If you’re building a homelab on a budget, mini PCs running Intel N-series processors are hard to ignore. I’ve been running both the N100 and the N305 as ESXi 8 nodes for the past few months. Here’s what I found.
The contenders#
| Intel N100 | Intel N305 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cores / Threads | 4C / 4T | 8C / 8T |
| TDP | 6W | 15W |
| Max RAM | 16 GB DDR5 | 32 GB DDR5 |
| Base clock | 800 MHz | 800 MHz |
| Boost clock | 3.4 GHz | 3.8 GHz |
| Typical price (unit) | ~$150–200 | ~$250–350 |
ESXi 8 compatibility#
Both processors install ESXi 8.0 U2+ cleanly. You will not need any custom ISOs or workarounds — just the standard VMware installer.
One thing to watch: NIC compatibility. Most mini PCs ship with Realtek NICs, which ESXi 8 no longer supports natively. You have two options:
- Add a USB-to-Ethernet adapter (Intel I225-V chipset preferred)
- Use the community VMware NIC driver fling — works but adds management overhead
RAM — the real decision factor#
This is where the N305 wins clearly. The N100 is hard-capped at 16 GB. That sounds fine until you try running 4–5 VMs with any real workload — vCenter alone eats 14 GB.
The N305 supports 32 GB, which is the sweet spot for a single-node homelab running vCenter + 3–5 workload VMs.
Power and noise#
The N100 is essentially silent and sips power. Under full ESXi load I measured 8–12W at the wall. The N305 runs at 18–25W under the same conditions — still very reasonable.
For always-on homelabs, the N100’s efficiency is genuinely attractive.
My verdict#
- N100 — best if you already have a vCenter elsewhere (or use free ESXi without vCenter) and want a cheap compute node. 16 GB cap is a real constraint.
- N305 — the better all-in-one node. 32 GB lets you run vCenter + real workloads on a single box.
I’m running the N305 as my primary lab node and the N100 as a second compute host in a 2-node vSAN cluster. Works great.
What I bought#
- Beelink EQ12 Pro (N100, 16GB, 500GB NVMe) — ~$180
- Beelink EQ13 (N305, 32GB, 1TB NVMe) — ~$290
- Intel I225-V USB adapter — ~$20
Total for a 2-node lab: under $500. Not bad.