIe slots, there are plenty of reasons to equip it with an extra GPU or two. Most Type 1 hypervisors and bare-metal virtualization platforms like ESXi and Proxmox allow your VMs to access the graphics cards plugged into your server rig. If you want to edit videos or run some games on virtual machines, plugging in extra GPUs will boost your server's performance, assuming you're willing to go to all the trouble of enabling GPU passthrough on the hypervisor and virtual machines.


AI training and machine learning can also benefit enormously from the computing power of modern graphics cards. If you run image generation servers in your home lab, you can significantly reduce the time it takes to create an image by allocating a GPU with huge amounts of VRAM.

3 Dedicated switch

No, not the Nintendo game console

If your home lab consists of more than a few devices, you'll inevitably need a dedicated switch at some point. A network switch not only provides a variety of ports for all of your computing devices, but it can also dramatically increase the Ethernet speed of your LAN connection.


Those willing to invest in more expensive switches can get additional features like PoE support and VLAN compatibility. If you're setting up a new home server, I'd even recommend investing in a high-quality network switch to avoid bottlenecks in the future.

EnGenius ECS1112FP

2 Network cards

And other PCIe cards without GPU

If your home server's motherboard is limited to 1 Gigabit Ethernet speeds, a 2.5GbE or 5GbE network card can significantly improve the network's transfer speed – assuming, of course, that your switch and LAN cables don't hinder it.

If your home lab requires ultra-fast read/write speeds, you'll want to look at 10GbE cards. But aside from expensive network cards, there are a few other expansion cards worth highlighting. For example, you can look at USB expansion cards if you're running out of ports for your USB passthrough needs. Not all server motherboards may have enough SATA ports for your drives, so you can get PCIe-to-SATA adapters and put your unused PCIe slots to good use. Speaking of drives…


1 Storage devices

Trust me, you will need all the storage options you can get

The storage capacity of your home lab may not be a big deal for beginners. But if your home lab evolves (or withers?) into a disorganized setup with multiple devices, you may find yourself running out of storage space. Mounting more hard drives in your server case can be a cost-effective way to increase the storage capacity of your setup. If your connection isn't slowed down by slow network devices, you can add some NVMe SSDs to enjoy blazing-fast transfer speeds.


And that's before you consider external devices to back up your important data. While many enthusiasts want to run VMs with dedicated NAS operating systems on their home server, a separate NAS enclosure can provide more robust backup provisions. Alternatively, you can opt for DAS units if you want to access multiple drives via a USB connection.

There's no denying that a home server can be an expensive endeavor. Just getting the right server hardware can put a big dent in your wallet, and that doesn't even take into account all the networking accessories, storage devices, and PCIe cards you'll need for your tinkering station.


Plus, you'll have to deal with other expenses like electricity bills. As someone whose power usage skyrocketed after running a dedicated server for hours on end, I recommend keeping a close eye on your home lab's wattage if you don't want to be surprised by outrageously high electricity bills.

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