Workload guide
Hardware workload guides
For every workload — Plex, Home Assistant, VMs, AI, cameras, storage — the complete requirements guide: minimum, recommended and comfortable specs, generated by the WisePC decision engine.
Storage
- File storageGeneral file sharing and centralized storage for a family or small team.
- BackupOffsite/onsite backup target with versioning and integrity checks.
- Photo storageLarge photo library with indexing (e.g. Immich, Synology Photos).
- Video storageLarge video library, editing footage or camera archives.
- ArchiveCold or warm archive for data that must be kept long-term.
Media
- PlexPlex Media Server with streaming and optional hardware transcoding.
- JellyfinOpen-source media server with transcoding and multi-user support.
- TranscodingOn-the-fly video transcoding (4K HDR, tone mapping, multiple streams).
- Multi-user mediaMany simultaneous users streaming from a media server.
- Media downloader (Arr stack)Sonarr/Radarr/Prowlarr/SABnzbd/qBittorrent automation stack.
- Music serverSelf-hosted music streaming (Navidrome, Plex music, Airsonic).
Virtualization
- Virtual machinesRunning several VMs (Proxmox/ESXi/KVM) for services and experiments.
- ContainersContainerized services (LXC, Docker Compose stacks).
- Dev environmentsSelf-hosted dev sandboxes, preview environments, CI agents.
- Testing environmentsThrowaway VMs/containers for testing software and configurations.
- KubernetesSelf-hosted k3s/k8s cluster for lab workloads.
Ai
- Local AI inferenceRunning LLMs or other models locally (Ollama, vLLM, llama.cpp).
- Image generationStable Diffusion and similar local image generation.
- Computer visionCamera/photo analysis, object detection, OCR, recognition models.
- AI experimentationLearning and experimenting with models, training small models, tooling.
- Voice assistant (local)Local STT/TTS and wake-word (Whisper, Piper, Rhasspy).
- Code assistant (local LLM)Local code completion and chat models (Ollama, Continue).
- Model training / fine-tuningFine-tuning and training small models (LoRA, small checkpoints).
Security
Development
- DockerRunning Docker services and containers at home or in a lab.
- DatabasesPostgres, MySQL, Redis and other databases as services.
- CI/CDSelf-hosted build pipelines, runners, artifact storage.
- Self-hosted devGit, code servers, issue trackers, docs — all self-hosted.
- Homelab opsAnsible, Terraform, GitOps, monitoring (Grafana/Prometheus).
Smart Home
Networking
- Router / gatewayRouting, NAT, DNS for the home or lab network.
- FirewallStateful packet filtering, IDS/IPS (pfSense/OPNsense).
- VPNWireGuard/OpenVPN endpoint for secure remote access.
- VLANsSegmented network with VLAN-aware switching.
- 2.5GbE network2.5 gigabit connectivity between server, NAS and workstations.
- 10GbE network10 gigabit connectivity, usually SFP+ or 10GBase-T.
- DNS sinkhole / ad-blockPi-hole / AdGuard Home network-wide ad blocking and DNS.
- Reverse proxyNginx Proxy Manager / Traefik / Caddy for service exposure.