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 5
- 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 7
- 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).
- Ebook / audiobook librarySelf-hosted books and audiobooks (Calibre, Audiobookshelf, Kavita).
Virtualization 3
AI 4
- Local AI inferenceRunning LLMs or other models locally (Ollama, vLLM, llama.cpp).
- Image generationStable Diffusion and similar local image generation.
- Voice assistant (local)Local STT/TTS and wake-word (Whisper, Piper, Rhasspy).
- Model training / fine-tuningFine-tuning and training small models (LoRA, small checkpoints).
Security 2
Development 6
- 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).
- Uptime monitorLightweight monitoring (Uptime Kuma) for service health checks and alerts.
Smart home 1
Networking 3
Gaming 3
Personal cloud 6
- Nextcloud / file syncSelf-hosted cloud sync, sharing and collaboration.
- Password managerSelf-hosted Vaultwarden/Bitwarden for passwords and secrets.
- Notes & documentsSelf-hosted notes, docs and editors (Joplin, OnlyOffice, CryptPad).
- Email serverSelf-hosted email stack (Mailcow, Mailu) with spam filtering and webmail.
- Chat server (Matrix)Self-hosted chat (Matrix Synapse, Mattermost) with federation and bridges.
- Paperless / document managementDocument scanning and OCR pipeline (Paperless-ngx) with full-text search.
Running more than one?
Workloads add up differently than the guides suggest on their own. Tell the engine everything you run and it sizes one machine for all of it.