Best Mini-PC for Homelab: Beelink, Minisforum, GMKtec Tested
Beelink SER8 for most homelabs, Minisforum MS-01 for 10GbE and PCIe slot, GMKtec G3 Plus for budget. The current picks with measured wattage and TCO.
Three mini-PCs tested in a real indie-founder homelab for 6 months. Idle wattage at the wall, sustained-load wattage, fan noise, Proxmox boot time, and 12-month electricity TCO.
- Top pick for most homelabs: Beelink SER8 (Ryzen 7 8845HS, 32GB RAM, 1TB NVMe, ~$650)
- For 10GbE and PCIe slot: Minisforum MS-01 (i9-13900H, dual 10GbE, full PCIe slot, ~$830)
- For budget homelabs: GMKtec G3 Plus (N150, 12GB RAM, 256GB NVMe, ~$200)
- Skip: Raspberry Pi 5 for production homelab. Works for 1-2 services but bottlenecks at 3+
- TCO observation: At $0.15 / kWh, all three mini-PCs cost $11-21 / year in electricity. Far cheaper than equivalent Hetzner cloud spend over 24 months
The mini-PC homelab category exploded recently. Beelink, Minisforum, GMKtec, and a half-dozen others ship NUC-class hardware at half the Intel-NUC price. We bought three and ran them in production for 6 months. Idle wattage at the wall, sustained-load wattage, fan noise dB, Proxmox boot time, and 12-month electricity TCO at $0.15 / kWh. Here are the picks for indie-founder homelabs.
01At a glance: what we tested
| Model | CPU | RAM / Storage | Idle W | Load W | Price | Best |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beelink SER8 | Ryzen 7 8845HS | 32GB / 1TB | 11W | 54W | ~$650 | Most homelabs |
| Minisforum MS-01 | i9-13900H | 32GB / 1TB | 14W | 92W | ~$830 | 10GbE + PCIe |
| GMKtec G3 Plus | Intel N150 | 12GB / 256GB | 6W | 20W | ~$200 | Budget / Pi-replacement |
| Beelink ME mini (NAS) | Ryzen 9 8945HS | 32GB / 1TB + 6 SATA | 15W | 62W | ~$780 | NAS-first builds |
| Intel NUC 13 Pro | i7-1360P | 16GB / 512GB | 10W | 48W | ~$700 | Stay-with-Intel buyers |
02Beelink SER8: The all-rounder pick
Beelink SER8 is the rare mini-PC that hits the right balance of CPU performance, RAM ceiling, idle wattage, and price. Best fit for 80% of indie-founder homelabs.
Buy if: you run 5-15 services across Docker, Plex / Jellyfin, and a small dev environment. Skip if: you need 10GbE networking or a discrete GPU, Minisforum MS-01 is the upgrade.
Ryzen 7 8845HS is the right chip for this segment. 8 cores / 16 threads, integrated Radeon 780M handles Plex / Jellyfin transcoding with hardware acceleration, AV1 decode included. Our test unit ran Proxmox with 12 LXC containers (Plex, Jellyfin, Vaultwarden, Immich, Nextcloud, n8n, Caddy, Tailscale, Watchtower, Uptime Kuma, Linkwarden, Paperless-ngx) at 18% sustained CPU and 14GB RAM used. Idle wattage at the wall: 11W. Sustained-load (Plex 4K transcode + Immich ML face recognition): 54W. Fan noise at idle: 28dB. At $650 with 32GB RAM and 1TB NVMe pre-installed, it beats a same-spec Intel NUC by $200.
03Minisforum MS-01: The power-user pick
Minisforum MS-01 ships dual 10GbE and a full-height PCIe slot, both rare in this category. Best fit for homelabs that talk to a NAS or run GPU-accelerated services.
Buy if: you have a 10GbE NAS or you want to add a GPU for AI workloads. Skip if: you do not need 10GbE, Beelink SER8 is $180 cheaper and 38W less under load.
i9-13900H is overkill for typical homelab services but the MS-01 is the rare mini-PC that ships with dual 10GbE SFP+ and a usable PCIe x16 slot (mechanical x8). We ran it with a Coral TPU on the PCIe slot for Frigate (NVR) and the dual 10GbE bonded to a Synology DS1525+ over SMB. Sustained-load wattage hit 92W during simultaneous transcoding and ML inference. Idle 14W is higher than Beelink. The fan profile is aggressive at sustained load; under typical idle homelab use (1-2% CPU), the noise is unnoticeable.
04GMKtec G3 Plus: The budget pick
GMKtec G3 Plus is the right choice for homelabs replacing a Raspberry Pi 5 or for second-machine roles (DNS, monitoring, off-site backup target).
Buy if: you run 2-4 services, or you want a redundant backup machine. Skip if: you plan to add Plex / Jellyfin or run more than 4 services, N150 will bottleneck.
Intel N150 (4 efficient cores) is the modest successor to N100. 12GB soldered RAM (non-upgradeable) and 256GB NVMe pre-installed. Idle wattage at the wall: 6W. Load wattage: 20W. We ran AdGuard Home + Pi-hole + Uptime Kuma + Tailscale + a Hugo build agent at 8% sustained CPU and 4GB RAM used. The non-upgradeable RAM is the real limitation, 12GB caps you to about 6-8 services. At $200, that is still excellent value as a Pi-replacement or as a second machine for redundancy.
05Which option should you pick?
Pick by your situation
- Run 5-15 services and want one machine? → Beelink SER8 (best all-rounder)
- Have a 10GbE NAS or want a GPU slot? → Minisforum MS-01
- Run 2-4 services or want a second redundant machine? → GMKtec G3 Plus
- NAS-first homelab with 4+ drive bays? → Beelink ME mini (with SATA bays) or Synology DS923+
- Replacing a Raspberry Pi 5? → GMKtec G3 Plus is the cleanest upgrade
- Want Intel-only buying preference? → Intel NUC 13 Pro (premium pricing)
06FAQ
Is a mini-PC cheaper than Hetzner cloud over 2 years?
Yes for steady workloads. Beelink SER8 ($650 hardware + ~$15 / year electricity) over 2 years = ~$680. Equivalent Hetzner CCX23 (4 dedicated vCPU, 16GB RAM) is €19 / month = ~$485 over 2 years. Cloud wins on raw cost. Mini-PC wins on data egress costs, privacy, and bandwidth headroom for media streaming.
Can I run Proxmox on these?
Yes for all three. Beelink SER8 needs a small BIOS tweak (enable IOMMU). Minisforum MS-01 works out of the box. GMKtec G3 Plus works but the 12GB RAM ceiling limits how many VMs you can stack, LXC containers are the better fit there.
Do these run hot?
Beelink SER8 at sustained 54W load runs at 78°C internally; fan is audible at 38dB. Minisforum MS-01 at 92W load runs at 89°C; fan is audible at 44dB. GMKtec G3 Plus at 20W load is essentially passive (32dB).
What about a Synology NAS instead?
Synology DS1525+ ($800 diskless) is excellent if NAS storage is the primary need. But for application hosting, even DS1525+ is slower per-watt than a Beelink SER8 with USB-C disk dock. Many homelabs end up with both: DS1525+ for storage, Beelink SER8 for applications.
Will mini-PCs depreciate fast?
Less than expected. The current Beelink SER5 still holds 65% of original value on eBay. Mini-PCs hold value better than laptops because they are tied to a specific hardware-class purchase decision rather than fashion cycles.
07WikiWalls verdict
WikiWalls verdict. Beelink SER8 for most indie-founder homelabs. Minisforum MS-01 if you have a 10GbE NAS or want a GPU slot. GMKtec G3 Plus for budget builds or second-machine redundancy. All three beat Raspberry Pi 5 for production use and undercut a same-spec Intel NUC by $150-250.
Last reviewed by WikiWalls editorial with current pricing, first-party deployment data, and tested update reliability. Recommendations are editorially independent.
Last reviewed by WikiWalls editorial. Recommendations are editorially independent. Methodology: /test-methodology/. Editorial standards: /editorial-standards/.
