Homelab mini PC

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arnies

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#320366 5-Aug-2025 16:16

Looking to buy a little mini PC type formfactor for a homelab. (Plex, Homeassistant, Proxmox etx). I'd like to go Intel for quicksync transcoding. I probably don't need anything too powerful, but im weary of having to upgrade in 2 years so looking for the sweetspot of price/performance.

Brands I've been lookig into:

ASUS NUC - Can order locally so support if things break, but expensive for what you get
GMKtec - Cheap, but importing & I've seen complaints about cooling
Mininsforum - Respected brand, hard(er) to buy online & ship to NZ.

I think i'd like to run 32GB RAM to give me some headroom.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

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meow
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#3400163 5-Aug-2025 16:17

The Minisforum is super easy (and free - from their official website) to ship to NZ.

I'm rocking a MS-01 running Proxmox and have their NAS coming soon - it's amazing. Really recommend it.

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#3400165 5-Aug-2025 16:30

I have two GMKTec boxes - G3 with the N100 CPU. I have one dedicated for Home Assistant and this has 8GB RAM, currently showing only 1.7GB used. The other is for Plex and a few little Docker containers - this one has 16GB RAM. I can't recommend these enough - super happy with them and haven't noticed any cooling issues, although it's not something I monitor.

You can get the newer model with the N150 CPU shipped to NZ for under $250.

Handle9

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#3400205 5-Aug-2025 18:57

I'm very happy with my Minisforum MS-01. Low idle power, all the conenctivity you could want and has a ton of capability.

It could be overkill for a basic homelab but it's a buy once, cry once sort of thing for me. I'm planning on changing my storage server to something much lower power in the next 12 months as I don't need the compute it has now.

SpartanVXL

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#3400269 6-Aug-2025 09:06

Anybody know of Geekom mini pc’s?

arnies

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#3400566 7-Aug-2025 09:25

michaelmurfy:

The Minisforum is super easy (and free - from their official website) to ship to NZ.

I'm rocking a MS-01 running Proxmox and have their NAS coming soon - it's amazing. Really recommend it.

Interesting you mention NAS, because I need to address my storage too.
I'm looking for somewhere to backup our family photos, documents as well as Plex media. Am I better off running a seperate NAS? Synology NAS's are v expensive and I'm not sure i need their custom software. Would something like this be suitable https://www.bee-link.com/products/beelink-me-mini-n150?variant=47599172878578 (higher cost for NVME drives noted)

SirHumphreyAppleby

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#3400574 7-Aug-2025 09:50

I have just ordered a barebones "GMKTec G3 Plus" from AliExpress with the N150. I wouldn't expect any cooling issues with those low power SoCs, but our NUCs with i5 CPUs certainly get hot.

I currently run two N100 boxes. One is a router, but since we've moved away from PPPoE, it's now somewhat over-powered for the job. The other runs a few virtual machines in BHyVe and at most I feel very slightly warm air being pushed out by the fan.

The N1x0 should be fast enough for a basic homelab (a few lightweight VMs), but they only officially support 16GB RAM.

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noroad

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#3400579 7-Aug-2025 10:06

arnies:

Looking to buy a little mini PC type formfactor for a homelab. (Plex, Homeassistant, Proxmox etx). I'd like to go Intel for quicksync transcoding. I probably don't need anything too powerful, but im weary of having to upgrade in 2 years so looking for the sweetspot of price/performance.

Brands I've been lookig into:

ASUS NUC - Can order locally so support if things break, but expensive for what you get
GMKtec - Cheap, but importing & I've seen complaints about cooling
Mininsforum - Respected brand, hard(er) to buy online & ship to NZ.
I think i'd like to run 32GB RAM to give me some headroom.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

I like these https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006427348753.html (N100 or N150)

Put your own memory (Ali is fine) and a locally bought decent SSD in and you have a totally silent machine that you can mount on a wall with lots of 2.5G Ethernet ports. They can easily run several Linux vm's and a couple of Windows ones at the same time without any issues. I've also had older versions running for several years and they just keep going.

michaelmurfy

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#3400584 7-Aug-2025 10:13

arnies: Would something like this be suitable https://www.bee-link.com/products/beelink-me-mini-n150?variant=47599172878578 (higher cost for NVME drives noted)

A few people here have recommended the N100/150 type CPU's now but IMHO, if you're going for a homelab then get something a bit more powerful.

There is this NAS: https://aoostar.com/products/aoostar-wtr-max-amd-r7-pro-8845hs-11-bays-mini-pc?variant=50067345932586 that'll run Plex etc totally fine and can run UnRaid / Proxmox or anything you wanted to chuck on it.

But the Minisforum MS-01 is a solid contender if you wanted both Intel for Quicksync along with a powerful platform. It has 3x NVMe slots so you can whack a fair chunk of storage in it.

noroad

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#3400585 7-Aug-2025 10:13

noroad:

I like these https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006427348753.html (N100 or N150)

Put your own memory (Ali is fine) and a locally bought decent SSD in and you have a totally silent machine that you can mount on a wall with lots of 2.5G Ethernet ports. They can easily run several Linux vm's and a couple of Windows ones at the same time without any issues. I've also had older versions running for several years and they just keep going.

If you use these the trick is to buy the mounting bracket and vertically mount them to ensure natural airflow, yes they can get warm but this does not affect operation and the advantage of being totally silent is pretty obvious in a home lab situation.

SirHumphreyAppleby

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#3400586 7-Aug-2025 10:14

noroad:

Put your own memory (Ali is fine) and a locally bought decent SSD in and you have a totally silent machine that you can mount on a wall with lots of 2.5G Ethernet ports.

I would buy the memory locally as well. The reason I have a N100 router is the cheap RAM that came with my N4200 router failed, causing system crashes. The problem occurred after three years, but that's not to say there weren't unnoticed issues with the module before then. System works 100% again after a RAM swap.

noroad

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#3400588 7-Aug-2025 10:33

SirHumphreyAppleby:

I would buy the memory locally as well. The reason I have a N100 router is the cheap RAM that came with my N4200 router failed, causing system crashes. The problem occurred after three years, but that's not to say there weren't unnoticed issues with the module before then. System works 100% again after a RAM swap.

That's entirely reasonable. I would definitely never use Ali sourced SSD.

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arnies

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#3400610 7-Aug-2025 11:40

michaelmurfy:

arnies: Would something like this be suitable https://www.bee-link.com/products/beelink-me-mini-n150?variant=47599172878578 (higher cost for NVME drives noted)

A few people here have recommended the N100/150 type CPU's now but IMHO, if you're going for a homelab then get something a bit more powerful.

There is this NAS: https://aoostar.com/products/aoostar-wtr-max-amd-r7-pro-8845hs-11-bays-mini-pc?variant=50067345932586 that'll run Plex etc totally fine and can run UnRaid / Proxmox or anything you wanted to chuck on it.

But the Minisforum MS-01 is a solid contender if you wanted both Intel for Quicksync along with a powerful platform. It has 3x NVMe slots so you can whack a fair chunk of storage in it.

Would you then run Truenas under Proxmox or similar to keep the seperation between the NAS & VMs?

Ideally i could find something like the Beelink above that takes 3.5" drives and then i'd buy a seperate box for the homelab stuff, but I can't seem to find a good option. Edit: Actually this looks good, if it were in stock https://aoostar.com/products/aoostar-wtr-pro-intel-n150-4-bays-nas-mini-pc?variant=50145480802602

allio

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#3401031 8-Aug-2025 13:31

I have a GMKTec K6, which is one of the ones subject to the complaints about cooling (8 core Ryzen, it has no fan for the SSD or RAM). I use it for retro gaming rather than homelab purposes (would go Intel in that case for Quicksync). Absolutely no complaints, it's been rock solid.

arnies

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#3401295 9-Aug-2025 15:55

Handle9:

I'm very happy with my Minisforum MS-01. Low idle power, all the conenctivity you could want and has a ton of capability.

It could be overkill for a basic homelab but it's a buy once, cry once sort of thing for me. I'm planning on changing my storage server to something much lower power in the next 12 months as I don't need the compute it has now.

From what I've read its 25W+ at idle, is that right? Would prefer lower if possible but is not a deal breaker.

Is there any reason why I can't order the 'US' version and just buy another power cord? It's a couple hundred $ cheaper than the Au version

michaelmurfy

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#3401299 9-Aug-2025 16:38

arnies: Is there any reason why I can't order the 'US' version and just buy another power cord? It's a couple hundred $ cheaper than the Au version

Not at all. This is what I did.

The power cable to replace is just a standard IEC cable.

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