Homelabs tend to have a predictable life cycle. I love rescuing big servers, enjoying the extra cores and memory, then I remember why I downsized last time. An array of 15K RPM fans in my bedroom just means more heat, noise, and soaring energy bills.
I want to move in the opposite direction by using smaller, quieter hardware where possible. That made a Zotac ZBOX Mini PC with a Celeron N3160 and 8 GB of RAM an ideal test subject. Instead of automatically installing Proxmox yet again, I tried a little-known hypervisor called XCP-ng. It ran far better than expected, but its two management interfaces revealed exactly where this hypervisor makes sense in the homelab.
