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← The five uses

Uso 00 de 4

Homelab

You want a server in your house: backups, media, your own services.

1 de escritorio

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Desktop

1 opción

Lenovo

Refurbished · 1

ThinkCentre M720Q Tiny (i5-8400T)

ThinkCentre M720Q Tiny (i5-8400T)

Lenovoreacondicionadase amplía

Six cores, eight watts and spare parts everywhere. The standard.

Processor
Intel Core i5-8400T, 6 núcleos
Memory
No lo dice el anuncio
Drive
256 GB SSD

$169

USD ·

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+ Why this one, and how far it grows

It is the machine ServeTheHome built its TinyMiniMicro project on, which is the reference on the subject: used business minis, not cheap no-name ones. And here a number came out that changed the recommendation: 8th-generation machines draw 8-12 W at idle, against 25-40 W for 6th and 7th. On all year, that is three times the electricity.

Memory

2 SODIMM slots, up to 64 GB.

Quién lo dice · Crucial and Kingston compatibility lists for the M720q family.

How far it grows

They sold in the millions, so the spare part will exist long after you need it. Two slots and room for another drive: it copes with you changing its job three times.

If you are going to put Proxmox on it, go into the BIOS first: virtualisation (VT-x) and VT-d on, Secure Boot and CSM off. Without that the installer dies at 3% and it looks like the machine is faulty.

The expensive mistake in this use

Starting with the rack, or choosing a mini PC over two watts of consumption. The second came out of measuring: between the consumer mini that used to be recommended here and a refurbished business mini the difference was four watts, not a third as it looked. Four watts a year does not pay for the difference between a machine with a service manual and spare parts and one without them, in a device that is going to hold your backups. And mind how this gets decided: almost everything you will read about «which brand fails most» is content-farm text with no sample and no source, and that is why it is not used here — what is used is what the manufacturer signs and what can be counted.

What changes on a desktop

There is NO split to make here, and saying so is part of the job: a homelab is a desktop by definition. A server laptop has a battery swelling inside a box that never switches off.

+ What you ask of the machine in this use
  • That it draws little: it is going to be on 365 days a year.
  • That it is quiet, because it is going to live where you live.
  • That drives can go in it, now or later.