1.5TB Optane SSD. Now I get to figure out U.2 & how to mount it in my case that has-5 drive mounts currently free.

I’ve bought 2 Supermicro H11SSL-i’s off eBay from China (different sellers) and both have been legit.

I would say the Unifi Dream Router, but it is currently out of stock on their US site.

Does overspeccing your hardware so much performance issues never come up count?

For normal people grafana & prometheus are typical good answers.

Good option but it costs more than $150

Parents house with a few really important things in the cloud (backblaze).

When going between SFP+ vs RJ45 10GbE switches it is mostly compared to if you already have cables ran.

The RJ45 ones cost a lot more, but they let you use preexisting ethernet cables like you have which can save a bunch of money from running new cables & the time of running said new cables.

If you were to get a SFP+ switch & get a bunch of adapters that gets much more expensive than getting a RJ45 switch (Those adapters also run HOT). The benefit is that fiber can go much farther (not needed in a home really though) & you can use DAC’s which compared with the lower switch & NIC price can be much cheaper.

If your leaning towards the MikroTik switch it is a good switch, though its nothing too fancy. It would also let you use a couple DAC cables to connect to a few boxes if you have one next to where the switch will go.

Best solution is hide (by putting a bookcase or something in front of it) or relocate the cable exits the wall to be somewhere better. Otherwise just make sure that they can’t pull down the other side and that your cable is able to be bent at any radius. Those corning indestructible glass cables are great for that. The hope would be to make it so they don’t have access to where the cable is though.

Also those kid proof outlets tend to just be power outlets that help prevent crap from being pushed inside them.