Hi all, since ya’ll are self hosters, I’m sure you all deal with all sorts of different pieces of hardware, accessories, peripherals, and what not; just wondering if you could please share your favorite, solid, “go to” brands for overall things you need for your setup such as cables (all types), adapters, dongles, power accessories, hubs & docks, flash drives, you name it! I’m sure it varies depending on exactly what type of equipment you’re looking for but just looking for overall good brands to stick with for such things. I obviously know the main ones like Anker, Cable Matters, Ugreen, maybe Belkin, Idk. Would love to hear your recommendations! Thank you
There was a time I’d avoid Western Digital cause everything they made fails, and I mostly leaned toward SanDisk cause they were very reliable, and well, my avoidance list got larger.
I’ve had the exact opposite experience historically. Of 5 Seagate drives I’ve purchased over the last decade or so, only 1 of them is still working. Meanwhile 25+ WD hard drives are still in production over the same time with only 1 that started throwing smart errors a couple years back.
Hmm I always though western digital was pretty decent for hard drives?
They are. Follow the backblaze drive failure reports for quality checks.
Isn’t Western Digital one of the more reliable hard drive manufacturers?
Not in my experience. I’ve never had a Hitachi that didn’t fail, and almost every WD I’ve ever had failed. Never had an issue with Seagate or Samsung before.
There’s your individual experience, but I’m basing my statement on Backblaze’s annual drive failure rate reports.
Western Digital owns SanDisk now fyi
That’s the joke.
Routers - Netgate / pfSense. Best router GUI I’ve found. If you understand what you want to make happen, chances are you can figure out how to make it happen without touching a CLI. And generally free of Cisco for license bullshit.
Routing and WiFi- Ubiquiti. Not as flexible as pfSense but even easier to use and if you do both routing and WiFi with them you get a bunch of cool analytics. Their surveillance package is great too as long as you use their cameras, pretty much the best mobile surveillance app I’ve found. Door access system also gets a mention.
Synology for almost everything they do, but particularly storage, backup, surveillance (they support almost every camera, albeit with a license requirement) and hosting of self hosted apps using a nice docker GUI. Not as much bang for buck vs. an old PC in terms of CPU power, but very easy to use.
For home automation- Home Assistant or HomeSeer. Both are open platforms that support almost everything. Home Assistant pulls lightly ahead for me because it’s free and has more 3rd party integrations, even if it has a steeper hearing curve in some areas and some rough edges that require tweaking for basic usability (specifically, Z-Wave requires the ‘z-wave js ui’ plugin to take real control over a Z-Wave mesh, and Z-Wave door locks need the Keymaster plugin to get any sort of user code management, neither are straightforward to install). That said- pair Home Assistant with a Z-Wave dongle and some Inovelli light switches and you have a really beautiful setup with insane flexibility.
Thank you! Pfsense is one thing I’m confused about… Its a software, right? Does it matter the type of router you use it on? Or do you buy routers that specifically have it installed?
It’s sort of both.
Netgate is the company that develops pfSense. They make pfSense available as a download that you can run on your own hardware or your own VM. They also sell pfSense routers that have official support and a free upgrade to their slightly nicer ‘pfSense Plus’ version. I generally recommend the official hardware (support the project and all that, and it’s good quality if a bit more expensive). However if you want to save a few bucks you can get a cheap NUC-type PC with a few Intel Ethernet ports from Protectli or similar brands on Amazon.
So would a router running pfsense then also become my primary WiFi routers too? Or is it best to keep pfsense strictly as a firewall and have a separate router strictly for WiFi?
So would a router running pfsense then also become my primary WiFi routers too? Or is it best to keep pfsense strictly as a firewall and have a separate router strictly for WiFi?
pfSense doesn’t really do WiFi. So you’d use it as a router/firewall, then have something else do your WiFi. I generally recommend Ubiquiti.
It’s worth noting that a ‘WiFi router’ is usually 3 separate things in one box- a router/firewall, a WiFi access point, and a small switch of usually 4-6 ports. In a home you usually want these things in the same place so they’re in one box. In an enterprise, the router/firewall is usually in the basement where there’s no WiFi, network switches may be in many places and a tiny one in the router won’t help you, and WiFi is up by where the workers are. So it’s that sort of setup that pfSense is designed for.
The way I have my place set up- a pfSense machine is the router/firewall. I then use Netgear managed switches (there’s a few, mainly GS110TP’s), and Ubiquiti WiFi. The Ubiquiti controller runs inside Docker on a small Synology box. Highly recommend this setup.
But I’d just as highly recommend going Ubiquiti all the way. Dream Machine Pro SE is a great base router/firewall, and it has a built in PoE switch so you can hang a few U6 Pro access points off it. You get a bit more flexibility with pfSense but in most home environments it’s not needed.
Wow thanks for the info, sounds like some hefty stuff to learn lol. So I’m kinda broke and can’t afford new hardware ATM. I only have a tp Link archer ax1800 WiFi 6 router and a belkin rt3200 because I read its great for openwrt. Wellll openwrt completely overwhelmed me so I never got a chance to properly implement it. One of these days I’ll need to sit down with more patience and try to understand the firmware better
Try dd-wrt firmware. Lets you dip your toe into the water so to speak, with a lot less of the complication of openwrt. At least it used to when I last used it several years ago.
If you have a spare old PC, pfSense is a great way to screw around. Even if it only has one NIC there is (or at least used to be) basic hostap support so you could use the builtin wifi card as a base station. Otherwise spend $20 on a supported USB-Ethernet adapter and you’ve got yourself a router to play with.
thanks but I dont think either of my routers are dd-wrt compatible unfortunately
- Server MB: Asrock Rack
- Other server hardware: Silverstone
- Peripherals: Steelseries
- NAS HDDs: Seagate
- NAS SSDs: Seagate (pcie4) or WD (pcie3)
- SSDs: Sabrent, Samsung
Awesome thanks. What about the smaller stuff though??? Any personal preference?
Both Anker and Ugreen does good GAN chargers, but Anker is bad at doing good cables (2 of 3 usbc to usbc cable failed during the first year of use). I only had 1 cable from Ugreen, and I don’t use it often, so I can’t tell if they are good yet.
Other than that I don’t have much to say about small electronics, except maybe avoid Asus Laptops. Got 3 of them during my lifetime, all got pretty big problems, ranging from bad screens to dead touchpad and motherboards. They even forgot to connect the internal audio cable during the motherboard replacement, had to sent it back a second time 😅.
Haha yes!!! Same here with Asus laptops. I’ve gone through two and had issues with both. Mainly touchpad issues. But that’s surprising to hear your stance on anker cables. Tbh I’ve found all usb c cables to be SUPER finicky thus far. Like sometimes just the slightest movement of the cable and it automatically disconnects. Heck one time my cat simple stepped on a cable and it caused a disconnection smh very annoying stuff
May be a bad usbc port on one end. My old Nokia 8.1 was known to have a bad usbc connector (mine was impacted), and I ended up switching smarphone because of that. Now I’m waiting for my new phone once again (Fairphone 5), at least this one is easier to repair 😅
Yea I’ve definitely had issues with my usb c ports on my laptop. The shitty thing is, my laptop ONLY has two ports, both being usb c. They’ve become loose over the years of wear and tear and I had a shop manage to replace one and he said the other is perfectly fine. I mean he had a tester and showed me the voltage or amperage and the ports work, but they are still so finicky. As mentioned, just the slightest little movement of a cable or flash drive and they disconnect and then reconnect. Super annoying. I can’t wait to get a dock so I dont have to depend on just these two usb ports and all the annoying adapters and such
Remember power!
First and foremost, well-grounded power is essential. I haven’t done the whole house thing yet, but I am thinking about it and curious to know of other’s stories.
For surge protectors, I like GE wall taps for form factor and Furman racks when there is space & need.
For an uninterruptible power supply, I like APC. While they aren’t made in the USA like they used to (RIP), they have been reliable for me.
Network (ISP Modem, WIFI, Switch) and tower CPU are all driven by UPS power. APC UPS, at least, is always drawing off the battery, so the upstream electronics are protected…a massive surge is far more likely to take out the battery. For laptops, surge protection is enough.
I have not yet surge-protected the ISP lower power input… this is a real risk! I found a cheap one off Amazon, but I am worried it will degrade the network --> whole house may be better.
Note - I have had a lightning strike get sent down the cable line, enter the home, blow out the cable modem, traverse into the network switch, blow out the switch, and nuke every active ethernet port (NAS, Apple TV, etc.), as well as jump the wire into low power security, physically blowing a hard-wired security panel off the wall and damaging a few hard-wired security points. Pretty crazy!
Holy crap thats crazy! Are simple things like surge protectors pretty much equal? Is there a point in researching brands for such a presumably simple thing?
Depends, it’s all a gamble. Think of it like this … how much do you spend on your kit? A top end GPU is $1500 USD. A decent surge protector might cost $15. However suppose you cheap out and get one for $9.99…then a surge blows thru it and smokes your mobo&gpu. how much did that $5 in savings cost you?
there is quite a bit that goes into it. And yet it’s not magic. Also, protection does wear out as load & surge is applied. So it’s not really worth it to pay top end, over and over, at least imo.
I have been trying to replace all my devices that use external power bricks with usb C cables and GAN power adapters. You can get barrel adapters for most things and it lets me clear up a lot of space. Anker and Ugreen have been my picks in the past but they seem to have been increasing their prices considerably and I have had pretty good luck with a company called Baseus.
That’s an interesting approach, but I don’t think I really have any equipment that would need an actual power brick lol who knows? I only have a laptop, cell phone, printer, and a few streaming devices on my network. None are very power intensive really. Unless Im totally misunderstanding your approach?
Your laptop doesn’t have a power brick?
I traveled last week with my personal and work laptops and phones and only had to bring a single wall wart and usb-c cable to charge everything. That’s my primary use case.
Nope, I just use a usb cable and charger that are powerful enough to charge my laptop
I believe Kingston has the fastest and smallest USB drive out there. I’ve never had an anker product that lasts long but Belkin seems to be good to me. I pick my WiFi routers based on what is supported by OpenWRT. Nitecore makes great batteries and chargers. My Caldigit dock is fantastic
Oh I also got a Belkin RT3200 router because I read it is the best budget router for OpenWRT, but I realized I am way in over my head with OpenWRT lol so I’ve backed off from that project for now. I shall get to it someday though
It’s definitely complicated for me too. It took me many videos and articles to figure out how to set it up. I realized ram and on board storage is very important for how many plugins you can use.
Thanks. could you clarify the ram issue? you mean just by setting up a swap? and on board storage, are you referring to creating a separate partition for storage? how would you get all three distros to automatically store things on that drive?
Memory and storage are the two big potential limitations. As you install various plugins under the “Software” section (If you choose to) your memory and storage space will quickly start to get eaten up as visualized under the “Software” and “Overview” sections. For instance, Adguard Home could be something worth installing but it’s also a heavy program. It requires 50MB of free memory and over 100MB of free storage. I have the memory but not the storage space required (even before any other plugins were installed). However there is a way to add extra root storage to your router via a USB drive but it’s also quite a process to get that sorted.
Very informative, thank you. Idk how you guys know all this stuff lol
Haha I am by no means a tech expert. I just get focused on something and learn all about it. I do tend to forget a lot about it later too!
Haha same here but I tend to focus on the wrong things…I jump too far ahead and get confused all while neglecting the basics
What USB drive is the Kingston drive? I looked years ago but all of them sucked on write speed. The best one I found was SanDisk Extreme PRO USB 3.2. I think it is actually a solids state drive vs a traditional USB drive. It definitely isn’t the smallest flash drive, but I am not waiting 30 minutes to copy of 4GB ISO file to it.
I totally get you with not wanting to wait ages to copy stuff. The Kingston Data Traveler Max. It’s USB 3.2x2. I suppose it’s not as fast as the new USB4 devices but I suspect they’ll eventually release a new version. It’s the same speeds as the SanDisk Extreme V2 (non Pro). So very fast but not quite besting SanDisk but it has a smaller footprint going for it without a dongle essentially.
Oh wow that is really fast drive. I will have to take a look at that one. Glad to see other companies are starting to come out with fast drives.
A few years ago when I was looking the SanDisk was the only drive that was actually fast on writing. Every flash drive I found basically lied about the write speed. They would say oh it is 300mbps but when it would only be able to sustain that speed for a very short time then it would would drop to a slow crawl of 10mbps sometimes even less. One drive was 3mpbs. Or they wouldn’t advertise the write speed at all and just focus on read speeds.
There was those portable SSDs but they were still a little big and I wanted something small I could carry with keys.
It is nice to see more companies making them. I had to search a long time to find that drive. A good reason to have different options is that a firmware update it now available for those SanDisk drives we were talking about because a critical flaw was found within them.
Luckily is wasn’t those but the flash drive version. Why SanDisk has the same name for like 4 different products is beyond me.
https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-128GB-Extreme-Solid-State/dp/B08GYM5F8G
Oh yeah that is confusing. Sadly these ones are only USB 3.2x1
Yea I’ve read Caldigit is the gold standard for docking stations; a bit pricy for me ATM though. I think I shall get a dell dock, which should work good with my dell laptop :) What about cables and adapters and chargers? have any specific favorites for those types of things?
Besides Nitecore for various battery types and cameras I don’t have a preference as long as it’s a quality brand so I don’t fry anything. I am waiting for higher output GaN chargers for USB-C specifically. I have yet to find any though if anyone else knows of any.
I need to look into GaN chargers. I keep hearing about them but not too sure why they’re so popular
As far as I care or know about they’re just incredibly small for how much power they can output.
I hear Ugreen has a real nice one, but you’re probably already aware of that.
I think I’ve seen the company in the past but wasn’t really aware of them. Sadly their one port output still only maxes at 140W with the GaN unit. Thanks for the tip
The feeling I get from Belkin is that the hardware is decent, but their software is always atrocious
Asus. Seems to always be quality.
my last 4 or 5 computer builds have been Asus motherboards and i;ve had great luck with them, and my mini-pcs are all Asus PN50/51 Ryzen based NUC-alikes, they are excellent. I use one as my main workstation modded into a fanless case.
I feel like their quality slipped lately however, might be part of their cost cutting before they restructured recently. will have to keep an eye on how they do in the future.
For ultra-budget laptops however, I lean towards Lenovo they have been so good to me over the years.
They just laid off a shit ton of employees and the RMA has gone downhill recently. Shame evga are not around in the gpu space.
That’s always a recommended brand. Never had much luck with their laptops, but had a real old Asus router that I liked.
Yep. I’m sure they’ve made some duds, but they are my go to brand. Have been impressed in one way or another with everything I’ve had from them.
My number two is Lenovo.
For smaller things I’m a fan of Anker, and I admit for cables I usually just find something cheapish on Amazon that gets good reviews.
Bought 3 laptop from them, all had QA issues. Never again.
My only Asus hardware that works with no issue is my current access point.
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Ahh good to know. Adding to the list lol I’ve heard the name mentioned a few times but never really looked into their stuff. Thanks
My Satechi dongle has been pretty solid as a pass through for my MacBook. No issues so far.
Awesome, good to hear. Another brand I’ve heard mentioned before as a good one too. There’s so much junk on Amazon, it can be sorta hard wading through all the crap to find the good ones lol
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I was a die-hard Logitech fan for many years, but over the past five or so their quality has really gone downhill, with their prices remaining the same if not increasing. I have a full set of Logitech peripherals but when the time comes to replace them Logitech will not be in the running.
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I’ve been using MX masters since the first model, my only gripe however is I always wear through the thumb pad button well before the rest of the mouse is showing any wear, the rubber was just not up to scratch. All of my 2s’s have a hole cut in the rubber there to get to the button below just to make it work.
The 3s that I have a couple of are pretty sturdy and seem to wear much better in that regard, and the metal scrollwheel on that model is better too as it doesn’t have rubber to wear out and go gummy either.
The stock pads always wear out super fast too, so I put glass on one of them and it’s been a game changer.
The rubber on mine turned sticky and I got rid of it. It was nasty to touch. I’d get another if it was a different material. Ended up with a G903 but not keen and want something new after just a year.
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I just searched glass mx master 3 pads and there were some available online.
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Then get some higher end Teflon ones, they last much longer than stock. or get generic glass circle pads, available as small round blanks that can be fit to any mouse.
Mine seem not available any more, they were a cheap chinese copy so might not have stayed in business.
I love the wheel toggle more than I could ever have imagined.
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This is great to know, thanks. What do you plan to use as replacements? and do you typically try to stay with the same brand for most of your gear or does that not matter?
I’m looking at Keychron for a keyboard. I recently replaced my Z-5500 surround speakers with a cheapo soundbar off Amazon. I’d like to get something comparable to the old Z-5500s (which were phenomenal) but I haven’t found anything similar yet. And Logitech doesn’t make anything in their league any more. Aside from those I haven’t really looked for anything else. If I were to find a brand that reliably offered good-quality products with the features I’m looking for I would happily buy a whole set from them, but I have no problem with mixing-and-matching brands either.
Well speaking of Amazon, I actually read that Amazon Basics is a great option for low level stuff like cables, chargers, adapters, etc.
Keychron hardware is solid and I have no complain in the typing department. In fact, having hot-swappable switch is very useful for extending the life of the keyboard as you can easily replace broken switches instead of replacing the whole keyboard (I already need to replace my W switch after a year). My only gripe is the shitty firmware, but I have an older model so I can’t say if the latest model still have shitty firmware.
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Might be similar issue with mine. It usually has some issues with dropping bluetooth connection and repeating keys when the battery is not full. My solution is to disconnect the battery and use it as a wired keyboard.
What do you think will be the alternatives. I have looked around and realistically Logitech kind of dominates the market as far as mice and keyboards.
Steelseries is a pretty good brand, especially in the premium headset side. Works well on Linux too.
Networking I really like TP-Link with their Omada range. It’s like Ubiquity.
Spinning Disk drives I always go Hitachi now.
USB thumb drives SanDisk have been pretty good for me.
Cables I like Ugreen, chargers I like Anker.
I’ve also found TP-Link to be the best bang for the buck when it comes to home labbing. I have several of their managed switches at home, a couple almost 10 years old, and they keep on trucking.
Perfect! Thank you
For network cables, FS.com. Their specialty is fiber optics and they have good transceivers and cables for really cheap prices and they also sell a tool to flash vendor info onto transceivers so if you have some picky proprietary box you can still use generic transceivers with it. Their copper products, DACs, regular cat6 patch cables, etc are good too. I haven’t tried their NICs or switches though.
I have never heard of them! Thank you
Whatever’s cheapest lol
I’ve been liking Mikrotik stuff for networking lately. Not as user friendly GUI as Ubiquiti but definitely not as expensive.
I have heard alot of really good things about Mikrotik. I haven’t explored them as I haven’t had many networking needs, but maybe I’ll take a look at their offerings. Thanks
I have a few Mikrotik switches mixed in with my Unifi rig, they are excellent bang for buck, well featured, easy to program and have a huge model selection covering basically every possible use case.
Just bought a Mikrotik LHGG kit for LTE internet and went from about 3-5 Mbit/s down with a TP-link (archer 400 something) to 30-150mbit/s down and much more stable. I’m really impressed with it and WinBox and will for sure have a good look at their switches when it comes to putting up the home network infrastructure. Though, as you said, you need to know what you are doing and need a better understanding of networking but it also gives you a better flexibility and more things that are possible to do.
Oh I just get the cables , chargers, usbsticks from the cash register area while I wait in line.
Lol really??? why is that? surely those are of way less quality than others available, right?
It’s flash drives and cables, dude. The ones at the counter will get the job done just fine.
I mean USB cables differ greatly though, based upon what your requirements are
I have yet to see a USB cable near the cash register that won’t do a data transfer or charge a device. It may not necessarily fast charge a phone, but if you have such a phone, chances are you already have a cable/adapter at home that works with it.
fair enough
Those microcenter flash drives are dog shit slow on write
I was joking but I actually do have a battery pack like that and it’s pretty good.
Lol hey, I’m sure some heavily powered devices need them! I wasn’t sure if you were just talking about the more power intensive aspects of your setup or if you were joking
