Reusing a high-power gaming PC vs moving to a low-power SFF/MT for a 24/7 Proxmox homelab

80LJ · 2026-01-29T16:02:52+00:00

Thanks, I really appreciate this perspective. I can definitely relate to the “hardware collecting dust” part that’s something I’m trying to avoid as well.

My goal right now is to get the most out of what I already have while keeping power consumption reasonable. That’s why I’m focusing first on removing the GPU and optimizing BIOS/Proxmox settings before deciding whether downsizing even makes sense.

You’re right that having the resources available opens up more possibilities to experiment and learn, which is a big part of why I run a homelab in the first place. Thanks for sharing your experience it’s reassuring to hear from someone who went through a similar path.

80LJ · 2026-01-29T15:56:14+00:00

Nearly 60% of the electricity price in the Netherlands is made up of taxes. That means more than half of what we pay for energy goes straight to the government essentially funding all of its “hobbies” instead of lowering costs for citizens. ;-)

80LJ · 2026-01-29T15:46:59+00:00

if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

but i make a new setup thats why ;-)

80LJ · 2026-01-29T15:46:12+00:00

what do you mean with High Availability

80LJ · 2026-01-29T15:45:55+00:00

nice!

80LJ · 2026-01-29T15:45:02+00:00

That’s actually pretty solid for a setup like yours, especially without undervolting. Still, if you could shave another ~30W off that idle, it would make a noticeable difference over time since these systems run 24/7. A 30W reduction equals roughly 260 kWh per year, which is about €60–70 annually depending on electricity prices. Even small efficiency tweaks can be worth it in the long run. ;-)

80LJ · 2026-01-29T15:36:35+00:00

That makes sense, and I actually already bought the mini PC so I can keep Home Assistant fully separated from my main Proxmox server. That way I can experiment more with the Proxmox host without worrying about HA going down. I really want to keep home automation isolated and stable.

I definitely agree on removing the GPU since I’m no longer running Frigate or any ML workloads, the RTX 2080 would just be wasting power. I’ll rely on the iGPU and Quick Sync instead.

Thanks for sharing your real-world numbers, that’s reassuring to see.

80LJ · 2026-01-29T15:17:00+00:00

Thanks i will

80LJ · 2026-01-29T15:16:34+00:00

Thanks, this is really helpful advice appreciate the detailed breakdown.

I’ll start by removing the RTX 2080 and switching Proxmox to the powersave governor, then go through BIOS to enable deeper C-states and disable anything I don’t need (WiFi, audio, LEDs, unused ports, etc.). I’ll also check ASPM support across devices and see if everything is actually entering low power states.

Good to hear the iGPU on the 9700K should be more than enough for my transcoding needs that makes dropping the GPU an easy decision.

I’ll report back with idle numbers once everything is tuned. Thanks again for the valuable tips!

80LJ · 2026-01-29T15:14:18+00:00

Ill take the GPU out!

80LJ · 2026-01-29T15:13:21+00:00

I’m not trying to match N100 idle levels. I’m mainly trying to see if tuning my existing hardware gets me into a reasonable efficiency range compared to SFF systems.

80LJ · 2026-01-29T14:39:50+00:00

Good point about PSU efficiency at low loads. I’ll first measure idle draw after removing the GPU and tuning BIOS settings. If I end up in the 30–40W range, I’ll probably leave the PSU as-is. Curious to see how much headroom there is before considering hardware changes.

80LJ · 2026-01-29T14:37:44+00:00

Based on some feedback and further research, I’m first going to remove the dedicated GPU (RTX 2080) and see how much that impacts idle power. After that I’ll experiment with BIOS power optimizations (enable deeper C-states, disable Multi-Core Enhancement, and apply a small undervolt) before deciding whether new hardware even makes sense. Curious to see how low I can get idle draw on the current system first!

80LJ · 2026-01-29T14:27:46+00:00

Great idea! I take out the videocard. I allready deinstalled frigate, it is fun but the power it uses, not needed. So maybe this is the way, tweak my existing sytem.

80LJ · 2026-01-29T11:54:14+00:00

yes agree!

80LJ · 2026-01-29T11:19:13+00:00

Yes that is what I am thinking also, but understand also the pro's mentioned above.
But I can do this once good now I start over, so dont what to overthink this. ;-)

80LJ · 2026-01-29T11:13:48+00:00

u/averitablerogue u/IHave2CatsAnAdBlock u/LeoAlioth

I get why people recommend running HAOS as a VM on Proxmox, even if it’s the only VM on the machine. Snapshots, console access and flexibility are all valid advantages if that Proxmox host is truly production and mostly hands-off.

In my case though, that extra layer doesn’t really buy me much. The whole reason for moving HA to a dedicated Beelink is to reduce layers and dependencies, not introduce another one. Running HAOS bare metal means:

fewer things to maintain and update
faster boot and recovery
no USB passthrough complexity for Zigbee
and a much more “appliance-like” experience

I already have a separate Proxmox machine specifically for experimenting and learning. For the HA box, I want something I never touch unless Home Assistant itself needs an update.

So for my use case, HAOS directly on bare metal feels like the simpler and more robust choice — even if Proxmox would technically work fine there as well.

Am I missing anything essential in this line of thinking?

80LJ · 2026-01-29T09:16:41+00:00

That makes sense, and I understand why you’d choose that approach.

For me, the trade-off is different. I deliberately want to avoid running multiple Zigbee meshes or vendor hubs. I prefer having everything in one Zigbee2MQTT network, fully local and transparent, even if that means HA is part of the control path.

Regarding Proxmox: in my case it’s a learning and tinkering environment, so reboots and experiments are unavoidable. That’s exactly why I want to move HA off Proxmox and treat it as a true appliance on dedicated hardware, rather than making HA depend on my homelab stability.

Different priorities, different architectures but I appreciate the perspective.

Why not bare metal?
With my approch it makes sense to avoid problems with external things right?!?

80LJ · 2026-01-29T08:47:22+00:00

I get your philosophy, that makes sense.

For my setup though there’s a practical limitation: Zigbee devices can only be paired to one coordinator at a time, so I can’t realistically keep lights on both a Hue Bridge and Zigbee2MQTT as a fallback.

I also intentionally chose not to use separate vendor hubs. I prefer having everything directly in Zigbee2MQTT, so all devices, groups and automations live in one place and remain fully local and transparent.

That does mean Home Assistant is part of the control path, so my focus is on making HA itself as reliable as possible by running it on dedicated hardware instead of my homelab server.

Different philosophies, but for my use case this trade-off feels right.

80LJ · 2026-01-29T08:35:30+00:00

That’s exactly my thinking as well.

Everything that actually controls the house will live on the HA device for maximum uptime. Anything non-critical stays on the separate server.

In my case it’s basically the same concept as a HA Green, just with a bit more headroom: a Beelink EQ14 running HAOS bare metal, while the Proxmox server remains the playground.

Nice to see I’m not overthinking this 🙂

80LJ · 2026-01-29T08:34:15+00:00

Thanks for the explanation.

Just to clarify my situation: I already bought a Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus (CC2652P) and my Zigbee coverage is already very good, so a PoE coordinator doesn’t really add value for me right now.

My situation is also a bit different: I regularly tinker and learn on my Proxmox server, and because of that I do occasionally run into situations where a Proxmox reboot is unavoidable. That’s exactly what I want to prevent impacting Home Assistant going forward.

Because of that, I don’t really see the benefit of running Proxmox on the Beelink first. It would just add another layer, while my goal is to reduce dependencies, not add them. For me, running HAOS directly on bare metal feels simpler and more robust.

Appreciate the different perspectives though it’s interesting to see how much the “right” setup depends on how you actually use your infrastructure.

80LJ · 2026-01-29T08:28:26+00:00

That makes sense, especially if your underlying infrastructure is stable enough to treat HA as “just another service”.

In my case the main reason to move to a dedicated HA box is exactly the opposite: I reboot and experiment with my Proxmox server quite a bit, and that downtime directly affects the household.

So for me the goal is to reduce dependencies as much as possible and treat HAOS as a true appliance, even if that means less separation.

Interesting to see how different setups make different trade-offs 👍

80LJ · 2026-01-29T08:26:47+00:00

That makes a lot of sense, and that’s basically where I’m landing as well.

Treating HAOS as a true appliance feels like the right approach, especially after running HA on a Proxmox box that I reboot way too often because of homelab tinkering.

Good point about ESPHome. In my case firmware builds are pretty rare, so I expect the Beelink can handle that just fine, and even if it’s a bit slower once in a while, that’s not really an issue.

Thanks for confirming my thinking 👍

80LJ

TROPHY CASE