Mini PC Power Cost Calculator: Idle Watts to Yearly Cost
Calculate a mini PC's yearly electricity cost from idle watts and your tariff, then compare hardware that fits your workloads over five years.
What will it run?
Plex / Jellyfin (media server)
Base: 1 GB RAM, 1 thread, 0 GB storage, 3 W active
- Direct play only (no transcode): +0.5 GB RAM, 0 streams, +2 W active
- 1 transcode (1080p): +0.5 GB RAM, 1 streams, +8 W active
- 2-3 transcodes (1080p): +1 GB RAM, 3 streams, +14 W active
- 4K HEVC transcode: +1.5 GB RAM, 2 streams, +18 W active
Quick Sync required
Transcoding needs an Intel iGPU with Quick Sync (or equivalent). Direct play does not.
*arr stack (Sonarr/Radarr/Prowlarr + client)
- RAM
- 1.5 GB
- Threads
- 1
- Storage
- 5 GB
- Active power
- 3 W
Home Assistant
- RAM
- 2 GB
- Threads
- 2
- Storage
- 32 GB
- Active power
- 4 W
HA OS / supervised. Add-ons (Zigbee2MQTT, ESPHome) push RAM higher.
Nextcloud (+ DB)
- RAM
- 2 GB
- Threads
- 2
- Storage
- 50 GB
- Active power
- 5 W
Includes its database. Heavy users (photos, collabora) want more.
Frigate NVR (per-camera)
- Base
- 1 GB RAM, 1 thread, 0 GB storage, 6 W active
- Per camera
- 0.4 GB RAM, 0.75 threads, 60 GB storage, 4 W active
- Default cameras
- 3
- Maximum cameras
- 16
Quick Sync required
Detection load scales with camera count and resolution. A Coral TPU offloads inference and cuts CPU/threads sharply — modeled here as CPU-only (conservative).
General-purpose VMs (per VM)
- Per VM
- 2 GB RAM, 2 threads, 40 GB storage, 5 W active
- VM count
- 1 default, 12 maximum
Sized for a light Linux VM (2 GB / 2 vCPU). Windows or DB VMs need more — adjust the count up.
Pi-hole / AdGuard Home (DNS)
- RAM
- 0.5 GB
- Threads
- 1
- Storage
- 2 GB
- Active power
- 1 W
Misc Docker (dashboards, Uptime-Kuma, etc.)
- RAM
- 1 GB
- Threads
- 1
- Storage
- 5 GB
- Active power
- 2 W
Required & matching mini-PCs
Generic N100 mini-PC (Beelink S12 Pro / GMKtec etc.)
Intel N100
- CPU
- 4 cores / 4 threads
- Maximum RAM
- 16 GB
- Quick Sync
- 12th-gen UHD, about 4 streams
- Networking
- 1 NICs, 1GbE
- Storage expansion
- 1 bays, 1 M.2 slots
- Wall power
- 7 W idle / 28 W load
- Hardware price
- $150-180 ($160 TCO value)
- Form factor
- mini
The default budget homelab box. Single-channel RAM caps heavy DB work; great transcoder.
N100 4x/2x 2.5GbE router-style mini-PC
Intel N100
- CPU
- 4 cores / 4 threads
- Maximum RAM
- 32 GB
- Quick Sync
- 12th-gen UHD, about 4 streams
- Networking
- 4 NICs, 2.5GbE
- Storage expansion
- 0 bays, 1 M.2 slots
- Wall power
- 9 W idle / 26 W load
- Hardware price
- $190-260 ($220 TCO value)
- Form factor
- mini
Multi-NIC fanless box popular for OPNsense/Proxmox + light services.
Generic N305 mini-PC
Intel Core i3-N305
- CPU
- 8 cores / 8 threads
- Maximum RAM
- 32 GB
- Quick Sync
- 12th-gen UHD, about 5 streams
- Networking
- 2 NICs, 2.5GbE
- Storage expansion
- 1 bays, 1 M.2 slots
- Wall power
- 9 W idle / 35 W load
- Hardware price
- $240-300 ($260 TCO value)
- Form factor
- mini
8 cores at N-series power. Best low-power pick when you need real thread count.
Generic N97 mini-PC
Intel N97
- CPU
- 4 cores / 4 threads
- Maximum RAM
- 16 GB
- Quick Sync
- 12th-gen UHD, about 4 streams
- Networking
- 1 NICs, 1GbE
- Storage expansion
- 1 bays, 1 M.2 slots
- Wall power
- 8 W idle / 30 W load
- Hardware price
- $160-210 ($180 TCO value)
- Form factor
- mini
Slightly higher clocks than N100, otherwise near-identical.
Dell Wyse 5070 thin client (J5005)
Intel Pentium Silver J5005
- CPU
- 4 cores / 4 threads
- Maximum RAM
- 16 GB
- Quick Sync
- Gemini Lake UHD 605, about 2 streams
- Networking
- 1 NICs, 1GbE
- Storage expansion
- 0 bays, 1 M.2 slots
- Wall power
- 6 W idle / 17 W load
- Hardware price
- $50-90 used ($70 TCO value)
- Form factor
- thinclient
Cheap used workhorse. Weak QSV for HEVC; ideal for DNS/light Docker.
Dell Wyse 5070 Extended (J5005, PCIe slot)
Intel Pentium Silver J5005
- CPU
- 4 cores / 4 threads
- Maximum RAM
- 16 GB
- Quick Sync
- Gemini Lake UHD 605, about 2 streams
- Networking
- 1 NICs, 1GbE
- Storage expansion
- 1 bays, 1 M.2 slots
- Wall power
- 7 W idle / 19 W load
- Hardware price
- $80-120 used ($95 TCO value)
- Form factor
- thinclient
Extended chassis adds a low-profile PCIe slot — fit a NIC, HBA or Coral.
HP t620 Plus thin client (GX-420CA)
AMD GX-420CA
- CPU
- 4 cores / 4 threads
- Maximum RAM
- 16 GB
- Quick Sync
- none (AMD), about 0 streams
- Networking
- 1 NICs, 1GbE
- Storage expansion
- 1 bays, 0 M.2 slots
- Wall power
- 9 W idle / 20 W load
- Hardware price
- $30-60 used ($45 TCO value)
- Form factor
- thinclient
Very cheap. No Quick Sync; fine for pfSense/OPNsense and DNS, not transcoding.
HP t630 thin client (GX-420GI)
AMD GX-420GI
- CPU
- 4 cores / 4 threads
- Maximum RAM
- 16 GB
- Quick Sync
- none (AMD), about 0 streams
- Networking
- 1 NICs, 1GbE
- Storage expansion
- 0 bays, 1 M.2 slots
- Wall power
- 8 W idle / 18 W load
- Hardware price
- $50-100 used ($70 TCO value)
- Form factor
- thinclient
M.2 SATA slot, low idle. Same no-QSV caveat as the t620.
HP t640 thin client (Ryzen R1505G)
AMD Ryzen R1505G
- CPU
- 2 cores / 4 threads
- Maximum RAM
- 32 GB
- Quick Sync
- none (AMD Vega), about 0 streams
- Networking
- 1 NICs, 1GbE
- Storage expansion
- 0 bays, 1 M.2 slots
- Wall power
- 9 W idle / 25 W load
- Hardware price
- $90-150 used ($120 TCO value)
- Form factor
- thinclient
Faster than the GX thin clients; Vega iGPU transcodes via VAAPI (not scored here).
Dell OptiPlex 3060 Micro (i5-8500T)
Intel Core i5-8500T
- CPU
- 6 cores / 6 threads
- Maximum RAM
- 32 GB
- Quick Sync
- 8th-gen UHD 630, about 6 streams
- Networking
- 1 NICs, 1GbE
- Storage expansion
- 1 bays, 1 M.2 slots
- Wall power
- 10 W idle / 35 W load
- Hardware price
- $120-180 used ($140 TCO value)
- Form factor
- micro
Used SFF gold standard. 6 real cores, strong UHD 630 QSV, cheap.
HP EliteDesk 800 G4 Mini (i5-8500T)
Intel Core i5-8500T
- CPU
- 6 cores / 6 threads
- Maximum RAM
- 64 GB
- Quick Sync
- 8th-gen UHD 630, about 6 streams
- Networking
- 1 NICs, 1GbE
- Storage expansion
- 1 bays, 1 M.2 slots
- Wall power
- 9 W idle / 35 W load
- Hardware price
- $140-200 used ($160 TCO value)
- Form factor
- micro
Same chip as the OptiPlex but takes 64 GB — great Proxmox node.
Lenovo ThinkCentre M720q (i5-9500T)
Intel Core i5-9500T
- CPU
- 6 cores / 6 threads
- Maximum RAM
- 64 GB
- Quick Sync
- 9th-gen UHD 630, about 6 streams
- Networking
- 1 NICs, 1GbE
- Storage expansion
- 1 bays, 1 M.2 slots
- Wall power
- 9 W idle / 38 W load
- Hardware price
- $150-210 used ($170 TCO value)
- Form factor
- micro
Tiny chassis with an optional PCIe riser — popular Proxmox cluster node.
Lenovo ThinkCentre M920q (i7-8700T)
Intel Core i7-8700T
- CPU
- 6 cores / 12 threads
- Maximum RAM
- 64 GB
- Quick Sync
- 8th-gen UHD 630, about 7 streams
- Networking
- 1 NICs, 1GbE
- Storage expansion
- 1 bays, 1 M.2 slots
- Wall power
- 11 W idle / 45 W load
- Hardware price
- $200-280 used ($230 TCO value)
- Form factor
- micro
12 threads in a 1L box. Strong all-rounder for VMs + transcoding.
Beelink SER5 (Ryzen 5 5560U)
AMD Ryzen 5 5560U
- CPU
- 6 cores / 12 threads
- Maximum RAM
- 64 GB
- Quick Sync
- none (AMD Vega), about 0 streams
- Networking
- 1 NICs, 1GbE
- Storage expansion
- 1 bays, 1 M.2 slots
- Wall power
- 8 W idle / 40 W load
- Hardware price
- $260-330 ($280 TCO value)
- Form factor
- mini
12 threads, low idle, lots of RAM headroom. No QSV (Vega VAAPI only).
Beelink SER8 (Ryzen 7 8745HS)
AMD Ryzen 7 8745HS
- CPU
- 8 cores / 16 threads
- Maximum RAM
- 64 GB
- Quick Sync
- none (AMD 780M), about 0 streams
- Networking
- 1 NICs, 2.5GbE
- Storage expansion
- 0 bays, 2 M.2 slots
- Wall power
- 12 W idle / 65 W load
- Hardware price
- $420-520 ($450 TCO value)
- Form factor
- mini
16 threads + 780M. Heavy VM/lab host; AMD VAAPI transcode out of scope.
Minisforum MS-01 (i5-12600H)
Intel Core i5-12600H
- CPU
- 12 cores / 16 threads
- Maximum RAM
- 96 GB
- Quick Sync
- 12th-gen Iris Xe, about 8 streams
- Networking
- 4 NICs, 2x 10GbE + 2x 2.5GbE
- Storage expansion
- 0 bays, 3 M.2 slots
- Wall power
- 17 W idle / 90 W load
- Hardware price
- $580-720 barebones ($620 TCO value)
- Form factor
- mini
Dual 10GbE, PCIe slot, 3x NVMe. Higher idle is the trade for the I/O.
Minisforum UM790 Pro (Ryzen 9 7940HS)
AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS
- CPU
- 8 cores / 16 threads
- Maximum RAM
- 64 GB
- Quick Sync
- none (AMD 780M), about 0 streams
- Networking
- 1 NICs, 2.5GbE
- Storage expansion
- 0 bays, 2 M.2 slots
- Wall power
- 14 W idle / 75 W load
- Hardware price
- $480-600 ($520 TCO value)
- Form factor
- mini
Strong 16-thread compute box. No Quick Sync.
ASUS ExpertCenter PN42 (N100)
Intel N100
- CPU
- 4 cores / 4 threads
- Maximum RAM
- 16 GB
- Quick Sync
- 12th-gen UHD, about 4 streams
- Networking
- 2 NICs, 1GbE + 2.5GbE
- Storage expansion
- 1 bays, 1 M.2 slots
- Wall power
- 7 W idle / 27 W load
- Hardware price
- $210-270 ($230 TCO value)
- Form factor
- mini
Brand-name N100 with dual NIC and a 2.5" bay.
Intel NUC 11 (i5-1135G7)
Intel Core i5-1135G7
- CPU
- 4 cores / 8 threads
- Maximum RAM
- 64 GB
- Quick Sync
- 11th-gen Iris Xe, about 8 streams
- Networking
- 1 NICs, 2.5GbE
- Storage expansion
- 0 bays, 1 M.2 slots
- Wall power
- 9 W idle / 40 W load
- Hardware price
- $300-380 ($320 TCO value)
- Form factor
- mini
Iris Xe is an excellent transcoder; 8 threads, 64 GB capable.
Topton N5105 4-bay NAS board
Intel Celeron N5105
- CPU
- 4 cores / 4 threads
- Maximum RAM
- 32 GB
- Quick Sync
- Jasper Lake UHD, about 3 streams
- Networking
- 4 NICs, 2.5GbE
- Storage expansion
- 4 bays, 2 M.2 slots
- Wall power
- 12 W idle / 30 W load
- Hardware price
- $200-280 barebones ($230 TCO value)
- Form factor
- nas
4 SATA bays + quad 2.5GbE — DIY NAS favourite. Add disks/RAM yourself.
Methodology & honest caveats
Requirements are the sum of per-workload steady-state estimates plus a host/hypervisor baseline, taken from each project's documented minimums and community-observed headroom — deliberately a little generous so a "fits" verdict has slack. RAM and threads add linearly; transcode demand is tracked separately in Quick Sync 1080p-equivalent streams (a 4K HEVC job ≈ 2).
5-year TCO = purchase price + electricity, where annual energy =
(idle W × (1−duty) + load W × duty) ÷ 1000 × hours/yr × your kWh rate,
multiplied by 5 years. We weight idle vs load by a duty cycle because home servers spend most of
their life near idle — using peak wattage 24/7 (what many "power cost" posts do) overstates the bill 2–4×.
Wall-watt and price figures are bands, not guarantees: actual draw shifts with RAM amount, number of disks, BIOS power settings and silicon lottery; used-gear prices swing weekly. AMD APUs do transcode via VAAPI/VCN but are conservatively scored as 0 Quick Sync streams here, so an AMD box may be fine for transcoding even when this tool flags it — that's a deliberately cautious bias. This is sizing decision-support, not a purchase guarantee; verify wattage with a meter on the actual unit.
Coefficients & catalog: src/data/workloads.json + src/data/minipcs.json
(model v1.0).