In that regard you should buy a mini PC that has 2 network ports. You get the simplest out of the box hardware, modern and power friendly, and just run the LAN to a switch.
Note: I didn’t do this. I use an old PC with a NIC added for 4 ports. Gives me everything I need (and Intel NICs are better supported than Realtek ones). The “power hungry” isn’t really an issue. It is wasteful and inneficient technically speaking, but its not large dollars annually. It would take years to add up to the cost of buying a new machine.
In that regard you should buy a mini PC that has 2 network ports. You get the simplest out of the box hardware, modern and power friendly, and just run the LAN to a switch.
Note: I didn’t do this. I use an old PC with a NIC added for 4 ports. Gives me everything I need (and Intel NICs are better supported than Realtek ones). The “power hungry” isn’t really an issue. It is wasteful and inneficient technically speaking, but its not large dollars annually. It would take years to add up to the cost of buying a new machine.