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Proxmox
Home Server
I repurposed a £79 Dell OptiPlex 3060 into a full Proxmox virtualisation server - running Pi-hole, Wazuh SIEM, and a Minecraft server, all under £100 total.
Dell OptiPlex 3060 Micro
Proxmox VE
Pi-hole DNS
Wazuh SIEM
Minecraft Server
Under £100
01
Requirements
It had to be compact
The PC would be placed downstairs near my router, so it needed to be compact and unobtrusive - fitting neatly in the dining room without taking up space or disrupting the environment.
Mini PC form factor
It had to be power efficient
Running 24/7 means electricity costs matter. I wanted power usage under 80 watts at load and considerably lower during idle - keeping it off the electricity bill.
Target: <80W
It had to be affordable
Total budget: under £100. That had to cover the PC itself, plus any memory and storage upgrades needed to run multiple virtual machines comfortably.
Budget: £100 max
It had to run Linux
I wanted to install Proxmox to set up and manage virtual machines - a DNS blackhole for ad-blocking, a Minecraft server, and a SIEM for security monitoring.
Proxmox VE
// The Hardware
Dell OptiPlex 3060 Micro - £79.99
Picked up from eBay - an 8th Gen Intel Core i5, compact Micro form factor, and well under budget. That left £20 spare for a RAM upgrade to 16GB DDR4 and a 500GB 2.5" SATA SSD. Perfect for running multiple lightweight VMs simultaneously.
£79
eBay price
16GB
DDR4 RAM
500GB
SATA SSD
3
VMs running
02
The Process
1
Check the System
First thing was verifying I got what I paid for. I checked the CPU model, installed RAM, and storage - then booted into Windows to confirm everything was functional before making any changes.
Verify before you modify
2
Upgrade the Hardware
Doubled the RAM to 16GB DDR4 2666MHz and added a 500GB 2.5" SATA SSD using the remaining £20 budget. More RAM is essential for running multiple VMs with headroom to spare.
16GB DDR4 + 500GB SSD
3
Plan the Virtual Machines
Decided exactly what I wanted running: a DNS sinkhole for network-wide ad blocking, a SIEM for security monitoring and log analysis, and a Minecraft server for local multiplayer. Then allocated resources accordingly.
Plan before you provision
4
Install Proxmox VE
Chose Proxmox Virtual Environment as the OS - an open-source virtualisation platform built on Debian. KVM support, ZFS, clustering, snapshots, and a clean web UI made it an easy choice over bare alternatives like plain VMware or VirtualBox.
Proxmox VE 8
5
Create the Virtual Machines
Spun up 3 VMs through the Proxmox web interface - each with allocated vCPUs, RAM, and disk space. Configured network bridging so each VM gets its own IP on the home network. Snapshotted each before major config changes.
Pi-hole · Wazuh · Minecraft
Web UI
Full VM management from the browser - no SSH required for day-to-day tasks.
Snapshots
Roll back any VM instantly. Invaluable when experimenting with configs.
KVM Support
Near-native performance virtualisation - no significant overhead on the i5.
ZFS Support
Built-in ZFS filesystem with data integrity checking and easy management.
Debian Base
Built on Debian - stable, well-documented, and familiar to Linux users.
03
The Virtual Machines
VM 01
Pi-hole
A Raspberry Pi OS virtual machine running Pi-hole - a DNS sinkhole that blocks ads across every device on the network. Also hosts custom local A records for home network services.
VM 02
Wazuh
A security information and event management (SIEM) platform - the Wazuh manager collects logs from agents on monitored devices, providing centralised security monitoring and analysis.
VM 03
Minecraft Server
A dedicated Minecraft server VM for local multiplayer sessions - fully configurable with custom server settings, world management, and low-latency local gameplay for friends on the home network.