About MiniLabHQ

MiniLabHQ is for the hobbyist who builds small. We cover mini PCs, single-board computers, thin client repurposing, and the low-power hardware that makes a homelab cheap to run and quiet enough to live with.

What we cover

Mini PC reviews — Intel N100, N305, Ryzen 7000U, Beelink, Minisforum, GMKtec, and the no-name boxes worth buying
Power consumption — idle wattage measurements, electricity cost math, and the difference between “low power” and actually low power
Thin client repurposing — Wyse 5070, HP T620/T740, Dell OptiPlex 7050 Micro, and other corporate cast-offs that make great home servers
Single-board computers — Raspberry Pi 5, Orange Pi, Banana Pi, Radxa Rock, and when they’re the right tool (and when they aren’t)
Build guides — 24/7 setups for under $200, fanless configurations, and the kinds of lab nodes you can deploy six of without thinking about your power bill
Storage and networking for small boxes — NVMe vs SATA in a mini PC, 2.5GbE that actually works, USB SSD constraints

Who this is for

The hobbyist who reads spec sheets for fun. The renter whose homelab has to share space with their bedroom. The frugal builder who wants to run 11 services on 8 watts. If you’ve ever measured your homelab’s idle draw with a Kill-A-Watt and felt good about it, you’re in the right place.

Affiliate programs

Some links on this site are affiliate links. We earn commissions from Amazon Associates and other hardware affiliate programs when you sign up or purchase through our links. This is how we keep the lights on. We only link to mini PCs, boards, and accessories we’d recommend without the commission.

Featured reading

Sister sites

MiniLabHQ is part of a homelab cluster:

SelfhostRealm — the hub site for self-hosting concepts and service selection
DockerHomeLab — Docker Compose stacks and container patterns
TrueNASGuide — TrueNAS SCALE, ZFS, and storage decisions