So I am brand new to homelab using a laptop from 2010 that I am running proxmox with VMs (home assistant, virtual desktop and docker container utilizing portainer). I think scraping by is an understatement. I want to find a mini pc that I will set up the same way (boot into proxmox), and would like to add NAS. I do not care on model, but would like to spend around $100-150 for something use. Are there minimum system requirements that I should look for so that I don’t need to update in a year or so?
Since you mentioned NAS, a micro system isn’t the best as there is no room for a high capacity 3.5 inch drive.
I have a HP 600 G2 with a i5-6500 in a small form factor (SFF). It cost a whole $55 and has room for one 2.5 drive and 2 3.5 drives.