Hardware testbeds play a crucial rolerole in evaluating the energy consumption and performance of distributed systems. In this paper, we present a multi-functional testbed for distributed systems that is easily accessible, operable, and configurable. We describe the design, implementation, and orchestration of the testbed that consists of off-the-shelf devices with varying specifications, energy consumption, and network connectivity. Additionally, we provide all technical information in an open- source GitLab repository. Using the presented testbed, we evaluate in a specific test scenario the download time and energy consumption of a distributed caching system that operates using the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) and the Multi Access Recoding System (MARS), an addition to IPFS using network coding. Our results show that an increase in the number of nodes in the network can significantly reduce download time for the user by 57%, while MARS is 10% faster than IPFS with less than 8 peers. The number of transmitting nodes does not affect the energy the user requires for the download process. Also, every node in the network requires less energy when more nodes are available. However, the overall energy required for the network rises significantly by 400 %. Such network-wide observations are difficult to obtain in simulations or emulations, emphasizing the importance of using real testbeds to evaluate distributed systems.