Thanks for the recommendation, I got this one for just over $100 after tax. Space is an issue for me, so more machines isn’t the best and I can always keep the Mac Mini chugging if needed. I’ll probably only do the HDD/SSD and RAM upgrade, but it’s definitely worth keeping in mind if I throw a new NIC or GPU in it. I am thinking of putting a Noctua fan on the CPU cooler to keep it quieter and cooler!

Just ordered a used HP EliteDesk 800 G3 SFF (3.6GHz Intel Core i7-7700, 8GB DDR4 RAM, 256GB SSD) off EBay to replace my Apple Mac mini “Core i7” 2.3 (Late 2012/Server). Hoping to put 32GB of RAM in it, 1TB NVMe boot drive and maybe a 3.5” HDD for media instead of using an external drive. Might move to NixOS (I’d like to learn how to administer Nix even though it’s very complicated sometimes) and Podman, instead of using Proxmox and Docker Debian VMs and LXC containers.

Any advice and guidance appreciated!

This is how I handle my server, I have an older Mac Mini with a SSD and 16GB of RAM running Proxmox. I’ve got a Debian VM for Docker stuff (all pretty lightweight containers right now), a VM with Debian for a remote VS Code environment and LXC’s for Plex and PiHole. I also wanted to learn about NixOS, so I fired up a VM and installed it to test it out. I will say, I want to learn more NixOS… that’s not an easy or simple solution! Awesome OS and I love the concept, but you really have to be dedicated to learn the syntax and maintain it!