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ROOT
HOMELAB

Hardware: M70q + 60-Month Plan

The physical hardware basecamp runs on. ThinkCentre M70q Gen 5 mini PC. Three upgrades across 60 months. Total cost over the program: ~$700-1000.

This doc is the hardware spec sheet for the entire 5-year program. It lands pre-Phase-1 — the box has to exist before Phase 1 (OS Foundations) can begin — and it sets the budget envelope every year planner builds against.

The thesis is small-but-real: a 1-litre mini PC is enough to run basecamp through Year 3, with two RAM upgrades (16→32 at Month 10, 32→64 at Month 25) tracking the curriculum’s growth. The Master Plan hardware section summarises the spend curve; this page is the SKU-level detail you actually buy from.

Initial spec (Month 1)

Lenovo ThinkCentre M70q Gen 5
  CPU:         Intel Core i5-13500T (14C/20T)
  RAM:         16GB DDR5 (1× 16GB SODIMM, 1 free slot)
  Storage:     256GB NVMe (M.2 2280)
  GPU:         integrated UHD 770 (no discrete GPU)
  Network:     1× RJ45, WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2
  Form factor: 1L (small footprint)
  Power:       65W TDP / typical 25-40W


Network:
  TP-Link Archer AX3000
    LAN side:   gigabit, WiFi 6
    WAN side:   DITO 5G (cellular)


Cost (Month 1):  ~$450 (M70q used) + ~$80 (router) = ~$530

The M70q sits on a desk. Proxmox runs on the bare metal. All ROOT phases (Y1-Y3) work on this exact box.

IP plan

192.168.0.1     TP-Link router
192.168.0.10    bastion VM (ubuntu user)
192.168.0.50    M70q Proxmox host (root user)
192.168.0.51-59 reserved for K3s nodes
192.168.0.60-79 reserved for app VMs (Postgres, MinIO, etc.)
192.168.0.80-99 reserved for ephemeral VMs (test, debug, exam scenarios)

Static IPs via DHCP reservations on the router. Reserve everything up front — by the time Phase 7 lands K3s, you don’t want to be re-numbering. The 80-99 range exists specifically for root-exam scenarios and Phase 7 incident-response practice — VMs that come and go without polluting the permanent address space.

Upgrades by month

The hardware grows with the program. Three upgrade points:

MONTH 10 — Kubernetes phase prep
  + 1× 16GB DDR5 SODIMM    →  32GB total
  + 1TB external NVMe SSD  (USB-C; for Iceberg + container images)
  Cost: ~$120-140


  Why now: Phase 7 (K8s) won't fit in 16GB. K3s + ArgoCD + Postgres + Redis + Prometheus stack
  consumes ~12GB. Adding 16GB gives you headroom for triage + first basecamp services.


MONTH 25 — Year 3 prep (data layer)
  + 1× 32GB DDR5 SODIMM    →  64GB total
  - sell the 16GB kit on Marketplace for ~$40
  Cost: ~$150-200 net


  Why now: Year 3 lands MinIO + Iceberg + Spark + Airflow + Trino + Loki + JupyterHub.
  None of that fits in 32GB.


MONTH 49 — Year 5 optional (multi-node)
  + second M70q (used; same spec)        ~$200-300
  + 8-port unmanaged switch              ~$25
  Cost: ~$225-325


  Why optional: lets you test multi-node K8s realism. Year 5 capstone runs fine on one node;
  the second node makes the platform-as-product story stronger (real multi-node basecamp,
  not "K3s with one host"). Skip if budget is tight.

Cumulative hardware spend, end of Y5: ~$700-1000.

Storage layout

M70q internal NVMe (256GB):
  / (Proxmox)         100GB
  vm-disks            150GB  (bastion, postgres, k3s nodes — small)
  swap                  6GB


External SSD (1TB, added Month 10):
  /mnt/data           used for Iceberg / MinIO / container images / large VM disks
                      — anything that grows quickly

Backup: weekly snapshot of bastion + Postgres VMs to the external SSD (zfs send via cron). The Proxmox doc covers the actual vzdump script and retention policy — see proxmox.md.

Network notes

WAN: DITO 5G cellular (consumer plan, dynamic IP, NAT'd)


Implication: no inbound port-forwarding works reliably.
  → Tailscale (or WireGuard equivalent) for remote access
  → Cloudflare Tunnel for any public-facing services
  → All Cloudflare Access / Pages flows tunnel through Cloudflare's network


Internal: gigabit + WiFi 6
  → DHCP reservations for static IPs (see IP plan above)
  → No VLANs (homelab; not worth it)
  → nftables on bastion for default-deny posture from Phase 2

The cellular WAN is a constraint, not a defect — it forces the Tailscale + Cloudflare Tunnel pattern that’s how real platforms expose services without trusting the network. By the time Phase 7 lands, the same pattern (zero inbound, tunneled egress) is how triage reaches the internet.

Power + heat

Idle:           ~10W
Typical (Y1):   ~25-30W (light VMs running)
Heavy (Y4-Y5):  ~40-55W (Spark + Flink + agents)


Daily kWh:      ~0.6-1.3 kWh
Monthly cost:   ~$3-7 at PHP rates


Heat: M70q runs warm under sustained load. Keep on a hard surface, not blocking the vent.
      Year 4 GPU work is cloud-only — no heat headache at home.

If you live in a hot climate without aircon, expect the M70q to throttle under sustained Spark/Flink load in Year 3 onward. Monitor sensors output during long jobs; if package temps stay above 90°C, raise the box on a stand for airflow.

What’s NOT in the homelab (deliberately)

  • No GPU. ROOT’s GPU work (Y4 P25) is cloud spot only. Buying a GPU for “real LLM training” is a $1,000-3,000 mistake when cloud spot gives you the patterns for $50/year.
  • No NAS box. External SSD for now. If basecamp’s storage tier outgrows 1TB, then consider — but that’s a Year 4-5 decision, not pre-planned.
  • No rack. A desk-side mini PC is the whole infrastructure. Rack-mount is a budget + space sink with no learning value.

Cross-references