If you’ve been waiting for a good mini PC deal to add another node or lab box, I just spotted this one today, the Beelink SER5 Mini PC. Today only, it is sitting at 29% off on Amazon: https://geni.us/Tgwvz
This is a little Ryzen 7 box is one I’ve personally reviewed and used in the home lab. I wrote up a full review on this one last year where I covered performance numbers, thermals, and what it’s like running it as a home server. Check out my review of the unit here: Beelink SER5 Mini PC Review: AMD Ryzen 7 Home Server.
It runs quiet and handles Proxmox without issues. It does have a Realtek NIC so you will need to have a USB network adapter for VMware. But I do think this little mini PC has enough power for multiple VMs, Docker containers, or even light gaming workloads. It has the Ryzen 7 5800H, 16GB of DDR4, and a 500GB NVMe drive. So that will give you a pretty solid base as a home server role.
If you’ve been eyeing something to expand your lab or maybe you need a low-power always-on mini PC for a home server, this is a good option at today’s price. Anyone else running one of these as part of their setup? Curious how others have them configured theirs? Proxmox, ESXi, or maybe Unraid?