Hardware

This section documents notable hardware systems used in the lab over time.

The focus is on real-world configuration, intent, and longevity rather than benchmarks or marketing specifications.

The systems documented here follow a consistent set of design principles. See Lab Philosophy for the rationale behind platform and configuration decisions.

Design Notes

Hardware documented here is selected to support long-lived, stable systems with predictable behavior.

Preference is given to platforms with:

• strong vendor documentation
• reliable remote management
• clear PCIe and memory topology
• sufficient headroom for future expansion

Systems

• Proxmox Host (EPYC 7402P) – Primary virtualization and compute node, including GPU-accelerated workloads.

• AI Inference VM – GPU-accelerated inference platform with NUMA-aware tuning and deterministic latency behavior.

• TrueNAS Storage Server (EPYC 7232P) – Dedicated storage system providing reliable ZFS-backed capacity.

• Proxmox Backup Server (Xeon D-1518) – Dedicated backup node optimized for reliability, low power usage, and fast network-based backup ingestion.