Hardware workload guides
For every workload — Plex, Home Assistant, VMs, AI, cameras, storage — the complete requirements guide: minimum, recommended and comfortable specs, generated by the WisePC decision engine.
Storage · 5
- File storageGeneral file sharing and centralized storage for a family or small team.
- BackupOffsite/onsite backup target with versioning and integrity checks.
- Photo storageLarge photo library with indexing (e.g. Immich, Synology Photos).
- Video storageLarge video library, editing footage or camera archives.
- ArchiveCold or warm archive for data that must be kept long-term.
Media · 7
- PlexPlex Media Server with streaming and optional hardware transcoding.
- JellyfinOpen-source media server with transcoding and multi-user support.
- TranscodingOn-the-fly video transcoding (4K HDR, tone mapping, multiple streams).
- Multi-user mediaMany simultaneous users streaming from a media server.
- Media downloader (Arr stack)Sonarr/Radarr/Prowlarr/SABnzbd/qBittorrent automation stack.
- Music serverSelf-hosted music streaming (Navidrome, Plex music, Airsonic).
- Ebook / audiobook librarySelf-hosted books and audiobooks (Calibre, Audiobookshelf, Kavita).
Virtualization · 3
AI · 4
- Local AI inferenceRunning LLMs or other models locally (Ollama, vLLM, llama.cpp).
- Image generationStable Diffusion and similar local image generation.
- Voice assistant (local)Local STT/TTS and wake-word (Whisper, Piper, Rhasspy).
- Model training / fine-tuningFine-tuning and training small models (LoRA, small checkpoints).
Security · 2
Development · 6
- DockerRunning Docker services and containers at home or in a lab.
- DatabasesPostgres, MySQL, Redis and other databases as services.
- CI/CDSelf-hosted build pipelines, runners, artifact storage.
- Self-hosted devGit, code servers, issue trackers, docs — all self-hosted.
- Homelab opsAnsible, Terraform, GitOps, monitoring (Grafana/Prometheus).
- Uptime monitorLightweight monitoring (Uptime Kuma) for service health checks and alerts.
Smart home · 1
Networking · 3
Gaming · 3
Personal cloud · 6
- Nextcloud / file syncSelf-hosted cloud sync, sharing and collaboration.
- Password managerSelf-hosted Vaultwarden/Bitwarden for passwords and secrets.
- Notes & documentsSelf-hosted notes, docs and editors (Joplin, OnlyOffice, CryptPad).
- Email serverSelf-hosted email stack (Mailcow, Mailu) with spam filtering and webmail.
- Chat server (Matrix)Self-hosted chat (Matrix Synapse, Mattermost) with federation and bridges.
- Paperless / document managementDocument scanning and OCR pipeline (Paperless-ngx) with full-text search.