Linksys router-themed – A homelab builder turned a cluster of Raspberry Pis and mini PCs into a Talos-and-Kubernetes setup—and dressed the whole rig in hacked Linksys router cases for an early-2000s look.
When you’ve finished wiring up a homelab, the hard part is usually making it behave. This builder’s decision came earlier: wrap the whole setup in something nostalgic.
The rig at the center of the project—documented by Justin Garrison—uses a familiar mix of devices. but builds its “rack” out of old hardware cases. Inside the Linksys-themed shell, there are two Raspberry Pi 5s and two Raspberry Pi 4s. There’s also a GMKtec NucBox M6 Mini paired with an ASUS GeForce RT 2060 GPU. along with a LattePanda IOTA. an NVidia DGX Spark. and an HP Z4 G4 mini PC. All of it is connected through a TP-Link LS108GB PoE switch.
For control-plane duties, the mini PC runs the core components. The broader cluster runs Talos and Kubernetes workloads across the rest of the machines.
What makes the build stand out isn’t only the computing mix—it’s the casing. Garrison hacked the hardware to fit into a bunch of old Linksys router cases. giving the entire system a deliberately early 2000s aesthetic. The attention doesn’t stop at looks, either. He also added hackery to get status LEDs flickering as they should be. and made the power buttons accessible so the rig is usable without feeling like a science project you can’t touch.
In the end, this is less a “how to make it run” story than a reminder that homelabs can be personal. If you want to show up with either max performance or max style, this one clearly chose style—then backed it with Talos and Kubernetes running on a small collection of serious machines.
homelab Linksys router cases Talos Kubernetes Raspberry Pi 5 Raspberry Pi 4 TP-Link LS108GB PoE switch GMKtec NucBox M6 ASUS GeForce RT 2060 LattePanda IOTA NVidia DGX Spark HP Z4 G4 mini PC
So basically he hacked Linksys boxes to make Kubernetes? I don’t get why the casing matters lol.
Early 2000s aesthetic seems like a waste of time. If it’s for Kubernetes, why not just use normal racks? Also those power buttons sound dangerous.
Homelab hack puts Talos and Kubernetes in Linksys boxes… wait, isn’t Talos the robot? Like the movie guy? So he trapped robots in old routers? Wild. I feel like nobody uses Linksys anymore though.
I saw “flickering status LEDs” and that’s literally the whole vibe I’m here for. But also, it’s got like 6 different weird mini PCs and a DGX Spark?? How does it not explode. And the PoE switch being TP-Link… so is it powered over Ethernet or are those cases just for looks. Either way I respect it, even if I have no idea what half those parts do.