I’ve gotten a lot of use out of my old Lenovo Thinkpad. Only bc of Linux mint tho

I’ve had a lot of fun with used HP elitedesk/prodesks. Go for Intel, gen 6 i3/i5 or newer. Id push it to 16GB ram if you can manage it.

The SFF models (small desktops) are good if you plan on adding HDDs or anything PCIe in the future. If not go for the USSF (mini) models - they are very power efficient. All extremely quiet - you’ll have to really push the resources to hear more than a whisper from them.

I’ve had 7 all together and been pleased with them.

I’m surprised nobody else has mentioned it, but I recommend going with an Intel processor (8th gen or newer). This gets you Intel QuickSync (hardware video encoding/decoding) and an integrated GPU, making 4K video transcoding/playback a breeze. This opens up possibilities like Jellyfin, Frigate, and improves performance significantly for Immich.

I’ve got an i5-8500T (no external GPU) that’s managing 6x always-on security cameras in Frigate and Jellyfin streaming for 6 family members (local and remote with transcoding), plus a dozen other docker containers for Home Assistant/websites/*arr stack plus 4 always-on Linux VMs for various other projects, and the CPU sits anywhere from 30-60%. It’s amazing how capable old CPUs are as long as they have hardware video codecs.

Your biggest concern is going to be RAM. The more things you want to run on the server at once, the more RAM you’ll need. I need 64GB for my above stack for example.

I think a used laptop or NUC-style mini PC is a great choice for a starter setup! Especially something with onboard soldered RAM, because this will be somewhat immune to the current RAM pricing crisis. If you can force the laptop battery to only charge to 50% in BIOS, you get a free UPS with little risk of battery death. You can always migrate to something more permanent/expensive if you enjoy the hobby.

Whatever is available on your local secondhand market. Mini PCs are usually pretty good. Less standard parts though, same with brands like Dell, HP, Lenovo.

Get a NUC or one of those mini Lenovo things that show up in lots of homelab photos.

no risk of laptop battery swelling

This is wrong. Any device with a battery can swell.

Welcome to the hobby! It’ll consume your free time and (if you’re the right kind of person) deliver lots of satisfaction.

I usually get amazon renewed dell, hp Lenovo here in the States. Laptops usually just come down to specs. Though I usually see them for around $250-$300 usd so a bit over your budget but will depend on what you can find more local to you.

These mini enterprise PCs pack a big punch for their size for desktop options. Might be able to find some if a local IT company is dumping old inventory near you

IMHO RAM>CPU. Anything released in the past decade will kick ass if it has a good amount of RAM. I still game on a 2016 desktop PC.

EDIT: Please correct me if I am wrong, but 10,000k INR =~ $100. If that’s the budget, then I highly suggest an IBM ThinkCentre Tiny. They use to sell for ~$100 (used or refurbished). They have no moving parts and make for great headless units.

Some mini-PC’s have room for more than one SSD. Those are more future proof. You can start with one SSD, discover what kind of stuff you run, only containers, only VM’s, or a certain mix of those. You can always add a second SSD later — when your enclosure allows it.

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

[Thread #161 for this comm, first seen 7th Nov 2026, 19:30] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

Retired business or surveillance hardware is worth checking locally too. My two servers are repurposed NVRs running plain Ubuntu Server, and a Dell OptiPlex handles dev work. For that list, I’d start with the hardware you can get affordably and check its RAM capacity and drive connections before buying. Docker on plain Linux keeps things straightforward. With Immich, budget for a separate backup of the photos before it holds your only copy.

Lenovo M700q

I bought myself an HP elitedesk G3 800, they come in three skews: mini, small form factor and tower.

I bought the tower. There is so much room. Look at the Elitedesk G4 800 because there you get 8 and 9th gen intel.

But I love mine, planning to put in three large HDD in her, already have two 2.5 SSD, I have been scouting ram and got relatively cheap second hand ram deals, with 32gb in the system. I am planning on getting the 7700t (the t variant is the low power draw version).

But the thing is quiet and can be upgraded but also just plonked on a desk and left to run no worries

I have a dell optiplex micro that has been running pretty much everything in my home lab. They sell for $100ish on Amazon and eBay.

I’m using a Google Pixel 3a - yes, it’s weaker than your desired spec, but I think it should be still enough for most of anything. I’ve never used Immich, tho, I don’t know how heavy it is.

Lenovo T-series is generally a good pick whenever you want to run Linux.

I’d say the same for their USFF and SFF form factors as well. Great systems for homelabs, I have several (and my laptop is a T495, and my son has my old T470s).

Problem with laptops and (u)SFFs is storage capability. If you want a NAS you need some sort of external JBOD or you will be limited to 1-2 storage disks (and possibly have to boot I.e. truenas from USB).

If you can find them with a PCIe slot (or extra m.2 slot that exposes 4 lanes at least), you should be able to get a RAID card and rig up a way to use eSATA and some sort of external disk enclosure though.

Pay attention to performance/watt. Consider different boxes for different roles if you want…I.e. ZFS doesn’t need a lot of processing power, but it does like RAM. If you have a system that can use dirt-cheap DDR3(L) like a 6th or 7th gen Intel, that may be a better choice for NAS-only.

Then use a more powerful NUC or (u)sff for proxmox and run LXCs or VMs on it.