Quick Answer: The best mini PC for a homelab in 2026 is the Minisforum MS-01: 14 cores, two 10G SFP+ plus two 2.5G Intel ports, three NVMe slots and a PCIe slot, idling around 18-28 W. Want more cores? The MS-A2 has 16 Zen 5 cores. Want quiet and efficient? The Beelink SER8 idles at 12-15 W. For Home Assistant and Pi-hole, a Beelink Mini S13 (Intel N150) sips 6-9 W, and a renewed Lenovo M920q is still the cheapest way into Proxmox. One 2026 rule: skip the barebone unless you already own the RAM.
The barebone trap: why “cheaper” is not cheaper in 2026
Mini PCs are often sold as a barebone (no RAM or SSD) and as configured units. Before the memory shortage, the barebone plus your own parts was the smart buy. Through 2026, DDR5 prices roughly doubled to tripled — Tom’s Hardware’s price index had a 32 GB kit that sold for $100-200 in October 2025 starting around $350 a year later — and NVMe prices climbed too.
| Mini PC | Barebone | Configured (32 GB / 1 TB) | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minisforum MS-01 (i9) | $669 | $1,179 | $510 |
| Minisforum MS-A2 | $799 | $1,299 | $500 |
| Minisforum UM890 Pro | $463 | $975 | $512 |
Snapshot prices from Minisforum and Amazon listings, September-October 2026, as reported by ComputingForGeeks. Prices move weekly — check the live listing.
A gap of about $500 is roughly what a 32 GB DDR5 SO-DIMM kit plus a 1 TB NVMe costs at shortage prices. So the barebone only saves money if you are reusing memory from another machine. Everyone else should buy the configured unit — or a used office mini PC, which ships with its DDR4 installed and did not get more expensive.
Our top picks at a glance
| Mini PC | CPU | RAM (max, type) | Network | Idle | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minisforum MS-01 | i9-13900H, 14C/20T | 64 GB official / 96 GB, DDR5 SO-DIMM | 2× 10G SFP+, 2× 2.5G | 18-28 W | Best overall |
| Minisforum MS-A2 | Ryzen 9 9955HX, 16C/32T | 96 GB, DDR5 SO-DIMM | 2× 10G SFP+, 2× 2.5G | 22-30 W | Most cores |
| Beelink SER8 | Ryzen 7 8745HS, 8C/16T | 96 GB, DDR5 SO-DIMM | 1× 2.5G | 12-15 W | Quiet all-rounder |
| Minisforum UM890 Pro | Ryzen 9 8945HS, 8C/16T | 96 GB, DDR5 SO-DIMM | 2× 2.5G, USB4, OCuLink | 13-16 W | Expansion |
| Beelink Mini S13 | Intel N150, 4C/4T | 16 GB DDR4 or 12 GB soldered | 1× 2.5G (check listing) | 6-9 W | Low-power services |
| Lenovo M920q (renewed) | 8th/9th-gen Core T | 32 GB official / 64 GB, DDR4 | 1× 1G + PCIe riser | 12-15 W | Budget & clusters |
Idle figures are reported values from ComputingForGeeks and ServeTheHome testing; your draw depends on drives, add-in cards and BIOS power settings.
1. Minisforum MS-01 — Best Overall
Minisforum MS-01 (Core i9-13900H)
- Two 10G SFP+ (Intel X710-class) and two 2.5G Intel i226-V ports — router, hypervisor and storage network in one box.
- Three NVMe slots and a low-profile PCIe slot for an HBA, a NIC or a small GPU.
- Intel Quick Sync for Plex/Jellyfin transcoding; idles around 18-28 W.
No other mini PC packs this much homelab-relevant I/O into a box this small. The 10G SFP+ ports mean you can hang a fast NAS or a second node off it without buying a NIC, and the three NVMe slots let you split boot, VM storage and a ZFS mirror. Picking up drives, DAC cables or an SFP+ module with it? A free 30-day Amazon Prime trial gets the parts to you in two days.
Caveats: fans are audible under sustained load, and if you rely on the i226-V ports for low-power operation, owners recommend adjusting the ASPM setting. Officially it takes 64 GB, but 2× 48 GB (96 GB) is widely run. Buy the configured i9 with 32 GB / 1 TB unless you own DDR5 already — see the barebone table above.
2. Minisforum MS-A2 — Most Cores
Minisforum MS-A2 (Ryzen 9 9955HX)
- 16 full-size cores — no efficiency-core split — for heavy VM and container loads.
- 2× 10G SFP+, 2× 2.5G, three NVMe slots and a PCIe slot, like the MS-01.
- Integrated Radeon 610M is too weak for transcoding; idles around 22-30 W.
The MS-A2 is the mini PC for CPU-bound labs — Kubernetes clusters, CI runners, game servers, a stack of Windows VMs. It costs a little more to run than the MS-01 and loses on media: if you need hardware transcoding, either add a low-profile GPU or choose the Intel MS-01. ComputingForGeeks also flags NIC details worth checking against your setup before you buy.
3. Beelink SER8 — Best Quiet All-Rounder
Beelink SER8 (Ryzen 7 8745HS)
- 8 cores / 16 threads with two DDR5 SO-DIMM slots (up to 96 GB) and two NVMe slots.
- Stays quiet at idle — a good fit for an office or living-room shelf.
- Single 2.5G port, no SFP+ and no PCIe slot.
The SER8 is the pick if you want a capable single node that nobody in the house will hear. Eight Zen 4 cores run a Proxmox host with a handful of VMs comfortably, and real SO-DIMM slots mean you can grow to 96 GB later. The shortage hit it hard — configured units sold near $500 before and $800-860 in October 2026, and stock was thin — so compare it against the UM890 Pro below at the moment you buy.
4. Minisforum UM890 Pro — Best for Expansion
Minisforum UM890 Pro (Ryzen 9 8945HS)
- 8 cores / 16 threads, up to 96 GB DDR5, dual 2.5G ports.
- Two USB4 ports and OCuLink for external GPUs or fast storage enclosures.
- Idles around 13-16 W.
Dual 2.5G ports make the UM890 Pro a better router or firewall host than the single-port SER8, and OCuLink gives you a real PCIe path to an external GPU — useful if a local AI box is in your future (our sister site LocalAIGearLab covers that rabbit hole). After the shortage, its premium over the SER8 shrank to roughly $130, which makes it the better value when both are in stock.
5. Beelink Mini S13 (Intel N150) — Best Low-Power Box
Beelink Mini S13 (Intel N150)
- Four-core Intel N150 with Quick Sync — enough for Home Assistant, Pi-hole, a reverse proxy and light Docker.
- 2.5G port and an NVMe slot; idles at just 6-9 W.
- Sold with 16 GB DDR4 (upgradeable) or 12 GB soldered LPDDR5 (not upgradeable) — check which.
For always-on household services, a four-core N150 is the most efficient choice: at 6-9 W, it costs under $12 a year to run at $0.15 per kWh. The honest limits: four cores will not carry several VMs, and soldered-memory versions can never be upgraded. It is also no longer the $189 bargain it was at launch — it sat around $329-399 in October 2026. Some N150 listings from other brands ship with a 1GbE port despite similar names, so read the spec line.
6. Lenovo ThinkCentre M920q (Renewed) — Best Budget and Cluster Node
Lenovo ThinkCentre M920q Tiny (renewed)
- Ships with DDR4 installed; 32 GB official, 64 GB reported working.
- vPro/AMT remote management; a PCIe x8 riser adds a 2.5G or 10G NIC.
- Idles around 12-15 W; renewed units ran roughly $210-240 in October 2026.
Three M920q units cost less than one configured MS-01 and give you a real three-node Proxmox cluster to learn high availability, Ceph and live migration on. The riser is rarely included and shares space with the 2.5” bay; use a 90 W power brick (ServeTheHome saw throttling on 65 W). The HP EliteDesk 800 G6 Mini (10th gen, 64 GB, optional 2.5G Flex IO module) is a good alternative if you find one cheaper.
How to choose a homelab mini PC
- NIC count and chip. One port is fine for a single host; a firewall or a storage network needs two or more. Intel i226-V and X710-class parts are the low-drama choice on Proxmox.
- RAM: socketed or soldered. Virtualization eats memory. SO-DIMM slots let you grow; soldered RAM is a one-time decision.
- M.2 slots. Two or three lets you mirror your VM storage instead of trusting a single SSD.
- Idle watts. Every 10 W of idle is about $13 a year at $0.15 per kWh. Across a three-node cluster, that adds up.
- Bulk storage lives elsewhere. Mini PCs are compute; put your media and backups on a home NAS, and see our homelab server guide if you are still weighing a mini PC against a tower or a used rackmount.
The bottom line
The Minisforum MS-01 is the best mini PC for a homelab in 2026 — 10GbE, 14 cores and three NVMe slots in one small box. Choose the MS-A2 for maximum cores, the Beelink SER8 for quiet, the UM890 Pro for USB4/OCuLink expansion, an N150 Mini S13 for 6-9 W household services, and renewed M920q units for the cheapest real cluster. And in 2026, buy configured unless you already own the RAM.