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HP T620, T630, T640 Thin Clients as Homelab Servers
Used HP thin clients are still the cheapest entry into an x86 homelab. Here's what each generation actually idles at, what you can run on them, and the upgrade gotchas worth knowing before you buy.
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The Intel N100 Mini PC Buying Guide for Homelabs
What to look for when buying an Intel N100 mini PC for a 24/7 homelab — RAM, storage layout, NIC quality, BIOS quirks, and the brands worth (and not worth) buying.
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How to Actually Measure Mini PC Idle Wattage (and Why Spec Sheets Lie)
Spec-sheet TDP isn't what a mini PC actually pulls from the wall. Here's how I measure idle wattage with a $25 Kill A Watt, what to expect from common N100/N305/Ryzen boxes, and the BIOS settings that cut 2–4W.
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N100 vs N305 vs N97: Which Low-Power Chip for Your Homelab?
Intel's Alder Lake-N family ate the low-power homelab market in 2024. Here's how the N100, N305, and N97 actually compare on cores, idle watts, dollars per core, and which one fits your service stack.
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My $200 N100 Homelab: 11 Services, 8W Idle, Eight Months Uptime
A first-person walkthrough of my current N100 mini PC homelab — every part, every service, every BIOS tweak, and what the whole thing costs to run per year. Built and documented so you can copy it.