Run Proxmox, Docker and dozens of self-hosted services 24/7 for a few watts. Idle power, RAM capacity, Intel NICs and reliable 24/7 thermals matter more than peak benchmark scores.
A homelab idles most of the day. Every 10 W of idle draw is ~88 kWh per year. N100 nodes idle at ~6 W; Panther Lake and Ryzen HX boxes stay under ~10 W while offering far more headroom.
VMs and containers run out of memory long before CPU. N100 tops out at a single 16–32 GB stick; Ryzen and Core Ultra boxes take 64–128 GB across two slots.
Intel i226-V 2.5GbE is the safe choice for Proxmox and OPNsense. Realtek works on modern kernels but has historically needed extra drivers on some distributions.
Three cheap nodes give you a Proxmox cluster with live migration and HA; a single powerful box is simpler and often more efficient. Decide which you want before buying.
~6 W idle, Quick Sync, and enough for Pi-hole, Home Assistant and 20+ lightweight containers. Cheap enough to buy three for a cluster.
| Graphics (iGPU) | Intel UHD (24 EU) |
| Memory Architecture | 1x DDR4/DDR5 SODIMM (Up to 32GB) |
| Storage Exp. | 1x M.2 NVMe + 1x 2.5" SATA |
| Idle Power | 5W – 8W |
| Est. Barebone Cost | $120 - $180 |
OPNsense Firewall, Pi-hole, Plex DirectPlay, lightweight Proxmox cluster nodes.
Eight E-cores, quad 2.5GbE and multiple NVMe slots — a homelab node that doubles as a NAS or router.
| Graphics (iGPU) | Intel UHD 32 EU |
| Memory Architecture | 1x SODIMM DDR5 4800MHz |
| Storage Exp. | Up to 4x M.2 NVMe + 2x SATA |
| Idle Power | 9W – 15W |
| Est. Barebone Cost | $220 - $310 |
High-bandwidth TrueNAS SCALE box, multi-tenant router, localized NVR security server.
Eight full Zen 3+ cores and 64 GB DDR5 support at a modest price — plenty for Windows VMs and heavy Docker stacks.
| Graphics (iGPU) | Radeon 680M (RDNA 2) |
| Memory Architecture | Dual-Channel DDR5 (Up to 64GB) |
| Storage Exp. | 2x M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 NVMe |
| Idle Power | 10W – 14W |
| Est. Barebone Cost | $310 - $420 |
Heavy 4K multi-monitor productivity, software compilation, medium Docker stacks.
16 cores at 5–10 W idle with excellent Quick Sync for a combined Proxmox and media host — use a recent kernel.
| Graphics (iGPU) | Intel Arc B390 (12 Xe3-cores) |
| Memory Architecture | LPDDR5X-9600 soldered (X-series) or DDR5-7200 SODIMM |
| Storage Exp. | 2x M.2 PCIe 4.0 / 5.0 (chassis dependent) |
| Idle Power | 5W – 10W |
| Est. Barebone Cost | $850 - $1,600 |
Quick Sync media servers and editing, efficient always-on workstations, 1080p gaming on the iGPU, on-device AI with OpenVINO.
| CPU | 4+ cores with VT-x / AMD-V and VT-d / IOMMU |
| Memory | 16 GB entry; 32–64 GB for several VMs |
| Network | 2.5GbE, ideally Intel i226-V; dual NIC for a router VM |
| Storage | 2x M.2 for a ZFS mirror, or M.2 + SATA |
| Power | Under 15 W idle at the wall |
| Graphics | Intel UHD Graphics (24 EU) |
| Memory | 16GB LPDDR5-4800 soldered (12GB option) |
| Storage | 6x M.2 2230/2242/2280 (1x PCIe 3.0 x4 + 5x PCIe 3.0 x1), Up to 24TB |
| Idle Power | 6W – 7W (no drives) · ~17W with six SSDs |
| Price | $525 (N150/16GB/1TB) |
Intel N100 / N305 Micro Node
| Graphics | AMD Radeon 680M (12 CUs, RDNA 2, up to 2.2 GHz) |
| Memory | 32GB LPDDR5-6400 soldered (not upgradeable) |
| Storage | 1x M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 + 2x M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 (Up to 16TB) |
| Idle Power | Not published |
| Price | $619.99 (32GB/512GB) · $659.99 (32GB/1TB) |
Ryzen 7 7735HS / 5800H Mini
| Graphics | Intel Arc B390 (12 Xe cores, 2.5 GHz, 122 TOPS INT8) |
| Memory | LPDDR5X-8533 onboard (64GB) |
| Storage | 2x M.2 2280 (PCIe 5.0 x4 + PCIe 4.0 x1, up to 8TB each) |
| Idle Power | Not published |
| Price | $2,399.99 (64GB/1TB) |
Intel Panther Lake Core Ultra X9 388H / X7 358H