I Turned a Mini PC Into a Complete Home Network Box

Pickup the DOTX Nuctek7 from Amazon here: https://amzn.to/4j5sm9j This video takes a look at the DOTX Nuctek7, a chunky little N305 mini PC with a twist: four multi-gig Ethernet ports on the front. Mine came with an 8-core Intel i3-N305, Windows 11 Pro preinstalled, 16GB of DDR5, and a 512GB NVMe SSD, with support for up to 64GB RAM and dual NVMe drives if you want to upgrade later. I walk through the hardware, the all-metal heatsink-style chassis, the I/O (HDMI 2.1, DP 1.4, USB-C video, USB 3.0/2.0), and the dual 10GbE plus dual 2.5GbE ports that really define what this box is good at. I also benchmark it against a Ryzen 5 7640HS mini PC to see where it lands in terms of performance and power draw. Spoiler: the Ryzen wins on raw speed, but the Nuctek7 does surprisingly well on efficiency, staying around 38–46W under load and about 108°F at the heatsink, which is warm but not scary. From there I talk through how I’d actually use it: as a small Proxmox host running a virtualized OPNsense/pfSense router, Pi-hole, Nginx, WireGuard, Fail2Ban, Wazuh, and other light services, rather than as a traditional desktop. I also touch on Hyper-V, ESXi being “free but painful” now, and why this form factor makes more sense as a low-power edge box than a RAM-heavy workstation. 0:00 💻 N305 Mini Overview 0:35 🧊 Chassis & Build 2:10 🔌 Ports & Networking 3:19 📊 Benchmarks & Power 3:51 🧪 Virtualization Use 5:29 🎯 Who It’s For You can help support the channel with affiliate links, and get cool stuff at the same time! - https://linktr.ee/GeekOfAllTrades - https://geekofalltrades.carrd.co/ - https://www.amazon.com/shop/unboxingproject - https://www.redbubble.com/people/GeekWearz/shop Check out the Github for walkthroughs and setup guides: https://github.com/TheGeekOfAllTrades ***DISCLAIMER*** This is NOT financial advice and I am NOT a financial advisor. Some of these geek projects are expensive and can be risky. Crypto Currency is very volatile and the prices change daily. Please do your own research before investing!! THESE VIDEOS ARE MADE FOR ENTERTAINMENT & INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY!!! #homelab #minipc #network