New NUC for home lab

[covenantuk]

I run 4 VMs for my home network, a bastion server for remote access, NGINX reverse proxy, HomeAssistant and a DNS/DHCP server. I've been running ESX6.7 for years and thought it time to update and upgrade at the same time.

With ESX now bundling drivers into ESX8 and Intel out of the market I plumped for a Geekom unit on offer at the rainforest - GEEKOM Mini PC Mini IT11, 11th Intel Core i7-11390H.

Big step up in performance from my old J5005 powered Intel NUC unit which is being relegated to my young son.

Will post a mini-review here once I'm set up.

 

[covenantuk]

I have a licence for ESX8 - given I've only just upgraded from 6.7 it'll be along time before I need a different hypervisor. My employer will likely be skilling us all up on HyperV so that's probably what I'll use when the time arrives.

 

[covenantuk]

It's silent. Temps absolutely fine, especially given nobody is likely to hold all day hour gaming sessions on it. So good I bought one for my young boy to do home lessons and play Minecraft on.