WilliamLam.com

You are here: Home / ESXi / Interesting VMware Homelab Kits for 2024

Interesting VMware Homelab Kits for 2024

by // 12 Comments

Where did 2024 go!? I can not believe there is only a few more months left before the end of the year!

During VMware Explore US, I had several folks ask whether I was going to publish a 2024 edition of my annual interesting VMware homelab kit blog post, simliar to HERE and HERE for 2023 and 2023 respectively. While I had planned for this originally, I was pretty busy this year and getting hands on with some of the latest Intel 14th Generation systems did not happen until much later and hence why I had not put anything together.

I was recently reminded of this request again and it feels like the right time to summarize the various kits that I have come across and/or have gotten hands on throughout the year.

Homelab Trends

There are also some interesting trends that I have observed in 2024, especially as it pertains to VMware Homelabs/Development/Testing purposes:

Aoostar WTR Pro


Aoostar is not a brand that I have worked with personally before, but I have seen some of their kits around. Thanks to colleague Burke Azbill, who was able to confirm with Aoostar that the WTR Pro can run ESXi 8.x without any issues, especially as it contains two Intel multi-gig NIC adaptors. While the WTR Pro primary use case is a Network Attached Storage (NAS) system, because of the plentiful storage, compute & networking, it can also make for an interesting platform to run ESXi, especially for use with vSAN and NVMe Tiering.


ASUS NUC 14 Pro


The ASUS NUC 14 Pro is the first official NUC that has been released under ASUS after acquiring the Intel NUC business last year. The classic 4x4 kit continues to be a community favorite due to its small form factor and supporting up to 96GB of memory, you can certainly do quite a bit. For a complete review of using the ASUS NUC 14 Pro with ESXi, check out my write-up HERE.

ASUS NUC 14 Performance


If you are looking for a more powerful ASUS NUC, especially with more graphics capabilities, the NUC 14 Performance might be of interests and can also go up to 96GB of memory and support up to 3 x M.2 NVMe, perfect for running ESXi as well as taking advantage of the new NVMe Memory Tiering capability.For a complete review of using the ASUS NUC 14 Performance with ESXi, check out my write-up HERE.

ASUS PN65


Similiar to the ASUS PN64-E1, which I am a HUGE fan of (see my review HERE), the ASUS PN65 is an updated version with support for the latest Intel 14th Generation CPUs. The only big difference that I could find between the PN65 and PN64-E1 is the lack of support for a dTPM add-on, which made the ASUS PN64-E1 really standout for a 4x4 form factor. If you do require a compatible TPM with ESXi, the PN64-E1 is still a viable and recommended system.

GMKtec NucBox M7

GMKtec is another player in the 4x4 small form factor kits and while I have not had any personal hands on experience, I came to learn about the NucBox M7 from a fellow VMware colleague who had success running ESXi. The NucBox M7 is interesting for a few reasons, not only is it an AMD kit but it also uses Intel-based NICs, which is why it works with ESXi compared to most AMD-based kits which prefers Realtek-based NICs which ESXi drivers do not exists. Support for multiple NVMe slots and network interfaces, makes this a very nice kit without having to deal with the Intel Hybrid CPU architecture and what stands out on the NucBox M7 is the inclusion of an OCuLink port.

Similiar to Thunderbolt, the OCuLink interface allows users to add additional capabilities, initially the use case for OCuLink is to add external graphics and there are a few OCuLink eGPU chassis from the AOOSTAR AG01 to the Minisforum DEG1. While OCuLink accessories is mostly focused on adding eGPU capabilities, I was able to find some M.2 expansion chassis using OCuLink such as NFHK Oculink M.2 (1 x NVMe) and AOOSTAR TB4S-OC (4 x NVMe) that is fairly inexpensive when compared to a Thunderbolt-based chassis, a nice benefit with a new competitor in this space.

Lenovo ThinkCentre Neo Ultra

The ThinkCentre Neo Ultra is a new form factor from Lenovo and gives off a strong Apple Mac Studio vibe. In addition to supporting the latest Intel 14th Generation CPU and potentially up to 96GB (officially it only lists 64GB DDR5), the larger form factor of the Lenovo ThinkCentre Neo Ultra embeds an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 and can also be configured with an additional Discrete NPU (Neural Processing Unit) accelerator based on Kinara Ara-2. I recently wrote about using the Lunar Lake Intel NPU with ESXi for workload acceleration, the additional NPU option with the GPU could be an interesting capability for those looking to play with AL/ML workloads.

Lenovo P3 Tiny


The Lenovo P3 Tiny is a kit that I have reviewed before (see HERE) and it is great to see Lenovo updating this kit to support the latest Intel 14th Generation CPUs. I also like the configurations options that P3 Tiny provides which includes adding additional networking options (see website below for details) or adding an NVIDIA T400 (4GB), T1000 or T1000 (8GB) for more graphics capabilities that can be used variety of different workloads.

Minisforum MS-01 or SimplyNUC Onyx


Minisforum has really made a name for itself in recent years, introducing a number of interesting and unique small form factor systems. The MS-01 really stood out to me as it checks off many of the boxes for an ideal ESXi homelab setup from supporting multiple NVMe slots to having both 2.5GbE & 10GbE (SPF+) connectivity. While I would love to more hands on with Minisforum portofolio from a VMware perspective, thanks to a fellow colleague, I did get a chance to play with the MS-01, which you can read the full review HERE.

Protectli Vault Pro 6650/6670


The Vault Pro 6650/6670 is another interesting kit that I came to across from the VMware Community and is an excellent system for those needing a bunch of network interfaces that includes 4 x 2.5GbE and 2 x 10GbE SFP+ ports. The fanless design of the Vault Pro 6650/6670 also means you will have both a capable and quiet system, which is not always the case with the amount of capabilities this system includes. I did a full review of the Vault Pro 6650/6670 earlier this year, which you can read more about HERE.

  • CPU: Intel 12th Gen
  • Memory: 96GB (DDR5)
  • Storage: 1 x M.2 NVMe (2280) & 2 x SATA
  • Network: 4 x 2.5GbE (i226) & 2 x 10GbE SFP+ (X710-BM2)
  • Dimensions: 191mm x 178mm x 76mm
  • Website: https://protectli.com/vault-6-port

SimplyNUC extremeEDGE 3000


The extremeEDGE 3000 from SimplyNUC is the third generation of their Edge-focused product line and packs some really useful capabilities across compute, storage and networking as you can see from the stats below. I was pretty impressed with their latest extremeEDGE 3000, which I had the opportunity to get hands on with and you can read the full review HERE. Whether you have an Edge use case or want something that is compact and quiet, the extremeEDGE is a great choice and provides AMD-based CPU for those looking for more compute options.

Vecow TGS-1500


The last time I saw a modular and stackable system was from Hivecell back in 2019, so it was refreshing to learn about the flexible TGS-1500 platform from Vecow. The base configuration of the TGS-1500 includes all the latest compute, storage and networking capabilities that you would expect in 2024 and with their modular design, you can add additional I/O or AI Accelerator using their compact MXM form factor.

You can tell that the TGS-1500 is aimed at supporting graphics intensive and/or AI/ML workloads with the list of supported AI accelerators: NVIDIA RTX A2000 Ada, NVIDIA RTX A2000, NVIDIA Quadro T1000, NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000, NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000, NVIDIA Quadro RTX A3500 Ada, NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 Ada or Intel Arc A370M. Per NVIDIA vGPU documentation, it looks like both the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 & Quadro RTX 5000 Ada can support vGPU, so that would be another added bonus for those interested in playing with Private AI Foundation for NVIDIA (PAIF-N).

More from my site

Comments

  2. Good article for research (2025 project) overview. Possible correction on your opening...edition of my annual interesting VMware homelab kit blog post, simliar to HERE and HERE for 2023 and 2023 respectively... 2022 and 2023 instead?

    Reply

  3. Is esxi still available for free? Afaik since broadcom acquisition it's only available if you pay

    Reply

  4. Hi William! What do you think about this NUC? Cubi NUC 1M (Cubi NUC 1M-031BIT) I think it's a great base to start with! In your experience could I run into compatibility issues with Esxi8??

    Reply

  5. I wish the cheaper options like the Beelink SER5 had Intel Nics, right now I'm stuck using HP T740 (V1756B porcessor) with a PCIe card for the NIC. Only 4 cores and maximum 64gb of ram. Only good part is an m.2 SATA and m.2 nvme socket so I can have cheap OS drive and decent datastore drive. I have a dual 10gbe PCIe and an m.2 a+e Intel i226 card installed in both of mine. Just getting going with vSphere 8 so no real performance metrics yet. A single Windows Server 2022 eval ran OK for some basic things, but I haven't set up Active Directory, DNS, and DHCP yet.

    Reply

  6. So using esxi 8 with an Intel cpu with e and p cores one has to disable the e cores and end up with less cores total so seems like a waste of money. So a mini pc with an amd 16 core processor would be the way to go. Need to research which mini PC's can use a 16 core/32 thread cpu.

    Reply

Thanks for the comment!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.