// the find
geerlingguy/mini-rack
Miniature rack builds, for portable or compact Homelabs.
This isn't a codebase — it's a single sprawling README (backed by a Jekyll site) that catalogs hardware for 10-inch 'mini rack' homelab builds: racks, PDUs, UPSes, switches, patch panels, shelves, and 3D-printable mounts. Maintained by Jeff Geerling, it's aimed at homelabbers and hardware tinkerers trying to figure out what actually fits and works in a half-width rack, not at anyone looking for software.
The hardware data is specific and useful — exact port counts, U-heights, and mounting caveats (e.g. 'slightly too wide, may need modified mounting') across dozens of vendors, which is genuinely hard to find aggregated elsewhere. The GitHub Issues workflow ('help me find', 'build showcase') turns the repo into a living directory instead of a list that goes stale the day it's published. It also states an actual mechanical spec (236.525mm hole spacing, 44.45mm U height, ~210mm usable width) with a linked discussion thread, which is a real reference point for anyone 3D-printing or laser-cutting their own rack gear.
Everything lives in one giant markdown table with no backing data file (no JSON/YAML/CSV), so there's no way to filter by price, region, or availability without reading the whole page — it doesn't scale as a dataset. The maintainer openly admits a US-market bias driven by affiliate links, so UK/EU buyers (who show up heavily in the linked Reddit discussions) are underserved despite being a large chunk of the audience. Entries have no last-verified date, and Amazon/vendor links rot or go out of stock with no visible indication of which rows are still accurate. Vetted picks (things Geerling has actually tested) and pure community submissions (random 3D-print files, DIY builds) sit in the same tables with no way to tell them apart in reliability.