Podinate on Mini PC

Running Podinate on a mini PC is a great way to get started. It makes an excellent learning environment and also provides enough power to run some homelab applications as well as some of your own projects.

Selecting Hardware

You can go out and buy a new mini PC for this project. There are many great options online such as MinisForum, or on sites like Amazon, Aliexpress, etc. However, we highly recommend getting a mini PC second hand. Mini PCs from brands like Lenovo, Dell and HP are always being renewed by businesses, so you should be able to find a decent one for between $100 and $200.

Part	Minimum	Goal
CPU	Quad Core	Six Core
RAM	4GB	16GB
Storage	SSD	SSD+HDD

For this price you should be able to find a machine with a relatively modern quad core CPU and 16GB of RAM. Alternatively, if you find a really good price on a machine with 4GB of RAM, you can replace the RAM yourself with minimal effort.

Most mini PCs should come with an SSD, but again this is an easy part to upgrade. Many of the ex-commercial units will offer both an NVMe slot and a 2.5" HDD bay, so you could have a fast SSD for booting, while installing a large 2.5" HDD for bulk file storage.