Updated 23 Aug 2026. Spec-and-street-price editorial. Not a hands-on burn-in lab yet.
About Labthrift
Buying notes for a one-person closet lab. Live at labthrift.com. Notebook voice, not a haul video.
Labthrift is a set of buying notes for wiring a closet that has to stay quiet, cheap, and on overnight. Switches, mini PCs, first NAS boxes, used enterprise, cheap PoE. We pick the boring upgrade and write down the skip. The live site is labthrift.com.
How to read a note
Each note is three parts.
- The short list — a table of boxes we would actually click. The highlighted pick row is the default buy if you do not want to argue with yourself.
- Skip — the gear that looks tempting and is the wrong job.
- Sources — maker pages and recent street reports. Prices move. Check the live listing before you click.
We have not burned units in unless a note says we sat with that box. Until then, specs come from manufacturer pages. We will not write “I ran this for six months” as decoration.
Five lanes
Start with the lane essay. The other notes hang off these five.
2.5G switches
Eight copper ports. No fan. No VLAN tax unless you need it.
Mini PCsMini PCs for Proxmox
N100 vs N150 vs a box with four NICs. 16 GB is the floor.
Used vs newUsed enterprise vs new
When a $40 switch is a gift, and when it is a 90W space heater.
First NASFirst NAS
Two-bay Synology if you want sleep. UGREEN if you want 10G and Docker.
Cheap PoECheap PoE + APs
Power two access points without buying a UniFi religion.
IndexAll notes (95)
95 notes across six lanes. Retail SKUs only.
How money will work
Buy links will be affiliates once accounts are live; tags are not wired yet. The rules sit on how we make money.
labthrift.net and uplinkbrief.com are backups. If those names ever point here, you are still reading the same notes. This site is the one that is live.