A useful homelab pattern for Mac mini server owners
This homelab runs on two computers with clear jobs. The first machine has a Ryzen 9 7950X, an RTX 4080 Super, and Fedora 44 KDE, and it handles desktop work, gaming, and local AI. The second machine has an i7-7700, Ubuntu, and 16 terabytes of storage, and it runs the main server services in Docker.
The service list includes Plex for media, Immich for photo backup, , for passwords, Actual Budget for personal finance, and the arr family of media . Voice control starts with a “Hey Jarvis” device and a satellite, then Whisper turns speech into text, matches the command, and Kokoro TTS creates the spoken reply. Device control stays local, while general knowledge questions can fall back to a cloud LLM through OpenRouter.
uses Tailscale, and backups combine nightly two-way restic backups, snapper snapshots on the desktop machine, and a separate WD My Book cold backup. Extra includes a locally generated morning podcast, a weekly health check, and systemd timers, with AdGuard planned next.
Key points
- The setup separates roles: a powerful desktop handles gaming and local AI, while a separate server runs Docker services.
- The server runs Plex, Immich, , , Actual Budget, and arr media .
- Voice control uses Whisper, , and Kokoro TTS, with most device control kept local.
- uses Tailscale, while backups use restic, snapper, and an offline WD My Book drive.
- AdGuard is planned next for ad blocking and DNS control.