Looking for Advice on Optimizing & Cleaning Up a Growing Home Network / Homelab I’m looking for suggestions, critiques, or architectural advice on how to better organize, optimize, and fully utilize the equipment I already own. Over time I’ve accumulated a bit of a hodgepodge, and while everything works, it’s messy, overlapping in places, and not as well-structured as it could be. My primary goals are: Fully utilize existing hardware (especially servers and GPUs) Build an easy-to-use, multi-user photo & video storage/management system (wife-approved UX) Centralize *Plex + arr suite Add automatic backups on top of primary storage Create a cleaner, better-managed cluster, focusing improvements on core infrastructure rather than edge devices Improve organization, reliability, and future expandability (rack, UPS, wiring) Convenience matters — some choices (like mesh vs wired APs) are intentional. Current Network Overview ISP / Routing Modem: Netgear Nighthawk CM3000 (DOCSIS 3.1) Router: TP-Link Archer BE800 (Wi-Fi 7) This is the only router in the network Handles routing, NAT, DHCP, and main Wi-Fi Wireless Access Point: TP-Link Archer BE550 Used strictly as a wired backhaul AP, not routing Located near gaming/editing PCs Mesh Extenders (used intentionally instead of wired APs for convenience): Netgear EAX12 (Wi-Fi 6) Netgear Nighthawk EX7500 (Tri-band) All extenders operate as mesh/repeaters, not routers IoT devices (Google Nest cameras, speakers, smart lights) are on a separate IoT SSID No VLANs yet, open to changing this Switching 2× 8-port 2.5Gb unmanaged switches 1× 8-port 1Gb unmanaged switch Compute, Storage & Services Network Services Raspberry Pi 4 Pi-hole (DNS) WireGuard (remote access) NAS Devices TNAS1 – Terramaster F2-223 Celeron 4505 32GB DDR4 Storage: 2×12TB HDD 2×1TB NVMe Dual 2.5Gb Ethernet Current role: Photo, video, document storage Backup target Proxmox ISO storage Planned future role: Likely video storage target for PoE cameras TNAS2 – Terramaster F4-423 Celeron N5105 32GB DDR4 Storage: 4×12TB HDD 2×1TB NVMe Dual 2.5Gb Ethernet Current role: Main backup target for personal storage Proxmox Host (Current) i9-10900 64GB DDR4 Storage: 8×12TB HDD 2×2TB NVMe GPU: RTX 3060 Ti Current VMs: TrueNAS VM ~½ of HDDs passed through 6 QEMU cores, 20GB RAM Backs up other systems Feels sluggish for read/write Windows VM One disk passed through Acts as a Steam/app update cache machine 4–6 cores, 16GB RAM Linux VM Planned Pi-hole redundancy Linux VM Plex server using remaining HDD space End-User Systems Main workstation area (wife + me): Gaming + CAD (SolidWorks, SketchUp) Content creation (DaVinci Resolve, Lightroom, Blender) Living room PC (near network core): i9-10900K 64GB RAM RTX 3090 Planned future role: Local LLM / AI inference box Laptop near 3D printers Blender, Cura, slicing K2 Max + Ender 3 V2 (Klipper via Sonic Pad) Ender located in garage New Hardware to Integrate Lenovo ThinkStation P920 Dual Intel Xeon Platinum 8160 256GB RAM 1TB NVMe Quadro P4000 Planned Changes / Ideas Physical & Power Add a rack (something similar to a StarTech / Amazon 12–15U) Clean up cabling (everything currently lives behind a TV wall) Add UPS units for networking + servers Storage & Media Convert current Proxmox box to TrueNAS on bare metal Current VM setup feels slow Consolidate Plex directly on NAS Use GPU meaningfully (transcoding, compute, etc.) Centralize: Plex *arr suite Family media sharing Photos & Videos (Major Goal) Move away from Google Photos Current TNAS phone backups work but are not user-friendly Want: Shared + separate libraries (me, wife, future kids, parents) Automatic phone uploads Browsing, albums, search, timeline Wife-approved UX Cameras Eventually replace Google Nest cameras with PoE cameras Local recording instead of cloud subscriptions Likely store footage on TNAS1 Networking & Security Considering OPNsense / pfSense Open to: VLAN segmentation (LAN / IoT / Servers / Cameras) Moving routing/firewall duties off BE800 if justified What I’m Looking for Advice On How would you reorganize or reassign roles across this hardware to better utilize it? Best architecture for photo/video management that rivals Google Photos UX TrueNAS bare metal vs Proxmox strategy Best use for the P920 + P4000 Other useful services I could reasonably add with this compute Whether introducing OPNsense/pfSense is worth it in this setup Any obvious inefficiencies, overlap, or “why are you doing that?” moments I’m very open to re-architecting core infrastructure, less so edge convenience decisions (mesh vs wired APs unless there’s a compelling reason). Thanks in advance — I’m looking to turn this from “it works” into something well-designed and future-proof.

┌───────────────┐ │ ISP │ └───────┬───────┘ │ ┌───────▼───────┐ │ Cable Modem │ │ Netgear CM3000│ └───────┬───────┘ 10Gb │ ┌───────▼─────────────────────────────┐ │ TP-Link Archer BE800 │ │ ROUTER │ │ - NAT / DHCP / Main Wi-Fi │ │ - IoT SSID │ └───────┬──────────┬─────────┬─────────┘ 10Gb │2.5Gb │2.5Gb │2.5Gb │ │ │ │ ┌───────────────────────┘ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ┌───────▼────────┐ ┌───────▼───┐ ┌──▼────────┐ ┌──────────▼─────────┐ │ TP-Link BE550 │ │ Raspberry │ │ 2.5Gb │ │ Proxmox Host │ │ ACCESS POINT │ │ Pi 4 │ │ Switch │ │ i9-10900 / 3060 Ti │ │ (10Gb uplink) │ │ Pi-hole + │ │ (Unmanaged│ │ (2.5Gb NIC) │ │ │ │ WireGuard│ │ ) │ └────────────────────┘ │ │ └──────────┘ └─────┬──────┘ │ │ │ │ │ │2.5Gb │ │ │ │ ┌────────────▼────────────┐ ┌────────────▼────────────┐ │ │ Main Wi-Fi / Mesh Node │ │ Wired Devices on 2.5G │ │ │ (Rear of House) │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ┌──────────────────┐ │ │ │ - Wife’s PC (Wi-Fi) │ │ │ TNAS1 F2-223 │◄─┤ │ │ - Your PC (Wi-Fi) │ │ │ (2×2.5Gb LACP) │ │ │ │ - Phones / Tablets │ │ └──────────────────┘ │ │ │ - Smart TVs (rear) │ │ ┌──────────────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ │ TNAS2 F4-423 │◄─┤ │ │ Acts as Mesh Backhaul │ │ │ (2×2.5Gb LACP) │ │ │ │ for rest of house │ │ └──────────────────┘ │ │ └────────────┬─────────────┘ │ - Nearby PC │ │ │ │ - Smart TV │ │ │ └─────────────────────────┘ │ │ │ ┌───────▼──────────┐ │ │ Mesh Extender #1 │ │ │ (Garage) │ │ │ Netgear EAX12 │ │ │ │ │ │ IoT Mesh Focus: │ │ │ - Garage Cameras │ │ │ - Smart Lights │ │ │ - Ender 3 V2 │ │ │ (Klipper) │ │ └──────────────────┘ │ │ ┌──────────────────┐ │ │ Mesh Extender #2 │ │ │ (Living Room / │ │ │ Office) │ │ │ Netgear EX7500 │ │ │ │ │ │ Meshes main Wi-Fi│ │ │ + IoT bands │ │ │ │ │ │ Ethernet Out │ │ └───────┬──────────┘ │ │1Gb │ ┌───────▼──────────┐ │ │ 1Gb Switch │ │ │ (Unmanaged) │ │ └───────┬──────────┘ │ │ │ ┌───────▼──────────┐ │ │ Laptop │ │ │ (Blender / Cura) │ │ ├──────────────────┤ │ │ K2 Max 3D Printer│ │ └──────────────────┘