Intel N100 Mini PC: The Self-Hoster's Best Friend

Q: Is the N100 fast enough for a home server?

Yes. It handles 15+ Docker containers, 1–2 Plex transcodes, and light VM use without breaking a sweat. It's overkill for most home server setups.

Q: How much RAM do I really need?

16 GB is the sweet spot. You can run a full self-hosting stack in 8–12 GB. The remaining 4–8 GB becomes filesystem cache, which speeds up everything. 32 GB is unnecessary unless you're running VMs.

Q: Can I run Proxmox on an N100?

Yes, but with limits. You get 4 cores to share across VMs. One or two lightweight VMs plus some LXC containers works well. For heavy virtualization, step up to the N305 or a Ryzen chip.

Q: Does the N100 support ECC RAM?

No. If you need ECC (for TrueNAS with ZFS), look at the Intel Atom C3000 series or AMD EPYC Embedded. For Docker containers on ext4/btrfs, ECC isn't necessary.

Q: How long will the N100 be supported?

Intel Alder Lake-N launched in Q1 2023. Intel typically provides microcode updates for 5+ years. Linux kernel support is indefinite. Expect this hardware to be viable through at least 2028–2029.

What Is the Intel N100?

The Intel N100 is a 4-core, 4-thread mobile processor from Intel’s Alder Lake-N family (12th gen). It launched in early 2023 and quickly became the default CPU for budget home servers. The reason is simple: it draws 6W at base clock, handles a dozen Docker containers without flinching, and includes Intel Quick Sync for hardware video transcoding.

It’s been succeeded by the N150 (Twin Lake, late 2024) which is 6–10% faster at the same power envelope. Both are excellent. Everything in this guide applies to the N150 too — if you’re buying today, get whichever is cheaper.

Key Specs

Spec	Intel N100	Intel N150	Intel i3-N305
Cores / Threads	4C / 4T	4C / 4T	8C / 8T
Base clock	800 MHz	800 MHz	1.8 GHz
Boost clock	3.4 GHz	3.6 GHz	3.8 GHz
TDP	6W	6W	15W
Max memory	16 GB DDR4/DDR5	16 GB DDR4/DDR5	16 GB DDR5
iGPU	Intel UHD (24 EUs)	Intel UHD (24 EUs)	Intel UHD (32 EUs)
Quick Sync	Yes (AV1 decode, HEVC encode/decode)	Yes	Yes
Lithography	Intel 7 (10nm)	Intel 7 (10nm)	Intel 7 (10nm)
Launch price	~$128 (OEM)	~$128 (OEM)	~$264 (OEM)

The N100 and N150 are E-cores only (efficiency cores). No P-cores. This is why they’re so power-efficient — they sacrifice single-thread burst performance for sustained low-wattage operation. For server workloads that are parallel and sustained (Docker containers, web servers, databases), this is the right trade-off.

Power Consumption: The Killer Feature

Real-world measurements from N100 mini PCs running self-hosting workloads:

State	Power Draw	Notes
Off (standby)	1–2 W	PSU vampire draw
Idle (headless, no containers)	5–6 W	Just the OS
Light load (5–10 containers)	7–9 W	Pi-hole + Nextcloud + Vaultwarden + Uptime Kuma
Medium load (15+ containers, occasional transcoding)	10–14 W	Full Docker stack with periodic spikes
Full CPU load (stress test)	15–18 W	Sustained all-core load

Annual electricity cost at $0.12/kWh:

Scenario	Watts	Annual Cost
N100 idle with containers	8 W	$8.41
N100 medium load	12 W	$12.61
Dell OptiPlex 7050 idle	28 W	$29.44
Old tower server idle	80 W	$84.10
Old tower server with HDDs	120 W	$126.14

The N100 costs about $8/year to run 24/7. An old tower server costs $85–125/year. Over 3 years, the N100 saves you $230–350 in electricity — which is more than the cost of the mini PC. The hardware pays for itself.

What Can You Run on an N100?

Comfortably (8–12 GB RAM used, CPU barely noticed):

Pi-hole or AdGuard Home — 50 MB RAM
Nextcloud + MariaDB — 500 MB RAM
Vaultwarden — 30 MB RAM
Uptime Kuma — 80 MB RAM
Home Assistant — 300 MB RAM
Nginx Proxy Manager — 100 MB RAM
Dockge or Portainer — 150 MB RAM
Syncthing — 200 MB RAM
BookStack + MariaDB — 300 MB RAM
Jellyfin — 500 MB idle, spikes during transcoding
PostgreSQL, Redis, and other supporting databases

All of the above simultaneously. Total: ~2.2 GB RAM for the apps, plus ~1.5 GB for the OS and Docker overhead. You’ll have 12+ GB free on a 16 GB system.

With some effort (CPU-intensive, but manageable):

Plex with 1–2 simultaneous hardware transcodes (Quick Sync handles this)
Immich with machine learning (slow but functional — ML inference takes 2–5 seconds per photo instead of <1 second on a Ryzen)
PhotoPrism — initial indexing is slow, day-to-day use is fine
Gitea or Forgejo — CI runners will be slow for large builds

Not recommended:

Plex with 4+ simultaneous transcodes (Quick Sync has limits)
Heavy Proxmox use with 3+ VMs (4 cores isn’t enough to share across VMs)
Large-scale CI/CD (build times will be painful)
AI/ML training workloads (this is an E-core chip, not a compute monster)

Best N100/N150 Mini PCs for Self-Hosting

Beelink EQ14 (N150) — Best Overall (~$160)

Dual 2.5 GbE, 16 GB RAM, 500 GB SSD. The dual NICs make this ideal for self-hosting — one for LAN, one for a separate VLAN, management network, or even running OPNsense as a router.

Minisforum UN100L (N100) — Best for Compactness (~$190)

LPDDR5 RAM, 512 GB SSD, sleek aluminum chassis. Single Ethernet port. Good if you want something that looks presentable on a shelf.

GMKtec NucBox G3 Plus (N150) — Best Budget (~$150)

Cheapest way to get an N150 with 16 GB RAM. Single 2.5 GbE port. Build quality is acceptable, not premium.

CWWK Fanless N305 — Best for Firewall/Router (~$280 barebones)

6x 2.5 GbE Intel I226-V ports. Fanless. This is purpose-built for running OPNsense or pfSense. If you’re building a router/firewall, this is the one. The N305’s 8 cores handle packet inspection and VPN at wire speed.

Trigkey G4 (N100) — Budget Entry (~$140)

Dual 1 GbE (not 2.5 GbE), 16 GB DDR4, 500 GB SSD. The cheapest option if you don’t need 2.5 GbE.

N100 vs N150: Which Should You Buy?

Buy whatever’s cheaper. The N150 is 6–10% faster at the same wattage, but for server workloads you won’t notice the difference. If the N150 model costs the same or $10 more, get it. If the N100 model is $30 cheaper, get that. Both are excellent.

N100 vs N305: When to Upgrade

The N305 costs about $200 more and draws 2–3x the power at idle. It’s worth it if:

You’re running Proxmox and want 3+ VMs
You need multiple simultaneous Plex transcodes
You run compute-heavy containers (Immich ML, Frigate NVR, CI runners)
You want headroom for growth

It’s NOT worth it if:

You’re running a standard Docker stack (Pi-hole, Nextcloud, Jellyfin, Home Assistant)
You prioritize lowest possible power draw
You’re on a tight budget

See our Best Mini PCs for Home Servers guide for the full comparison.

Setup Tips for Self-Hosting

1. Install Ubuntu Server or Debian (not Windows)

These mini PCs ship with Windows 11. Wipe it and install Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS or Debian 12. You’ll free up 2–3 GB of RAM and remove unnecessary background processes. A headless Linux server on an N100 idles at 5–6W. Windows idles at 8–10W.

2. Enable Intel Quick Sync Passthrough

For Plex or Jellyfin hardware transcoding in Docker, you need to pass through the GPU device:

services:
  jellyfin:
    image: jellyfin/jellyfin:10.10.6
    devices:
      - /dev/dri:/dev/dri
    # ... rest of config

Verify it works:

ls -la /dev/dri/
# Should show renderD128 and card0

3. Use Docker Compose

See our Docker Compose Basics guide. Every app guide on this site includes a complete, copy-paste-ready Docker Compose config.

4. Set Up Remote Access

Install Tailscale or WireGuard to access your server from anywhere without exposing ports to the internet.

5. Configure Automatic Updates

Set up unattended-upgrades for security patches:

sudo apt install unattended-upgrades
sudo dpkg-reconfigure unattended-upgrades

FAQ

Is the N100 fast enough for a home server?

Yes. It handles 15+ Docker containers, 1–2 Plex transcodes, and light VM use without breaking a sweat. It’s overkill for most home server setups.

How much RAM do I really need?

16 GB is the sweet spot. You can run a full self-hosting stack in 8–12 GB. The remaining 4–8 GB becomes filesystem cache, which speeds up everything. 32 GB is unnecessary unless you’re running VMs.

Can I run Proxmox on an N100?