Homelab /
Nimbus N150 mini PC review: a near-silent homelab node for 8 watts
Four efficient cores, dual 2.5 GbE and room for two NVMe drives make this palm-sized box an excellent Proxmox or Home Assistant host.
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Why a mini PC for the homelab?
A used rack server will out-muscle this box, but it will also add a noticeable chunk to your power bill. The N150 sits under 8 W at idle while running a dozen containers.
Benchmarks
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Idle power (Proxmox, 12 LXC) | 7.8 W |
| Full load power | 22 W |
| iperf3 between 2.5 GbE ports | 2.35 Gbit/s |
| NVMe sequential read | 3.4 GB/s |
Running Proxmox
Install was uneventful. Both NICs are detected out of the box, and IOMMU groups are clean enough to pass one port to an OPNsense VM.
The catch
A single memory slot caps you at 16 GB. Fine for containers, tight for many VMs.
Verdict
For a first homelab node, a firewall box or a Home Assistant host, it is hard to beat.