Best Mini PCs for Proxmox

For a Proxmox VE host that will grow, the Minisforum MS-A2 (Ryzen 9 9955HX barebone) is the strongest mini PC on paper: two DDR5 SO-DIMM slots up to 96GB, three NVMe positions, dual 10G SFP+ and dual 2.5GbE, plus a physical PCIe x16 slot for a passthrough card. For a quiet shelf or desk node, the ASUS NUC 15 Pro (Core Ultra 5 225H barebone kit) documents two sockets up to 48GB, an Intel I226-V 2.5GbE port and separate 2280 and 2242 NVMe slots. The Beelink EQ14 N150 is the low-cost starter with RAM, an SSD and dual 2.5GbE included, and the 45HomeLab HL15 is the storage-heavy alternative when Proxmox needs to hold the drives too. Official specifications and Proxmox documentation checked November 4, 2026.

None of these makers sells a "Proxmox edition"; you are choosing memory capacity, IOMMU support, storage positions and network ports, then installing Proxmox VE yourself. Proxmox itself is free and open-source, so the hardware decision is the whole decision.

Quick picks

Compare specifications and all conditions

Minisforum MS-A2 (9955HX barebone)

Processor (cores/threads)

Ryzen 9 9955HX, 16 cores / 32 threads

Memory ceiling

96GB DDR5, two SO-DIMM slots

Storage positions

Three M.2 NVMe (one 2280/U.2, two 2280/22110)

All specifications

Networking

Two 10G SFP+, two 2.5GbE RJ45

ASUS NUC 15 Pro (225H kit)

Processor (cores/threads)

Intel Core Ultra 5 225H, 14 cores / 14 threads

Memory ceiling

48GB DDR5, two sockets

Storage positions

2280 PCIe 5.0 x4 + 2242 PCIe 4.0 x4

All specifications

Networking

One 2.5GbE (I226-V)

Beelink EQ14 N150 (16GB kit)

Processor (cores/threads)

Intel N150, 4 cores / 4 threads

Memory ceiling

16GB DDR4 (installed)

Storage positions

Two M.2 2280 (500GB SATA SSD included)

All specifications

Networking

Two 2.5GbE (I226-V)

45HomeLab HL15 (EPYC 7252)

Processor (cores/threads)

AMD EPYC 7252, 8 cores / 16 threads

Memory ceiling

512GB DIMM options, 8 board slots

Storage positions

Fifteen SATA/SAS + M.2 boot, U.2 NVMe

All specifications

Networking

Two 10GbE RJ45 (X550-AT2)

Full comparison table ↔

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Pick	Processor (cores/threads)	Memory ceiling	Storage positions	Networking
Minisforum MS-A2 (9955HX barebone)	Ryzen 9 9955HX, 16 cores / 32 threads	96GB DDR5, two SO-DIMM slots	Three M.2 NVMe (one 2280/U.2, two 2280/22110)	Two 10G SFP+, two 2.5GbE RJ45
ASUS NUC 15 Pro (225H kit)	Intel Core Ultra 5 225H, 14 cores / 14 threads	48GB DDR5, two sockets	2280 PCIe 5.0 x4 + 2242 PCIe 4.0 x4	One 2.5GbE (I226-V)
Beelink EQ14 N150 (16GB kit)	Intel N150, 4 cores / 4 threads	16GB DDR4 (installed)	Two M.2 2280 (500GB SATA SSD included)	Two 2.5GbE (I226-V)
45HomeLab HL15 (EPYC 7252)	AMD EPYC 7252, 8 cores / 16 threads	512GB DIMM options, 8 board slots	Fifteen SATA/SAS + M.2 boot, U.2 NVMe	Two 10GbE RJ45 (X550-AT2)

Pick	Processor (cores/threads)	Memory ceiling	Storage positions	Networking
Minisforum MS-A2 (9955HX barebone)	Ryzen 9 9955HX, 16 cores / 32 threads	96GB DDR5, two SO-DIMM slots	Three M.2 NVMe (one 2280/U.2, two 2280/22110)	Two 10G SFP+, two 2.5GbE RJ45
ASUS NUC 15 Pro (225H kit)	Intel Core Ultra 5 225H, 14 cores / 14 threads	48GB DDR5, two sockets	2280 PCIe 5.0 x4 + 2242 PCIe 4.0 x4	One 2.5GbE (I226-V)
Beelink EQ14 N150 (16GB kit)	Intel N150, 4 cores / 4 threads	16GB DDR4 (installed)	Two M.2 2280 (500GB SATA SSD included)	Two 2.5GbE (I226-V)
45HomeLab HL15 (EPYC 7252)	AMD EPYC 7252, 8 cores / 16 threads	512GB DIMM options, 8 board slots	Fifteen SATA/SAS + M.2 boot, U.2 NVMe	Two 10GbE RJ45 (X550-AT2)

The HL15's drive count and network ports come from the maker's configurator data and the site's existing HL15 record (LSI 9400-16i HBA, Intel X550-AT2 10GbE, Kingston NV3 1TB M.2 boot). Memory ceilings are the makers' documented maximums, not what arrives in the box: the MS-A2 and NUC 15 Pro barebones ship with no RAM or SSD, and the MS-A2's store lists configured 64GB and 96GB kits alongside the barebone. Nothing here is a Proxmox-certified appliance; every claim below comes from the makers' own pages and Proxmox's documentation, and we have not run any of this hardware.

Plan the lab before the box

Proxmox's own system requirements are modest: 2 GB for the OS and Proxmox services plus guest memory, one 64-bit x86 CPU with Intel VT or AMD-V, one hard drive and one network card, and those minimums are for evaluation only, not production. The gap between "it installs" and "it runs your lab" is the whole purchase decision.

1. 1

   List every VM and container

   Note each one's RAM and vCPUs, and the space its disks take.

2. 2

   Add Proxmox's overhead

   2 GB for the OS and services, plus roughly 1GB of RAM per TB of ZFS or Ceph storage used.

3. 3

   Choose the memory ceiling

   Buy a documented ceiling above your total, because upgrading RAM later is cheap but a 16GB cap is not.

4. 4

   Plan boot, VM and backup tiers

   One small disk for Proxmox, fast NVMe for VMs, separate destination for vzdump backups.

A home lab worksheet that fits comfortably in 32GB of installed RAM: 4GB for a Home Assistant VM, 8GB for an Ubuntu LXC media stack, 4GB for a Pi-hole and small utility containers, plus Proxmox's 2 GB for the OS and services and ZFS's share of the total. That worksheet lands well under 32GB — but only if you stop there, which is why a documented 96GB ceiling leaves room to add VMs without rebuilding.

Memory and ZFS requirements

Two numbers decide the memory question. Proxmox recommends "minimum 2 GB for the OS and Proxmox VE services, plus designated memory for guests," and "approximately 1GB of memory for every TB of used storage" for Ceph and ZFS. The widely used ZFS planning figure of ~8 GB RAM per TB of pool is an Arc-type rule of thumb for good performance, not a Proxmox requirement, so a 2TB ZFS pool works with less RAM and simply performs differently.

• MS-A2 (9955HX)96GB
• NUC 15 Pro (225H)48GB
• HL15 (8 DIMM slots, EPYC)512GB
• EQ14 N15016GB

Source: each maker's official spec page and the site's HL15 record (linked in the product cards)

• 2 GBProxmox OS and services, per Proxmox's recommendation
• 512 GBHL15's largest documented memory selection
• 1 GBExtra memory per TB of used ZFS or Ceph storage, per Proxmox

The EQ14's maker lists DDR4 "Up to 16GB," which caps your VM total before you start; a 32GB kit is a cheap start with a documented path to 96GB on the MS-A2, while the NUC 15 Pro tops out at ASUS's documented 48GB. ZFS adds one more constraint: it wants whole disks, and Proxmox states that "neither ZFS nor Ceph are compatible with a hardware RAID controller," so every pick here uses direct-attached disks.

IOMMU, VT-d and passthrough checks

PCI(e) passthrough — handing a NIC or a GPU to a VM — is where mini PCs get interesting. Proxmox requires an IOMMU: "Intel systems with VT-d and AMD systems with AMD-Vi support this," and IOMMU "usually also needs to be enabled in the BIOS/UEFI," where "the corresponding setting is called IOMMU or VT-d." With kernel 6.8 or newer, IOMMU is enabled by default on both AMD and Intel CPUs.

• Yes: MS-A2: PCIe x16 slot (PCIe 4.0 x8, splitting supported) for a real card; IOMMU exposed by AMD Ryzen CPUs
• Yes: NUC 15 Pro: Core Ultra platform; Intel lists VT-x, VT-d and EPT for the 225H; Thunderbolt 4 ports add device options
• Partly: EQ14: the CPU supports virtualization, but there is no PCIe slot; only onboard devices to pass through
• Partly: HL15: EPYC server platform with IOMMU, but check the IOMMU groups of any card before buying it
• No: Every pick: nothing works until IOMMU is on in BIOS/UEFI and the specific device's groups are checked

Proxmox is blunt that this "is not guaranteed that everything will work out of the box, due to bad hardware implementation and missing or low quality drivers," and that "server grade hardware has often better support than consumer grade hardware." That is the argument for the HL15's EPYC platform if passthrough is the point of the build, and for the MS-A2's physical PCIe x16 slot — the only mini PC here that takes a full card, with bandwidth of PCIe 4.0 x8 and support for splitting into two x4 slots, per Minisforum.

Boot, VM and backup storage tiers

Plan three tiers. Boot: one small SSD holds Proxmox VE itself; both ASUS's 2280/2242 positions and the MS-A2's spare M.2 slots make this trivial, and the HL15 can add a 2-Slot M.2 NVMe carrier card from the maker's configurator. VM storage: fast NVMe for VM disks, or a ZFS mirror. Backup: Proxmox's Backup and Restore chapter opens with "backups are a requirement for any sensible IT deployment," and a vzdump target on another device, like one of the NAS picks in our home-NAS guide or an HL15 with empty drive positions, completes the tier.

Watch the MS-A2's fine print: "The two slots are set to PCIe 3.0 x4 by default and can be manually changed to PCIe 4.0 x4 in the BIOS," so check that setting after install. On the EQ14, both M.2 slots are PCIe 3.0 and "the retail unit ships with a SATA III SSD" despite the slots — a fine boot disk, a slow VM disk.

Best main Proxmox node: Minisforum MS-A2 9955HX

The MS-A2 is the mini PC that behaves like a small server. Minisforum's store page and global spec sheet list the Ryzen 9 9955HX (Zen 5, 16 cores, 32 threads, up to 5.4 GHz), "Up to 96GB DDR5 (SO-DIMM x 2)" at DDR5-5600 for Ryzen 9000, three M.2 NVMe positions, "2.5Gb LAN(RJ45, Intel I226-V) x 1" alongside a 2.5GbE Realtek RTL8125 port and two "10G SFP+ (Intel X710)" ports, and a "PCIe x16 (PCIe 4.0 x8, Splitting Supported)" slot.

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Four Ethernet ports is the practical Proxmox story: two for the management and VM networks, two 10G SFP+ for a 10GbE storage backbone, and SFP+ links to a matching switch or directly to a NAS. Two SSDs can run a ZFS mirror with the third as a boot or cache disk. The trade-offs: it is a barebone — RAM, SSD and OS are yours to add; SFP+ needs matching link equipment, not RJ45; and both the barebone and the 64GB and 96GB store kits had regional availability to confirm when we checked. Buy the barebone plus your own DDR5-5600 SO-DIMM kit; see our mini PC memory guidance in the home-server guide.

Best for a quiet, growing VM lab: ASUS NUC 15 Pro (Core Ultra 5 225H)

The NUC 15 Pro kit is the tidy choice: one I226-V 2.5GbE port, two DDR5 sockets with ASUS's official maximum shown as "48GB DDR5-5600 SO-DIMM x 2," and two separate NVMe positions — a 2280 slot at PCIe 5.0 x4 for VMs and a 2242 at PCIe 4.0 x4 for the Proxmox boot disk. Intel lists VT-x, VT-d and EPT for the Core Ultra 5 225H, so an IOMMU is there when you want to pass a USB controller through.

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Two Thunderbolt 4 ports (ASUS lists them including DP 2.1 and USB4) give you external options a plain mini PC lacks, and ASUS publishes a memory and SSD compatibility report (QVL) so the parts you add are documented. The trade-offs: one RJ45 port means VM, management and backup traffic share a single 2.5GbE link unless you add USB or Thunderbolt networking; the kit arrives with no RAM, SSD or OS; and the family spec page covers several processors and complete configurations — order the exact kit (NUC15CRK-B, Core Ultra 5 225H), not a family name.

Best low-cost starter node: Beelink EQ14 N150

The EQ14 is the "just try Proxmox" machine: the selected kit includes 16GB of DDR4, a 500GB SSD and dual 2.5GbE with an Intel I226-V chipset, and Beelink lists "AUTO POWER ON WOL" — the two behaviors an always-on headless host wants after a power cut. A quad-core N150 with 16GB runs a handful of LXC containers and one or two light VMs comfortably.

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Two M.2 2280 slots (PCIe 3.0, up to 8TB total storage) let you add a proper VM disk and keep the supplied SATA SSD for boot. The trade-offs are the ceiling: the maker lists DDR4 "up to 16GB," there is no PCIe slot for passthrough cards, and the official selector marked the dual-2.5G kit a pre-order when we checked. If the lab outgrows it, the EQ14 becomes a second node or a dedicated Pi-hole and utility container host.

Best storage-heavy node: 45HomeLab HL15

When Proxmox should also hold the disks, the HL15 is a full server in a mini-PC budget's big brother: the maker's configurator offers the ASRock ROMED8-2T motherboard with EPYC 7252 (8 cores, 16 threads), ECC-capable DIMM selections from 16GB to 512GB, a direct-wired fifteen-position SATA/SAS backplane, an LSI 9400-16i HBA, and two RJ45 10GbE ports (Intel X550-AT2) on the selected motherboard.

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For Proxmox specifically: pass the HBA through to a TrueNAS VM or run ZFS directly, keep the NV3 M.2 as boot, and let the fifteen positions carry the ZFS pool that also serves as the backup destination for the other nodes. The trade-offs: it is not a mini PC in any sense — a rack chassis, a 1000W PSU and a louder room; the maker configures it with Rocky Linux, so Proxmox (or TrueNAS) is your own install to validate; and the memory brand may vary with substitutions, per the maker.

How we choose

We have not tested any of this hardware. Every specification here comes from the makers' own pages — Minisforum's store and global spec sheet, ASUS's NUC 15 Pro techspec page, Beelink's EQ14 page and 45HomeLab's configurator API — with memory, passthrough and backup requirements from Proxmox's System Requirements, PCI(e) Passthrough and Backup and Restore documentation, all checked November 4, 2026. We picked for memory ceilings and slots, IOMMU/VT-d exposure, storage tier separation, network port count and documented power-on behavior, and we left out any spec the maker does not publish. Full method: How we choose.

Buying guide

Two sockets beat one big stick. A documented 96GB across two SO-DIMM slots is available on the MS-A2, and the NUC 15 Pro's maker-listed maximum is 48GB; either lets you start with a smaller kit and grow, unlike the EQ14's single-slot 16GB ceiling — the most common way a Proxmox mini PC gets retired early.

Count M.2 positions, then assign them. Three positions (MS-A2) cover boot disk, VM disk and a ZFS special/cache device; two (NUC 15 Pro, EQ14) cover boot plus VMs; for bulk storage, plan a NAS or DAS over the 2.5 or 10GbE link.

Buy the backup destination with the node. Proxmox calls backups "a requirement for any sensible IT deployment," and they are always full backups of the VM's configuration and all data, so size the target for the whole lab, not the first VM. Then test a restore. See our UPS picks for routers and NAS to keep a small node alive through a power cut, and the home-network setup checklist for wiring it in.

Verdict

Buy the Minisforum MS-A2 9955HX barebone as the main Proxmox node: 96GB across two slots, three NVMe positions, four Ethernet ports including two 10G SFP+, and the only PCIe slot here for passthrough. For a quieter, simpler lab, the ASUS NUC 15 Pro 225H kit offers a documented 48GB ceiling with a documented I226-V port and split NVMe tiers. The Beelink EQ14 N150 is the honest low-cost starter — memory and storage included — as long as you accept its 16GB ceiling, and the 45HomeLab HL15 is the right answer when the Proxmox host should be the storage server too. Whatever you pick: enable IOMMU in the BIOS before you plan a passthrough, keep boot and VM disks separate, and prove a backup restore before the lab matters.