Creating a DIY homelab: Fast, free, and beginner-friendly
Building a homelab may seem like the kind of project that requires a big budget or an entire weekend, but it doesn’t have to be. Any old PC or laptop collecting dust at home can be transformed into a surprisingly capable home laboratory. With the right tools, setup can be quick and beginner-friendly. Here’s how I turned my spare computer into a fully functional home lab for $0 in less than an hour.
For context, the machine I’m using is quite modest: an AMD Ryzen 3 2200G (released in February 2018), combined with 16 GB of DDR4 RAM, a 250 GB SATA SSD, a 500 GB hard drive and a 100 Mbps Ethernet connection. If this setup can handle a homelab, yours probably can too.
Installing the homelab operating system
Done in 20 minutes
Technically speaking, the ideal The homelab operating system is Proxmox. However, it might seem a bit complex, especially if you’re new to networking or managing LXC containers. A simpler option is to pair Ubuntu with Docker containers for each service you want to run. The downside is that a full desktop OS adds unnecessary overhead, which isn’t ideal when working with limited hardware.
So the happy medium I decided to go with is ZimaOS. It is a free and open source home NAS and server operating system built on CasaOS, a platform designed to simplify self-hosting. You get a clean browser-based dashboard, a built-in app store for self-hosted services, and Docker running silently under the hood, no terminal required.
ZimaOS offers free and paid tiers. The free version is limited to four disks and three users, which is more than enough for most homelabs, including mine. The ISO is about 1.3 GB, and downloading and flashing to a USB drive took about 20 minutes, which turned out to be the longest (and most annoying) part of the process.
Configuring the homelab operating system
10 more minutes
If you’ve ever installed a Linux distribution from a USB drive, installing ZimaOS will feel familiar. First, go to your UEFI settings and disable Secure Boot: ZimaOS won’t boot otherwise. Save your changes and exit. Next, plug in the USB drive, restart your PC, and press the designated key to open the boot menu (usually F12, F11, or Del, depending on your system). Select the flashed USB drive and the system will boot into ZimaOS.
You will be greeted with a retro-style installer based on ncurses. Select “Install ZimaOS”, choose the target drive, confirm and you’re done. On my system, the installation took less than three minutes.
After installation, remove the USB drive, reboot the system and you will boot into ZimaOS. At first, you will only see a terminal, without a GUI. Note: Download the displayed local URL (which looks like an IP address) and open it in a browser on another device connected to the same network. This launches the ZimaOS web setup wizard. Creating an account takes about a minute, after which you will land on the main dashboard.
The dashboard is clear and intuitive, arguably one of the nicest home server interfaces I’ve used. From there, you can browse files, manage storage, and install apps. For example, I had a 500GB hard drive connected to the system, and adding it was as simple as selecting it from the storage panel and mounting it: ZimaOS recognized it instantly.
By default, ZimaOS is only accessible on your local network. To access it remotely (for example, from your phone over mobile data), you will need to configure Tailscale. There is also a ZimaClient app for remote access, but it is inconsistent and seems primarily designed for ZimaOS hardware like the ZimaCube.
Windows or Linux: which is best for your Homelab?
Skipping Windows is the right choice.
Installation of all services
No more than 5 minutes
ZimaOS includes a built-in app store that’s as intuitive as the Apple App Store or Google Play. It offers over 150 applications focused on self-hosting and homelab use cases, from basic file servers to more advanced tools such as local AI deployments.
For my setup, I opted for Nextcloud, a FOSS alternative to Google Drive, and Jellyfin, a FOSS media server. If I was working with more powerful hardware, I’d also consider Immich, a FOSS alternative to Google Photos and Paperless-ngx that’s great for scanning and organizing documents. Installing apps is quick and easy. In my case, it took about two to three minutes to get everything up and running.
Want a private Homelab? Put These 12 Apps at the Top of Your List
The cloud is cold, until it flees.
Configuring all services
It took about 10 minutes
Once an app is installed, it appears directly on the dashboard. Click on it to open the web interface in a new tab or use the three-dot menu to access its settings. ZimaOS installs apps with reasonable defaults, so unless you have specific requirements, you can ignore most settings and go straight to each app’s setup wizard.
For example, setting up Nextcloud took about a minute. You create an administrator account, choose the features you want and you’re there. It effectively replaces Google Workspace, offering file storage, calendar, notes, and a LibreOffice-powered office suite with real-time collaboration.
Jellyfin follows a similar process. The setup wizard prompts you to create an account, set up a media library, and point it to your media folder. By default, ZimaOS grants Jellyfin access to a standard Media directory. If you already have media stored elsewhere, you can update the path in Jellyfin settings. In my case, I pointed it at the 500 GB hard drive I mounted earlier.
Now, Nextcloud and Jellyfin are feature-rich apps and while they are currently operational, they are far from optimized. That said, I’m not going to push you down that rabbit hole. Today was about setting up a homelab and in 45 minutes we achieved our goal.
These 3 Jellyfin plugins finally make it an interesting replacement for Netflix
What’s a cool open source project without useful plugins?
And the homelab is ready in 45 minutes
And there you have it: a simple, fully functional homelab, up and running in less than an hour, completely free. The whole experience is intentionally beginner-friendly: everything is GUI-based, Docker runs silently in the background, and reasonable defaults are applied out of the box. If you’ve been intimidated by homelabbing, ZimaOS is one of the easiest ways to get started right now.
- Brand
-
KAMURI
- Processor
-
i5-14450HX
The KAMRUI Hyper H2 Mini PC features a 10-core, 16-thread Intel Core i5-14450HX processor and 16GB DDR4 RAM. The included 512GB NVMe SSD comes with Windows 11 preinstalled so the system is ready to go out of the box.
