Learn
Build and provision your own Matchbox
A complete walkthrough of building, provisioning, and using OurBox Matchbox - the small form factor personal server you can truly own.
Direct MP4: Build and provision your own Matchbox
About Matchbox
Matchbox is a small-form-factor OurBox build centered on the Raspberry Pi 5. The point is not novelty. The point is to make a compact, always-on personal server that fits into ordinary life while still being inspectable, maintainable, and fully yours.
Small form factor
Built around a Raspberry Pi 5, Matchbox is compact enough to live quietly in a home while still providing real computing power.
Privacy-first
No app stores, no proprietary relay services, no ad-tech business models. The system is meant to keep your data under your roof and under your control.
Dual NVMe storage
Two separate M.2 NVMe SSDs keep the system legible: one drive for the OS, another for user data. That separation makes it easier to update or replace the system without disturbing the files that matter.
Self-hosted
Matchbox is for running useful services on hardware you own. Tasks, photos, messaging, and web services do not need to live in somebody else’s cloud.
What you will see in this walkthrough
Construction
Step-by-step assembly of the Matchbox hardware, from loose components to a working appliance.
Provisioning
Installing and configuring the system, setting up storage, networking, and the basic service footprint.
Practical use
A demonstration of what it looks like to run privacy-respecting services from hardware you control at home.
Design choices
The walkthrough explains the tradeoffs behind the hardware decisions, the form factor, and the thermal constraints.
Real-world constraints
Power requirements, storage topology, network setup, and what it takes to keep the box running continuously all matter.
Troubleshooting
The walkthrough also covers common failure modes, debugging approaches, and how to verify that the system is behaving correctly.
Follow the technical record
The public site keeps the walkthrough readable. The living technical record, bill of materials, and hardware notes stay in the repository where changes are versioned.