I’ve been going DEEP down the rabbit hole in the past 12 months when it comes to Homelabbing and building robust NAS solutions.

One of the significant challenges is COST!

Things can balloon pretty quickly if you’re a wannabe Data Hoarder!

In various Reddit and Discord communities there are a lot of people who say to never buy used drives, only buy new.

Others are more pragmatic, as there are some amazing deals to be had, allowing your budget (or lack thereof to go a LOT further).

One blogger, Pat, has been a huge inspiration to me recently.

I really love his sensible yet pragmatic approach. He is prepared to live in the “grey” and the nuance, rather than seeing everything as black and white.

I really wanted to give a hat tip to his latest post “Do Refurbished Hard Disks Make Sense For Your Home NAS Server?“.

Once again, super insightful information on building a budget setup, but mitigating risk in a number of areas.

If you’re into homelabbing, NAS, and other nerdy pursuits, I highly recommend the Discord community that Pat runs, “Butter What?!“.

It’s hands down the best Discord community I have been part of for a LONG time!

Cheers, Pat!