My scheming from when last we spoke appears to be paying off.

I've taken a single Supermicro X9SCL-F board and put it into a server that I'm currently using as a super-simplified SAN - CentOS on a small SSD with a ZFS mirrored vdev pool totaling 2TB for VM storage. I've tested the Dell 0KJYD8 cards that I had lying around with some SFP+ receivers that I bought on eBay in various configurations, and everything seems to work well. It looks like it's time for me to move on to Phase 2 of my plan :)

In preparation for Hurricane Florence (I live close to the east coast) I also went ahead and splurged on new batteries for all 4 of my UPSes - two Cyberpower 1500PFCLCD's and two APC Back-UPS Pro 1500's. I think, once I get the proper cable from Amazon to tell the APC's that they have new batteries and thus report an accurate remaining time to me, I will use those in my homelab, particularly because I can purchase battery expansions for these models to get even more runtime out of them. I'll likely use the Cyberpower UPSes for mine and my partner's desktop rigs. This was a relatively expensive purchase (compared to how much I've spent on the rest of my homelab), but it's definitely going to be worth it to be able to actually trust my UPSes in case of brownouts/blackouts going forward.

With all of that said, here's everything that's currently in my homelab:

Current Hardware

• Whitebox SAN/VM Storage
  
  • Supermicro X9SCL-F
    
  • Xeon E3-1230
    
  • 16GB DDR3 ECC
    
  • 64GB Sandisk SSD - CentOS boot drive
    
  • 4x1TB spinning HDD's - 2x mirrored vdevs for 2TB usable
    
  • Dell 0KJYD8 2x10GbE NIC
    
  • Services/VMs running:
    
    • ZFS exporting datasets for VMs on the (currently only) hypervisor
      
    • OPNsense VM (master) - 2x NICs from the mobo passed through to the VM (means that technically this box is airgapped, which for a SAN is okay by me)
      
• Whitebox Hypervisor 01
  
  • Shuttle case + mobo
    
  • Core i5-4670
    
  • 32GB DDR3
    
  • 64GB mSATA SSD - CentOS boot drive
    
  • Dell 0KJYD8 2x10GbE NIC (direct connect to SAN)
    
  • VMs running:
    
    • apt-cacher-ng - apt and yum caching server for other systems
      
    • many more planned but not yet implemented :)
      
• Whitebox NAS
  
  • Generic case (will soon be replaced)
    
  • AMD FX-8320E
    
  • 8GB DDR3
    
  • 2x16GB Sandisk flash drives - ZFS mirrored vdev for FreeNAS OS
    
  • 6x4TB spinning HDD - 3x mirrored vdev for 12TB usable
    
  • Used as a target for backups, media, etc
    
  • *may* eventually get a 10GbE card if I ever wind up with a 10GbE fiber switch... whenever that happens. :P
    
    

    // todo (immediate)
    

    
    

• Purchase rackmount cases and accessories for existing hardware
  
  • For SAN + Hypervisors: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A7NBO6E/
    
  • For SAN: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M0BIPYC/
    
  • For NAS: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0091IZ1ZG/
    
  • 4x of these: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XXDJASY/
    
    

    // todo (future)
    

    
    

• Purchase more Supermicro boards and replace other hypervisor hardware with them
  
• Build a bigger rack (I've been inspired by posts around here of others building their own racks, and I figure I can give it a shot too)
  
• ...actually get around to playing around with various homelab services :)

The icy dock is only like $13 more right now

ICY DOCK 6 x 2.5" SATA/SAS HDD/SSD Hot Swap Mobile Rack/Cage in 1 x 5.25" Drive Bay Comparable to Tray-less Design - ExpressCage MB326SP-B https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M0BIPYC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_z5qLBb1QAJGGM

I have two of these and they work great. I got them at Amazon if they fit your budget.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M0BIPYC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apap_izTAHn7IhYvRl

Here's an important piece of kit to keep in mind:

ICY DOCK 6 x 2.5" SATA /SAS HDD/SSD Hot Swap Mobile Rack / Cage in 1 x 5.25" Drive Bay $54.99

Might be this - https://www.amazon.com/ICY-DOCK-Mobile-Comparable-Tray-less/dp/B01M0BIPYC

I got a cheap iStarUSA 2u case with 2x 5.25" bays and tossed in one of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M0BIPYC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This specific setup is somewhat limited in that I can only use 2.5" drives, but that is fine for my use case.

SSDs produce very little heat so you can pack them incredibly tightly, and games benefit greatly from the speed. If I were you, I'd focus on SSD density, and use something like this.

https://www.amazon.com/ICY-DOCK-Mobile-Comparable-Tray-less/dp/B01M0BIPYC