Best Mini PC for Proxmox in 2026

Running Proxmox VE on a mini PC provides virtualization in a smaller system that generally uses less power and produces less heat and noise than rack-mounted hardware. But not every mini PC makes a good Proxmox host. The wrong hardware means passthrough that does not work, a memory limit below your workload requirements, and single-NIC setups that complicate VLAN isolation.

This guide compares five mini PCs for Proxmox VE 9, the current release, which is built on Debian 13. Proxmox VE 8 reached end of life in August 2026. The comparisons come from manufacturer specifications, Proxmox documentation, and the third-party reviews listed in the sources, not from our own testing.

What Makes a Mini PC Good for Proxmox

Four things separate a capable Proxmox host from a box that will frustrate you:

IOMMU groups. PCIe passthrough, which gives a VM direct access to a NIC, GPU, or storage controller, needs clean IOMMU groups. If two devices share a group, you cannot pass one through without the other. Intel VT-d and the AMD IOMMU both work, but the groupings depend on the board, firmware, and device layout, so check the exact model.

RAM ceiling. Proxmox needs memory for the host itself, each VM gets its own allocation, and ZFS uses RAM for caching. A 16GB machine leaves room for a few light guests. More memory, and a board that can take more later, is what lets a host grow. Soldered memory fixes the ceiling on day one.

Multi-NIC. A single NIC carries management, VM, storage, and internet traffic through one interface. Two NICs let you separate management from VM traffic. Four NICs (like the CWWK firewall boxes) let you dedicate individual ports to individual VMs through passthrough.

PCIe expansion. Most mini PCs have no PCIe slot. Among these five, only the MS-A2 has one, and it opens up HBA cards, faster network cards, and compact GPUs. If you expect to add hardware later, a slot matters more than a small CPU clock advantage.

Our Pick: Minisforum MS-A2

The Minisforum MS-A2 is a compact workstation that behaves more like a small server than a typical mini PC. The Ryzen 9 9955HX (16 cores, 32 threads) and 96GB memory ceiling handle dense VM workloads, but the real reason to buy it is the expansion:

• PCIe slot: Physically x16 but wired PCIe 4.0 x8, and Minisforum says it can split into two x4 links. It takes low-profile, slot-powered cards only, so plan on a NIC, an HBA, or a compact low-profile GPU, not a full-size graphics card. Verify card dimensions, thermals, firmware, and the IOMMU grouping before treating passthrough as guaranteed.
• Dual 10G SFP+ plus dual 2.5GbE: Four network ports in total. The SFP+ pair uses an Intel X710 controller, and the two 2.5GbE ports use one Realtek RTL8125 and one Intel I226-V. Dedicate the SFP+ pair to storage and migration traffic and the RJ45 pair to management and VM networks.
• Three NVMe positions: Two M.2 2280/22110 slots plus one position that takes either an M.2 2280 drive or a U.2 enterprise SSD. Minisforum ships the two M.2 2280/22110 slots at PCIe 3.0 x4 and lets you switch them to PCIe 4.0 x4 in the BIOS. Run Proxmox on one drive and use the others for VM storage.
• No out-of-band management: The MS-A2 has no Intel vPro or IPMI. Its two USB-C ports are USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps), not USB4.

Minisforum also sells the MS-A2 with a Ryzen 9 8945HX, Ryzen 9 7945HX, or Ryzen 7 7745HX, in barebone and configured versions. Check the exact CPU, memory, and SSD in the bundle. Minisforum lists DDR5-5600 support with the Ryzen 9000-series chip and DDR5-5200 with the 7000-series chips.

Idle and loaded power depend on BIOS settings, memory, storage, active links, and any installed PCIe card. Measure your configured system rather than budgeting from someone else’s review.

IOMMU group layout can change with firmware and configuration. After enabling IOMMU, check the exact unit before committing to a passthrough design, and do not assume every NIC and controller is isolated because another unit’s was.

Who should buy it: Anyone building a single-node Proxmox host with PCIe passthrough, multi-NIC VLAN isolation, or fast storage networking. If you need a NAS alongside Proxmox, the SFP+ ports make a direct 10GbE link to the NAS straightforward. Minisforum’s Intel-based MS-03 and the larger MS-02 Ultra are compared in our 10GbE mini PC guide.

Who should skip it: First-time builders running Pi-hole, Home Assistant, a reverse proxy, and a few Docker containers. Start with an N100/N150 mini PC or a simpler home server mini PC and spend the savings on storage, backups, and a UPS. The MS-A2 is compact, but it is not cheap or as power-frugal as the smaller boxes.

Turnkey Pick: Beelink SER9 Pro

The Beelink SER9 Pro ships ready to run with a Ryzen 7 H 255 (8 cores, 16 threads, Zen 4), 24GB or 32GB of LPDDR5X-6400, and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD. A second M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 slot is free for a VM storage drive, so you can keep the boot drive separate without external storage.

The H 255 is a capable general-purpose processor, but it belongs in a different class from the MS-A2’s 16-core 9955HX. AMD-V and IOMMU support provide the platform capability; the usable passthrough groups still depend on firmware and the exact device topology.

The trade-offs are real. The memory is soldered, so the size you buy is permanent. One 2.5GbE port means management, VM, and storage traffic share one link unless you add a USB or USB4 adapter. Without a PCIe slot, there is no internal slot for a passthrough card.

The USB4 port (40Gbps) is the expansion path. A Thunderbolt or USB4 10GbE adapter can add a faster uplink without a PCIe slot. Check that Linux supports the adapter’s network controller, and treat it as less robust than a built-in NIC for storage traffic.

The SER9 Pro ships with Windows 11 Pro. Installing Proxmox VE replaces it, so make recovery media first if you might want Windows back.

This is the right pick if you want a configured, compact host for a moderate set of VMs and containers and do not need PCIe passthrough or multi-NIC isolation.

Network Node: CWWK N100 Firewall Mini PC

The CWWK N100 Firewall Mini PC fills a specific role: a dedicated Proxmox network node. Its four Intel i226-V 2.5GbE ports are separate controllers, which makes per-port passthrough to a firewall VM possible once you confirm the IOMMU grouping on your unit.

The standard setup: install Proxmox, create an OPNsense or pfSense VM with two dedicated NICs (WAN and LAN), and keep the other two ports for Proxmox management and other VMs. Routing and basic firewalling are the natural fit. Throughput with IDS/IPS such as Suricata, or with VPN encryption, depends on your rules, traffic, and ciphers, so do not assume every inspection workload keeps up with a 2.5GbE line on a four-core N100.

The N100 is not built for heavy compute. Plan on a firewall plus a few lightweight services, and keep heavier VMs on another node. Intel’s specification lists 16GB as the N100’s memory maximum, so do not size this box as a general VM host.

Build tip: CWWK sells several similar four-port N100 boards. Its F6, for example, pairs four i226-V ports with one DDR5 SO-DIMM slot in a fanless chassis, but storage layouts differ between models and revisions. Check the exact listing’s configuration and the seller’s return policy before ordering.

Upgradeable RAM: Minisforum UM890 Pro

The Minisforum UM890 Pro takes up to 96GB of DDR5 in two SO-DIMM slots, the same ceiling as the MS-A2, in a conventional mini PC. If VM density is your priority and you do not need a PCIe slot, this is the pick.

The Ryzen 9 8945HS has 8 cores and 16 threads. Its Radeon 780M works with Jellyfin’s AMD hardware acceleration (VA-API on Linux), but Plex’s Linux hardware transcoding officially supports Intel Quick Sync and NVIDIA, not AMD. AMD’s consumer integrated graphics also do not support SR-IOV, so the 780M cannot be shared across several VMs. Give it to the host, for example for a media container, or to a single VM.

Two 2.5GbE ports provide basic network separation, and two USB4 ports plus an OCuLink (PCIe 4.0 x4) port open up external 10GbE adapters or GPU enclosures. Two M.2 PCIe 4.0 slots give you a boot drive and a VM storage drive.

ServeTheHome measured 7 to 9W at idle and 80 to 90W under load on its 32GB/1TB review unit. Your figures will depend on memory, drives, and workload. Minisforum sells the UM890 Pro as a barebone or configured with memory and an SSD; a barebone needs both before it can run Proxmox.

Storage Node: Beelink ME Mini

The Beelink ME Mini is not a general-purpose Proxmox host. Its soldered 12GB or 16GB of memory and four-core Intel N150 rule it out for VM-heavy workloads. It fills a different role well: a storage node.

Six M.2 2280 slots hold up to 24TB of NVMe storage (4TB per slot). Beelink lists five of the slots at PCIe 3.0 x1, so individual drives will not reach their rated speeds, but over 2.5GbE the network is the tighter limit anyway. Install Proxmox or a NAS OS, build a ZFS pool, and export storage to your compute nodes over the dual Intel 2.5GbE ports.

A practical design pairs the ME Mini with an MS-A2: the ME Mini serves NFS or iSCSI storage over 2.5GbE, and the MS-A2 runs the VMs. That is a compute and storage split, not a hyperconverged cluster, in which every node both runs guests and holds replicated storage. It is not a Ceph cluster either: Proxmox’s Ceph guide calls for at least three servers and recommends at least 10Gbps dedicated to Ceph traffic. If you join the two machines into one Proxmox cluster, add a QDevice as a third vote so the cluster keeps quorum when one node is down.

How to Choose Between These

Need PCIe passthrough or 10GbE? The MS-A2 combines a PCIe slot, dual SFP+, dual 2.5GbE, and three NVMe positions in one chassis. If you want the networking angle first, read best mini PC with 10GbE.

Want a configured box with strong CPU performance? The SER9 Pro ships with memory and an SSD and suits single-node setups where 24GB or 32GB is enough.

Building a dedicated firewall or router VM? The CWWK N100’s four i226-V ports suit per-port passthrough.

Need room to grow memory? The UM890 Pro takes up to 96GB without the MS-A2’s size or complexity.

Need a storage node? The ME Mini’s six M.2 slots provide dense NVMe storage for NFS, iSCSI, or backups on a low-power CPU.

Proxmox-Specific Setup Notes

A few things apply regardless of which hardware you pick:

Enable IOMMU in firmware. Turn on IOMMU (AMD) or VT-d (Intel) in the BIOS. Proxmox’s documentation notes that the kernel enables the IOMMU by default with AMD CPUs, and with Intel CPUs on kernel 6.8 or newer, which Proxmox VE 9 uses. Older kernels need intel_iommu=on on Intel systems. Adding iommu=pt is optional and can improve performance. Confirm with dmesg | grep -e DMAR -e IOMMU -e AMD-Vi.

Check IOMMU groups before buying PCIe devices. After enabling IOMMU, run pvesh get /nodes/<node>/hardware/pci --pci-class-blacklist "" or list /sys/kernel/iommu_groups/ to see how the platform groups its devices. Every device in a group must be passed through together, or not at all.

Separate boot and VM storage. Use one NVMe drive for Proxmox (mirror it if you have slots to spare) and another for VM storage. The MS-A2’s U.2-capable position suits a high-endurance enterprise NVMe drive for a VM pool.

Set up a dedicated management network. If you have two or more NICs, bind the Proxmox web interface to a management NIC and use the others for VM bridge traffic. This keeps a misconfigured VM from locking you out of the hypervisor.

Plan your backup strategy early. Proxmox Backup Server (PBS) runs as a VM or on a separate node. If you use the ME Mini as a storage node, dedicate one or two of its M.2 slots to a PBS datastore. Alternatively, back up to a NAS with snapshot support over NFS or SMB. The MS-A2’s 10GbE shortens large VM backups when the NAS and switch can keep up.

Consider a cluster from day one. Proxmox’s cluster documentation says high availability needs at least three nodes for reliable quorum, and a two-node cluster needs a QDevice as its third vote. An MS-A2 for compute, a CWWK N100 for networking, and an ME Mini for storage gives you three role-separated nodes that each suit their job.

Final Verdict

For home lab builders running Proxmox who need expansion, the Minisforum MS-A2 is our pick. Its PCIe slot, four network ports including dual 10G SFP+, three NVMe positions, and 96GB memory ceiling give it headroom that normal mini PCs do not have. Pair it with a NAS for storage and a CWWK N100 for network duties to create a compact, role-separated setup.

If the MS-A2 is more than you need, the UM890 Pro’s 96GB ceiling makes it the stronger single-node host for VM density without a PCIe slot, and the SER9 Pro is the simpler configured option when its soldered memory is enough.