Best Mini PC for Proxmox (2026): 9 Homelab Hosts Ranked

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Picking the best mini PC for Proxmox is a topology problem before it is a performance problem. A hypervisor host that runs 24/7 earns its keep on four things: how much RAM the board will actually accept, how many physical NICs it exposes and on which controller silicon, how many NVMe slots you can mirror, and how many watts it draws at the wall doing nothing at all. Our mini PC testing hub covers the hardware side of that in depth — this guide applies it specifically to Proxmox, where IOMMU grouping, passthrough behaviour and BIOS maturity decide whether a machine is pleasant to live with or a weekend project.

Most "best mini PC" roundups rank CPU benchmarks. That is the wrong axis for a hypervisor. The Ryzen 7 8845HS and Ryzen 9 8945HS are Zen 4 parts with eight cores, sixteen threads and a Radeon 780M — not Zen 5, despite what several comparison articles claim. A 12-core Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 will out-benchmark both, and then spend most of its NPU and iGPU silicon idle because Proxmox has nothing to feed them. Meanwhile a four-core N150 with 16 GB of RAM will fall over the moment you add a second Windows VM and a ZFS pool. RAM and network topology bind long before core count does.

What follows is nine machines ranked for Proxmox duty, from a low-power N150 node you can leave running in a cupboard to a workstation-class box with dual 10GbE, three NVMe positions and a real PCIe slot. Each entry covers the numbers that matter for a hypervisor host — memory ceiling, NIC controllers and count, storage positions, measured idle watts, passthrough reality — and not the numbers that only look good in a benchmark chart.

This guide is for anyone consolidating a virtual firewall, a Jellyfin or Plex container, Home Assistant and a couple of general-purpose VMs onto one small box, and for anyone building a two- or three-node cluster without buying a rack. If you need six hot-swap SATA bays, a native 1U chassis or guaranteed GPU passthrough to a Windows VM, none of these nine will give you that, and the sections below say exactly where each one stops.

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Quick Picks

What Makes a Great Proxmox Mini PC?

Memory ceiling binds before CPU does

A four-core N150 will happily run Home Assistant, AdGuard, a reverse proxy and a dozen lightweight LXC containers. What stops it is the memory ceiling. The Beelink EQ14 takes one DDR4-3200 SO-DIMM and is officially rated to 16 GB, which is a hard wall the moment you add a Windows VM, a database or a ZFS pool that wants an ARC. The GMKtec G3 Plus uses the same processor family but is specified to 32 GB — double the ceiling on identical silicon. Above that, the Ryzen platforms take two SO-DIMMs and reach 64 GB, 96 GB or 128 GB depending on the board.

Populate both channels. A single 32 GB module in a dual-slot Ryzen system leaves the Radeon 780M and 890M sharing a fraction of their available memory bandwidth, and it is one of the most common reasons an integrated GPU underperforms against reviews. Matched 2 × 16 GB or 2 × 32 GB DDR5-5600 SO-DIMM kits are the configuration to buy.

NIC count and controller silicon

Two physical NICs change what a Proxmox host can be. With one port, a virtualised OPNsense or pfSense deployment depends on a VLAN trunk, a managed switch and a bridge configuration that must be correct on every boot. With two, WAN and LAN are physically separate and recovery is straightforward.

The controller matters as much as the count. Intel I226-V 2.5GbE appears across most of this shortlist and is recognised by current Proxmox installs without driver work. Realtek RTL8111H Gigabit does the job for a lightweight management interface, but it is not what you want carrying your firewall traffic if you can help it. Be careful with model names: the Beelink EQ14 exists with either dual Realtek Gigabit or dual Intel I226-V 2.5GbE, and "EQ14 N150" alone does not identify the network topology. Verify the SKU.

NVMe positions and mirroring

Two M.2 slots let you mirror the boot and VM datastore — not a substitute for external backups, but enough to survive a single drive failure without a rebuild. One slot means a single point of failure for every VM on the host. The MS-01 goes further with three positions wired at PCIe 4.0 ×4, PCIe 3.0 ×4 and PCIe 3.0 ×2; put the demanding workload on the first slot, because the link width is not shared equally.

Idle watts at the wall, not CPU TDP

The N150 carries a 6 W processor base power rating. Complete systems built around it measure roughly 8–12 W at the wall when idle. Computed over three years, a constant 10 W difference between two hosts is about 262.8 kWh — and 15 W is roughly 394.2 kWh. That does not make an efficient machine automatically the right buy, but it does mean a host that idles 15 W higher than a competitor costs real money across the life of the deployment, and the comparison should be made with a meter rather than a spec sheet.

Idle figures are only comparable when the protocol matches. Number of SSDs, active NICs, SFP+ modules, Wi-Fi state, ASPM, C-states, CPU governor and running VMs all move the number. Treat any published idle figure — including ours — as valid for its stated configuration only.

IOMMU groups and firmware

Proxmox PCIe passthrough depends on IOMMU being exposed by the firmware: Intel VT-d or AMD-Vi. A processor advertising virtualisation does not guarantee that a given device sits in a clean, isolable IOMMU group. That depends on the board, the BIOS revision and the kernel. If you are planning to pass a NIC, an HBA or an OCuLink card through to a VM, inspect the IOMMU groups on the actual machine before committing — and record the BIOS version before you update it, because a firmware change can alter how devices are exposed.

Do not assume SR-IOV. Neither Intel Arc nor Radeon integrated graphics should be treated as offering reliable SR-IOV under Proxmox on consumer mini PCs. Intel VT-d or AMD-Vi support is not the same thing, and Proxmox documents SR-IOV as a distinct mechanism from ordinary PCIe passthrough.

Sharing the iGPU with a container versus passing it to a VM

These are two different operations and conflating them causes most of the frustration.

Sharing means mapping a DRM render node — /dev/dri/renderD128 — into an unprivileged Linux container so Jellyfin or Plex can use Intel Quick Sync or AMD VA-API for hardware transcoding. The iGPU stays available to the host, and this path is well documented on current kernels. On N150 systems it needs a recent kernel; PVE 6.11 or newer has been the practical floor, and headless boots on some units need an HDMI dummy plug to initialise the display device.

Full passthrough means assigning the entire iGPU to a VM. The host loses that device. On the Radeon 780M, community reports on both the Beelink SER8 and the MINISFORUM UM890 Pro describe passthrough working on first boot and then failing after a VM shutdown or restart, with an AMD reset bug that requires rebooting the host. Treat that as a documented risk, not a universal failure — but do not buy one of these machines for GPU passthrough as the primary use case. If your goal is a media server, map the render node into a container and leave the iGPU where it is. Our Plex hardware transcoding breakdown covers what actually gets accelerated and what silently falls back to software.

Firmware lifecycle and Linux behaviour

A host you intend to forget about for three years depends on BIOS updates, security advisories and published support dates. Linux idle behaviour can also differ substantially from Windows on the same hardware: a Beelink SER8 was measured at 8–9 W under Ubuntu 24.04 where Windows configurations drew considerably more, because firmware, drivers and power states do most of the work. If you are deploying Ubuntu or Debian on top of Proxmox, our Ubuntu mini PC picks and setup guide walks through the driver and firmware details that matter.

#1 GMKtec NucBox K8 Plus — Best Overall for Proxmox

The K8 Plus is the machine on this list that solves the most Proxmox problems at once without any single glaring compromise. It pairs the Ryzen 7 8845HS — Zen 4, eight cores, sixteen threads — with two DDR5-5600 SO-DIMM slots specified to 96 GB, two PCIe 4.0 ×4 M.2 2280 slots, and two Intel I226-V 2.5GbE ports. That combination is what makes it the default recommendation: dual Intel NICs for a virtual firewall or a storage VLAN, dual NVMe for a mirrored datastore, and enough RAM headroom for a real consolidation workload rather than a demo.

Measured behaviour is reasonable for the class. One owner measurement put it around 10–11 W at the wall idle and roughly 90–95 W under heavy sustained load, with acoustics around 31–32 dB at idle and 37–39 dB under load. Sustained heavy load pushes the package toward 90–93 °C, which is normal at this power level and markedly hotter than any N150 box. This is not a silent cupboard appliance; it is a compact desktop-class host.

Virtualisation is well covered. AMD-V and AMD-IOMMU are available at the platform level, so a virtual firewall with a passed-through I226-V port is a realistic configuration. Two caveats worth stating plainly. First, validate the IOMMU groups on your own board and BIOS before buying an OCuLink PCIe card specifically to pass through — the OCuLink connection exposes a PCIe 4.0 ×4 link, but it is not a universal internal slot, and some revisions may share lanes with storage. Second, do not plan on the Radeon 780M being shared between several VMs simultaneously, and do not treat full 780M passthrough as a guaranteed feature; the reset behaviour described above applies to this silicon family.

The CPU is Zen 4, not Zen 5. That matters for expectations against the premium tier, but for Proxmox it is close to irrelevant — eight Zen 4 cores with 96 GB behind them will run a firewall, a media container, Home Assistant, a Windows VM and a couple of Linux guests without breaking a sweat.

Specs

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS, Zen 4, 8 cores / 16 threads, up to 5.1 GHz
• iGPU: Radeon 780M, RDNA 3, 12 compute units
• Memory: 2× DDR5-5600 SO-DIMM, 96 GB per the detailed spec sheet
• Storage: 2× M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 ×4
• Network: 2× Intel I226-V 2.5GbE
• Expansion: OCuLink PCIe 4.0 ×4, 2× USB4 40 Gbps, HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 2.1
• Wireless: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2
• Measured idle: ~10–11 W
• Measured load noise: ~37–39 dB

Pros

• Two Intel 2.5GbE controllers, not one
• Two PCIe 4.0 NVMe slots for a mirrored datastore
• 96 GB memory ceiling on a desktop-class chip
• OCuLink available if you later want external storage or an accelerator

Cons

• Runs hot under sustained load compared with N-series nodes
• OCuLink lane topology needs validation before passthrough planning
• Higher idle draw than an N150 appliance

Verdict: The most complete Proxmox topology in the sub-workstation class — dual Intel NICs, dual NVMe and a 96 GB ceiling, with no single disqualifying weakness.

Perfect for: a one-box host running a virtual firewall, media containers and several general-purpose VMs.

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#2 MINISFORUM MS-01 S1390 — Best for PCIe Passthrough and 10GbE

Nothing else here has the MS-01's expansion topology. The S1390 variant carries a Core i9-13900H — 14 cores, 20 threads across six performance and eight efficiency cores — alongside two 10GbE SFP+ ports, two 2.5GbE RJ45 ports, three NVMe positions and a physical PCIe 4.0 ×16 slot wired to eight lanes. That combination is what makes it a virtualisation platform rather than a mini PC that happens to run VMs: a TrueNAS guest with an HBA passed through, a virtualised OPNsense on one of the SFP+ ports, a Ceph node on 10GbE storage, and still two RJ45 ports left for management.

The networking alone justifies the price gap for the right buyer. Three NVMe drives at differing link widths — PCIe 4.0 ×4, PCIe 3.0 ×4 and PCIe 3.0 ×2 — let you separate boot, VM storage and scratch, and Minisforum documents U.2 support up to 24 TB in some combinations. The PCIe slot accepts half-height cards, and vPro Enterprise is available on this SKU for out-of-band management.

The trade-offs are heat, noise and power. Idle consumption ranges from roughly 14–18 W on a lightly equipped, well-tuned unit to 25–30 W with more NICs, storage and add-in cards installed. Measured against an EQ14 idling around 10 W, that is a permanent consumption difference of roughly 262.8 kWh over three years at 10 W — worth deciding deliberately rather than discovering on a bill. Thermally, owners have improved temperatures and acoustics with a newer BIOS or with thermal paste and pad rework, while others run multiple units continuously without incident after setting power limits. Anecdotes here cut both ways and should not be read as a failure rate.

Two practical notes. The chassis is roughly 196 × 189 × 48 mm tall, which exceeds the 44.45 mm of a 1U slot — plan on a 2U tray or shelf. And iGPU passthrough is far less clearly documented on this platform than NIC or HBA passthrough; build the deployment around the PCIe slot and the NICs, not around handing Iris Xe to a guest. It ships as a barebone, so you choose the RAM and the server-grade SSDs, which is exactly what you want for a box intended to run for years.

Specs

• CPU: Intel Core i9-13900H, 14 cores / 20 threads (6P + 8E), up to 5.4 GHz
• iGPU: Intel Iris Xe (requires dual-channel memory)
• Memory: 2× DDR5-5200 SO-DIMM, up to 96 GB
• Storage: 3× NVMe — PCIe 4.0 ×4, PCIe 3.0 ×4, PCIe 3.0 ×2; U.2 support in some combinations
• Network: 2× 10GbE SFP+, 2× 2.5GbE RJ45
• Expansion: PCIe 4.0 ×16 physical slot, wired to ×8; 2× USB4 40 Gbps
• Management: vPro Enterprise on this SKU
• Measured idle: ~14–18 W tuned, ~25–30 W heavily equipped
• Chassis: ~196 × 189 × 48 mm — taller than 1U

Pros

• Unmatched network topology: dual 10GbE plus dual 2.5GbE
• Three NVMe positions and a genuine PCIe slot for passthrough
• Barebone purchase lets you pick ECC-capable or high-endurance storage
• vPro for remote management

Cons

• Highest idle draw on this list
• Runs hot and loud under sustained load without tuning
• Too tall for a true 1U mount
• iGPU passthrough poorly documented compared with PCIe card passthrough

Verdict: Not a low-power appliance and not cheap to run, but structurally in a different class for passthrough, storage and 10GbE work.

Perfect for: a serious homelab node running virtualised TrueNAS, a firewall and 10GbE storage on the same box.

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#3 MINISFORUM UM890 Pro — Best Dual-NIC All-Rounder

The UM890 Pro is the machine to choose when the K8 Plus is unavailable or when you want slightly more CPU headroom and a quieter chassis at the expense of Intel NICs. The Ryzen 9 8945HS is the same Zen 4 generation as the 8845HS with higher boost clocks, still eight cores and sixteen threads, paired with the Radeon 780M. Memory reaches 96 GB across two DDR5-5600 SO-DIMMs, storage covers two M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 slots, and networking is dual 2.5GbE. OCuLink PCIe 4.0 ×4 and dual USB4 round out the expansion.

Idle behaviour is a genuine strength: ServeTheHome measured 7–9 W at the wall, with roughly 80–90 W under load. Acoustics were around 36–38 dBA at idle against a 34 dBA ambient floor, rising to about 40–42 dBA under load — noticeably louder at idle than the K8 Plus, which is worth knowing if the host lives in a living space rather than a cupboard. Cold Wave 2.2 cooling covers the RAM and SSDs as well as the CPU, which is a real benefit for a machine running 24/7 with a mirrored datastore.

On the virtualisation side, an owner running Proxmox VE 8/9 confirmed AMD-IOMMU exposed correctly, but the Radeon 780M passthrough produced reset and host-reboot problems. The same guidance applies as elsewhere: use /dev/dri in a container for transcoding, and keep passthrough ambitions pointed at the NICs. OCuLink is a direct PCIe 4.0 ×4 link and is genuinely useful for high-bandwidth peripherals, but it is not interchangeable with an internal slot for every HBA or network controller — check lane sharing on the specific revision before planning around it.

Where it beats the SER8 is obvious: the second physical NIC. Where it loses to the K8 Plus is controller preference and idle acoustics. It sits comfortably between them.

Specs

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS, Zen 4, 8 cores / 16 threads
• iGPU: Radeon 780M
• Memory: 2× DDR5-5600 SO-DIMM, up to 96 GB
• Storage: 2× M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0
• Network: 2× 2.5GbE
• Expansion: OCuLink PCIe 4.0 ×4, 2× USB4 40 Gbps
• Wireless: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
• Measured idle: ~7–9 W
• Measured load noise: ~40–42 dBA

Pros

• Excellent idle efficiency for its performance class
• Dual 2.5GbE without moving up to workstation hardware
• Active cooling for RAM and SSDs
• Two NVMe slots for a mirror

Cons

• Louder at idle than the K8 Plus
• Generic 2.5GbE rather than Intel I226-V
• Radeon 780M passthrough is documented as unreliable

Verdict: A well-balanced dual-NIC Proxmox host with the best idle efficiency in the mid-tier, provided you accept the GPU passthrough limitation upfront.

Perfect for: consolidating a virtual firewall, services and a media server on one quiet-ish box.

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#4 Beelink SER8 — Best Quiet Single-NIC Node

The SER8 is the right answer when you do not need a second physical NIC and you do need the machine to be unobtrusive. It runs the same Ryzen 7 8845HS with a Radeon 780M, takes two DDR5-5600 SO-DIMMs and two M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 ×4 drives, and puts them in a 135 × 135 × 44.7 mm chassis weighing about 0.75 kg with a vapour chamber covering the CPU and dedicated SSD cooling. ServeTheHome measured 7–10 W at idle, about 77–79 W under default load, and roughly 36–39 dBA under load — Beelink claims around 32 dB in lighter conditions, which is consistent with the independent figures once you account for the different workloads.

The two NVMe slots are the real Proxmox value here. A mirrored boot and VM datastore on a silent desktop-class host is a genuinely attractive combination, and it is why the SER8 remains relevant next to newer generations despite the 8845HS being a Zen 4 part. What it does not have is a second Ethernet port, and that is the single most common reason people move up to the UM890 Pro or the K8 Plus. A single 2.5GbE port works perfectly well for management, NFS and VM traffic on a flat network; it becomes a dependency the moment you want a virtual firewall with physically separated WAN and LAN.

The GPU story is the same as the rest of the Radeon 780M family: a documented Proxmox case where passthrough worked initially and then hit an AMD reset bug after VM shutdown or restart, requiring a host reboot. Transcoding through /dev/dri in a Jellyfin or Plex container avoids that entirely.

One specification deserves caution. Beelink documentation has at times listed memory support far above what this platform normally carries, and that figure has not been independently validated under Proxmox. Treat the two SO-DIMM slots and matched DDR5-5600 kits as the practical configuration. Linux efficiency is a genuine strength: an independent measurement put Ubuntu 24.04 at 8–9 W where Windows configurations on similar hardware drew materially more.

Specs

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS, Zen 4, 8 cores / 16 threads, 3.8–5.1 GHz
• iGPU: Radeon 780M, 12 compute units, AV1 encode
• Memory: 2× DDR5-5600 SO-DIMM
• Storage: 2× M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 ×4
• Network: 1× 2.5GbE
• Wireless: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200, Bluetooth 5.2
• Expansion: USB4, HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4
• Measured idle: ~7–10 W
• Measured load noise: ~36–39 dBA

Pros

• Two PCIe 4.0 NVMe slots in a very compact, quiet chassis
• Strong idle efficiency, especially under Linux
• Vapour chamber cooling with dedicated SSD heatsinking
• Mature platform with well-documented Linux behaviour

Cons

• Only one physical NIC
• Radeon 780M passthrough carries the same reset risk as the rest of the family
• Conflicting published memory maximums

Verdict: The quietest, tidiest way to run a mirrored NVMe Proxmox host with eight Zen 4 cores — as long as one NIC is enough for your network design.

Perfect for: a desktop or shelf node running containers and VMs without a virtual firewall.

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#5 ASUS NUC 14 Pro — Best for Long-Term Support

The NUC 14 Pro wins on a criterion that does not appear in benchmark tables: documentation, firmware cadence and a published support lifecycle. ASUS took over the Intel NUC line and maintains product-specific software and security support dates, which is exactly what you want for a host intended to sit in a cupboard for three or four years. The recommended configuration for Proxmox is the Core Ultra 5 125H kit — Meteor Lake, tuned for efficiency — with the Core Ultra 7 155H as the step up if you need more CPU density.

Hardware-wise it takes two DDR5-5600 SO-DIMMs up to 96 GB, offers an M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 ×4 slot plus an M.2 2242 PCIe 4.0 slot, and adds a 2.5-inch SATA bay in the Tall chassis — a rare option in this class and useful for a cheap secondary backup target. Networking is a single Intel 2.5GbE port, with LM and V variants depending on vPro configuration, plus Intel AX211 Wi-Fi 6E and two Thunderbolt 4 ports.

Measured Proxmox figures are about 10.5–12 W idle for a complete configuration and roughly 80 W under CPU stress — efficient, quiet and unremarkable in the best sense. VT-d is available, but that should not be stretched into a claim about reliable SR-IOV for the Arc integrated graphics; device virtualisation on integrated GPUs remains dependent on the specific firmware, kernel and driver combination.

One buying note worth heeding: the newer NUC 14 Pro AI uses soldered LPDDR5x and a single main M.2 2280 slot. For a hypervisor that is a step backwards from the classic NUC 14 Pro's two SO-DIMM sockets and second storage position, even though it is the more recent product. The successor is not automatically the better Proxmox host.

Specs

• CPU: Intel Core Ultra 5 125H or Core Ultra 7 155H, Meteor Lake
• iGPU: Intel Arc on compatible Core Ultra SKUs
• Memory: 2× DDR5-5600 SO-DIMM, up to 96 GB
• Storage: M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 ×4 + M.2 2242 PCIe 4.0; 2.5-inch SATA bay on the Tall chassis
• Network: 1× Intel 2.5GbE (LM/V depending on vPro)
• Wireless: Intel AX211 Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
• Expansion: 2× Thunderbolt 4
• Measured Proxmox idle: ~10.5–12 W
• Measured CPU stress: ~80 W

Pros

• Tier-one firmware, documentation and support lifecycle
• 96 GB memory ceiling with two replaceable SO-DIMMs
• Optional 2.5-inch SATA bay in the Tall chassis
• Quiet, efficient, mature Intel platform

Cons

• Single 2.5GbE NIC
• Barebone configurations need RAM, SSD and an OS added
• Arc iGPU passthrough should not be assumed

Verdict: The conservative choice — the host you buy when predictability, parts availability and firmware support matter more than maximum throughput per dollar.

Perfect for: a long-lived cluster node or a set-and-forget services host where support matters.

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#6 GEEKOM A9 Max 2026 Edition — Best Raw VM Density

If the goal is the maximum number of guests on one desk, the A9 Max is the machine. The Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 is a Zen 5 part with 12 cores and 24 threads, paired with a Radeon 890M at 16 RDNA 3.5 compute units and a 55 TOPS XDNA 2 NPU. GEEKOM publishes around 24,980 Cinebench R23 multi for this chip. Memory reaches 128 GB across two DDR5 SO-DIMM slots, and storage is an M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 ×4 plus an M.2 2230 PCIe 4.0 ×4. Networking is dual 2.5GbE, with Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, dual USB4 and dual HDMI 2.1.

The efficiency numbers are genuinely impressive for the performance on offer. Tom's Hardware measured approximately 7 W at the wall idle, about 79 W under heavy load, 29–30 dBA at idle and roughly 34 °C idle rising to about 79 °C under load. Another outlet recorded an even lower idle average depending on the scenario. Twelve cores drawing single-digit watts at idle is a strong result.

The honest caveat is validation, not hardware. There is not yet a large body of field Proxmox reporting on this HX 470 revision — IOMMU group granularity, Radeon 890M passthrough behaviour and the usefulness of the NPU inside guests are all under-documented. Meanwhile a meaningful share of the purchase price funds the NPU and the 890M, neither of which Proxmox exploits automatically. If your workload is a firewall, a media container and a handful of Linux guests, an eight-core machine with a 96 GB ceiling will do the same job for less. If your workload is a Kubernetes lab, several Windows VMs, a database and a compilation pipeline, the extra cores and the 128 GB ceiling change what fits on the desk.

Specs

• CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470, Zen 5, 12 cores / 24 threads, up to 5.2 GHz
• iGPU: Radeon 890M, RDNA 3.5, 16 compute units
• NPU: XDNA 2, up to 55 TOPS
• Memory: 2× DDR5 SO-DIMM, up to 128 GB
• Storage: M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 ×4 + M.2 2230 PCIe 4.0 ×4
• Network: 2× 2.5GbE
• Wireless: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
• Expansion: 2× USB4, dual HDMI 2.1, SD reader
• Measured idle: ~7 W
• Measured load noise: ~29–30 dBA

Pros

• 12 cores and 24 threads with a 128 GB ceiling
• Low measured idle power for the performance class
• Dual 2.5GbE and Wi-Fi 7
• Current-generation silicon with a long service life ahead

Cons

• Field Proxmox data on this revision is thin
• A large part of the cost funds NPU and iGPU capacity Proxmox will not use
• Overkill for a lightweight container host

Verdict: The density champion, and a sensible buy only if you will actually run enough guests to use twelve cores and 128 GB.

Perfect for: a dense lab host running many VMs, CI jobs or a Kubernetes cluster.

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#7 GMKtec NucBox M5 Plus — Best Cheap 8C/16T

The M5 Plus is a value play and should be treated as one. The Ryzen 7 5825U is Zen 3 — eight cores, sixteen threads, Radeon Vega 8 graphics with eight compute units — and GMKtec publishes around 10,751 Cinebench R23 multi for the configuration. Memory goes to 64 GB across two DDR4-3200 SO-DIMM slots, networking is dual 2.5GbE, and the configurable TDP range sits around 10–35 W.

That core count and memory ceiling for a budget-tier chassis is the appeal. The problem is storage: exactly one M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0/SATA slot, up to 2 TB, which means no simple internal mirror for boot or VM storage. For a Proxmox host that is a real architectural restriction — you are one drive failure away from a rebuild, and external storage becomes mandatory for anything you care about.

The rest of the picture is mixed. AMD-V and AMD-IOMMU are supported at the platform level, but there is not enough M5 Plus-specific data to certify IOMMU group granularity, and no reliable idle measurement from a priority source. The Vega 8 has Linux media acceleration available, but the Intel Quick Sync ecosystem remains far better documented for Plex and Jellyfin, so it is not the natural pick for a media server. And this is an ageing generation: the newer K-series and Ryzen 8845HS platforms are better choices at comparable money.

Buy it opportunistically, at a significant discount, and only if a single NVMe slot is genuinely acceptable for your design. Otherwise the extra spend on the K8 Plus buys a much better Proxmox topology.

Specs

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5825U, Zen 3, 8 cores / 16 threads, 2.0–4.5 GHz
• iGPU: Radeon Vega 8, 8 compute units
• Memory: 2× DDR4-3200 SO-DIMM, up to 64 GB
• Storage: 1× M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0/SATA
• Network: 2× 2.5GbE
• Wireless: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2
• Ports: HDMI, DisplayPort, USB-C 10 Gbps with DP/PD/data
• Configurable TDP: ~10–35 W

Pros

• Eight cores and sixteen threads at a budget-tier entry point
• 64 GB memory ceiling
• Two 2.5GbE ports
• Low configurable power envelope

Cons

• Single NVMe slot — no internal mirror
• Zen 3 with Vega 8 graphics, not the 8845HS/780M platform
• No reliable idle measurement; sparse Proxmox field data
• Ageing platform with irregular direct stock

Verdict: A capable cheap VM host whose single storage slot rules it out of any deployment that expects redundancy.

Perfect for: a heavily discounted second node or a lab box where data lives elsewhere.

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#8 Beelink EQ14 — Best Low-Power Dual-NIC Node

The EQ14 is the machine to buy when the workload is a stack of lightweight services and the priority is a small electricity bill. The Intel N150 — Twin Lake, four cores, four threads, up to 3.6 GHz — sits in a 126 × 126 × 39 mm chassis drawing roughly 8–12 W at the wall idle and around 21–30 W under typical load across three independent test sources. Beelink claims 32 dB; independent measurements are near or below 35 dB in light use. Home Assistant, AdGuard, a reverse proxy, MQTT and a handful of LXC containers fit comfortably.

Its defining feature for Proxmox is the network. The EQ14 exists in two versions: dual Realtek RTL8111H Gigabit, or dual Intel I226-V 2.5GbE. The I226-V variant is the one to buy — current Proxmox installs recognise those controllers without driver work, and two physical Intel ports make a virtualised OPNsense or pfSense deployment straightforward instead of a VLAN trunking exercise. Buying the wrong SKU gets you dual Gigabit Realtek instead, which is fine for management and poor for firewall throughput. Verify before you buy.

The ceiling is memory. One DDR4-3200 SO-DIMM, officially 16 GB. Two M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 slots give you storage flexibility, though units can ship with an M.2 SATA III drive rather than NVMe, so check what is inside. For media, /dev/dri/renderD128 can be exposed to a Jellyfin container on a sufficiently recent kernel — PVE 6.11 or newer in practice — and headless boots have occasionally needed an HDMI dummy plug to bring the iGPU up. Full iGPU passthrough to a VM is possible in some configurations but not reliable enough to plan around. If you are weighing N150 variants against each other, our N100 and N150 buying guide breaks down which chassis ships which network controller.

Specs

• CPU: Intel Processor N150, Twin Lake, 4 cores / 4 threads, up to 3.6 GHz
• iGPU: Intel UHD Graphics, 24 execution units
• Memory: 1× DDR4-3200 SO-DIMM, 16 GB official maximum
• Storage: 2× M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0
• Network: 2× Intel I226-V 2.5GbE (on the correct SKU)
• Wireless: Intel AX101 Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2
• Measured idle: ~8–12 W
• Measured typical load: ~21–30 W

Pros

• Two Intel I226-V 2.5GbE ports on the right SKU
• Genuinely low idle consumption
• Two M.2 slots and VT-x/VT-d at the platform level
• Recognised by current Proxmox without driver work

Cons

• 16 GB official memory ceiling is the binding constraint
• Two network SKUs with confusingly similar names
• iGPU work needs a recent kernel and occasionally a dummy HDMI plug
• Retail units may ship with M.2 SATA rather than NVMe

Verdict: The best cheap Proxmox node for lightweight services and a virtual firewall — provided you buy the Intel NIC version and can live inside 16 GB.

Perfect for: Home Assistant, DNS, reverse proxy, a virtual firewall and a small cluster quorum node.

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#9 GMKtec NucBox G3 Plus — Best Budget RAM Ceiling

The G3 Plus uses the same N150 processor as the EQ14 but offers a higher memory ceiling and a single Intel NIC. GMKtec specifies up to 32 GB of DDR4-3200 in one SO-DIMM slot, which doubles the official EQ14 ceiling on identical silicon — and in a Proxmox host, that is worth more than a slightly faster clock. Independent Geekbench 6 multi measurements land around 3,169, which is a solid result for the N150 class without pretending to be capable of heavy VMs.

Storage is split across two positions: an M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe 3.0 slot up to 4 TB and an M.2 2242 SATA slot up to 2 TB. Note the interface difference — the second slot is SATA, not NVMe, and should be planned accordingly. Networking is a single Intel I226-V 2.5GbE port, delivering roughly 9.3 W idle and 27–28 W at maximum load in independent testing, with a 12 V/3 A barrel supply, four USB 3.2 ports and dual HDMI 4K60 outputs.

The single NIC is the deciding limitation. For a pure services host running containers and a couple of Linux VMs, it is entirely sufficient. For a virtual firewall with separated WAN and LAN, you need VLAN trunking across a managed switch or an external USB adapter — and a USB adapter is not what you want carrying critical firewall traffic.

Community reports mention boot complications related to Secure Boot and TPM settings alongside the bundled SSD, resolved by adjusting the relevant firmware options. That is a configuration detail rather than a defect, but budget for a firmware session on first boot. Availability may determine whether this or the EQ14 ends up in your basket.

Specs

• CPU: Intel Processor N150, 4 cores / 4 threads, up to 3.6 GHz
• iGPU: Intel Graphics, 24 execution units, up to ~1 GHz
• Memory: 1× DDR4-3200 SO-DIMM, up to 32 GB per GMKtec
• Storage: M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe 3.0 (up to 4 TB) + M.2 2242 SATA (up to 2 TB)
• Network: 1× Intel I226-V 2.5GbE
• Wireless: Realtek 8852BE Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2
• Ports: 4× USB 3.2, dual HDMI 4K60
• Measured idle: ~9.3 W
• Measured maximum load: ~27–28 W

Pros

• 32 GB memory ceiling on an N150 platform
• Intel I226-V 2.5GbE rather than Realtek
• Separate NVMe and SATA M.2 positions
• Low idle consumption

Cons

• Only one physical NIC
• Second M.2 slot is SATA, not NVMe
• Secure Boot and TPM settings may need adjusting out of the box
• Irregular direct stock

Verdict: The budget N150 node to pick when RAM headroom matters more than a second Ethernet port.

Perfect for: virtualised Home Assistant, a Docker and LXC stack, and light self-hosted services.

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Comparison Table

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

The best mini PC for Proxmox is the one whose topology matches the guests you intend to run, and the fastest processor is rarely the deciding factor. Ranked on what a hypervisor actually consumes — memory ceiling, NIC count and controller, NVMe positions, idle draw at the wall and the honesty of the passthrough story — the GMKtec NucBox K8 Plus comes out ahead for most people, with two Intel I226-V 2.5GbE ports, two PCIe 4.0 NVMe slots and a 96 GB ceiling behind eight Zen 4 cores. The MINISFORUM MS-01 S1390 takes the top spot for anyone who genuinely needs PCIe passthrough, 10GbE and three storage positions, and the MINISFORUM UM890 Pro is the quietest route to a genuinely efficient dual-NIC host.

At the other end, the Beelink EQ14 and GMKtec G3 Plus do the same N150 work with different compromises: two Intel NICs and a 16 GB ceiling on one, a single NIC and 32 GB on the other. Buy the SKU that matches the problem you are actually solving, and check the network controller before you check out. If you want to see how these machines compare on the wider homelab and desktop workloads they are also asked to handle, our mini PC testing hub collects the measured numbers in one place.

Two habits separate a host that runs for years from one that becomes a project. Measure the wall draw yourself once the machine is deployed, because a 10 W difference is roughly 262.8 kWh across three years and the published figures assume someone else's configuration. And keep the boot drive mirrored and the backups external — no amount of RAM or core count substitutes for being able to restore a VM without a rebuild.

If the machine is going to sit on a desk rather than in a rack, the quiet mini PC picks for office and desktop duty cover workloads closer to that environment, and the HTTC and home theatre roundup covers the playback side. For the question of who actually builds these boards and what that means for BIOS support, our breakdown of mini PC manufacturers is worth reading before you commit to a brand.

→ Check the current price of the GMKtec NucBox K8 Plus on Amazon