Is this an upgrade?

Computer Hardware & Server Infrastructure Builds
1

My homelab setup is currently as follows:
Compute: Supermicro Epyc 3251 (8 core, 16 thread) board, 128gb ECC ram, 500gb sata (XCP-ng boot drive) and 1TB ECC storage (local storage for VMs that need fast storage), the 1TB is unfortunately the largest NVME this board will take (only compatible with a few specific SKUs at all), networking via intel 710 10gb sfp x2, one of the 10gb ports for non-routed storage on the synology, other for regular high speed networking.
Storage: Synology 1821+, intel 710 10gb sfp x2, 6x14tb seagate exos
Networking: unifi (variety, not important here)

My goal is to have at least 128gb of RAM for the server (currently using about 80gb), and to keep average power consumption as low as possible (my entire setup currently, with networking, router, switching, compute and storage AND the POE cameras and APs runs about 175W).

I am considering the Minisforum 795se with the 7845hx processor (16/32) now that I know it will support 128gb RAM as an upgrade. The upsides are that it appears to use about the same amount of power idle (40W or less) and is significantly faster (2x single core, 4x altogether) with more cores, and has support for 2 NVME drives that are not limited in capacity. The downsides are lack of out of band management and lack of ECC RAM.

The alternative I considered was building an Epyc 4004 system using 4464p (12/24) that has a relatively low power envelope… but the only board that’s worthwhile here is from Asrock Rack and seems to have a lot of concerns over memory management and stability. It would also be rather expensive ($400-500 for the board, $400 for CPU, $600-800 for memory if I wanted to keep 128gb ECC).

I was hoping to get some thoughts on whether the Minisforum represents a real upgrade given the downsides and alternatives.

2

While I have been testing both the minifoums and other mini pc’s and that testing has gone well, I still feel more confident with the Supermicro equipment overall.

3

Without knowing more of your needs I don’t think Minisforum is worth the upgrade cost. I have a Minisforum with Proxmox in my home lab and my biggest concern is air flow and overall cooling. Due to smaller fan size it’s also relatively noisier (although pretty quiet) than a bigger case fan.

So you’re looking to pay about EUR 530 barebone + RAM cost and you’re getting: same overall available RAM, potentially better CPU, more storage space. It looks like you’ll pay at least EUR 7 - 800 mainly for the ability to have bigger local storage. Is it worth to you?

Edited to add this: extensibility. With a mini pc you’re pretty much stuck in terms of extensibility and future upgrades. If 6 months down the road you’d like to experiment with LLMs and want to add an nVidia card you can’t.