A New Addition to the Frankencluster
Back in January I wrote about adding the Minisforum UM700 as a second Proxmox node and mentioned the MINIX NEO J50C-4 Plus as a potential third node. That plan changed — instead of pressing the aging MINIX into service, I decided to sell it and put the money toward something newer and more capable.
The Numbers
Out:
- MINIX NEO J50C-4 Plus, 16GB DDR4 / 240GB storage
- Sold on eBay for $100
In:
- MOREFINE M8 Mini PC — Intel N150, 16GB DDR4, 1TB NVMe SSD (affiliate link)
- Purchased on Amazon for $219.99 (price increased since then)
- Net cost: ~$120
For $120 out of pocket I went from a Pentium Silver J5005 (Gemini Lake, 2018) with 240GB of storage to a brand-new Intel N150 with a full terabyte of NVMe. That felt like a good trade.
Why the MOREFINE M8?
The Intel N150 is part of Intel’s 13th gen “Twin Lake” series — a modern, energy-efficient chip designed exactly for always-on appliances and mini PCs. Key specs:
- CPU: Intel N150, 4 cores / 4 threads, up to 3.6 GHz boost
- TDP: 6W — runs cool and quiet without a fan upgrade
- RAM: 16GB DDR4 (soldered)
- Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD
- Display: 4K dual display output
- Networking: RJ45 Ethernet + Wi-Fi
- USB: USB 3.2 ports
Compared to the MINIX’s Pentium Silver J5005, the N150 is a newer architecture with better single-threaded performance and significantly lower idle power draw — both important for a node that runs 24/7.
The 1TB NVMe is also a meaningful upgrade over the 240GB that was in the MINIX, giving me much more room for VM templates and local storage.
Adding It to the Proxmox Cluster
Adding the M8 as a third node was straightforward using the same process I documented in the UM700 cluster post:
- Install Proxmox VE on the M8
- Join the existing
homelabcluster viaDatacenter -> Cluster -> Join Information - Verify with
pvecm status
With three nodes the cluster now has a proper quorum majority, which means it can handle a single node failure without the entire cluster going read-only. This was the main motivation for adding a third node — two nodes is a quorum tightrope.
Was It Worth It?
Absolutely. The MINIX had served its purpose but wasn’t doing much sitting on a shelf. Selling it for $100 and topping up $120 more got me:
- A modern, low-power CPU
- 4× the storage
- A real three-node cluster with proper quorum
The homelab Frankencluster now has three nodes: the GMKtec NucBox M5 Ultra (Ryzen 7 7730U), the Minisforum UM700 (Ryzen 7 3750H), and the new MOREFINE M8 (Intel N150). A nice mix of x86 hardware all running Proxmox VE.