Thanks for the advice ! <| sep |> Ahh , got it . <| sep |> Nice try with the scribbling , I KNOW IT ' S YOU , JOHN <| sep |> 1 My electric bill was about $ 180 last billing cycle , and that was with an $ 80 bill credit . I consumed about 2700 kWhs . My rack when fully operational , draws about 17001800 kW , and comes out to about $ 120 month for the rack . Add another 500 w for supplemental air conditioning . The weather in North Texas has been mild lately , so the home HVAC is off and the datacenter is cooled by a fan in the open window . 1 b My fiance is in IT as a profession and helped motivate me to build the setup into what it is . He uses it for experimentation and testing for certification learning . 2 I am currently on a crappy ATT Uverse 24 down 3 up DSL line . That is the absolute best service offered in my area . Surrounding towns have gigabit fiber to the home , but we don ' t . The servers use hardly any data . The biggest chunk would be downloading new ISOs , or running Windows update across 20 machines . 3 VM has a few options , VMWare offers free software , ESXi can be had for free , and Microsoft has a HyperV server that doesn ' t cost anything . Any of those options allow you to run Linux or Windows as guest operating systems . 4 My job is not IT related , except that I use a computer all day . I work in ecommerce . Servers and networking is a hobby I ' ve had since I was about 14 . 5 The network being operational or not isn ' t really an issue . At least not until movie time , then I want access to my NAS . 6 I like being the owner and admin of my network . And it ' s not too much for me to handle , so I ' d keep doing it .