--- title: "Building a tiny Intel N100 home server - Martin Hicks" description: "A small, quiet, power-efficient home server build using an Intel N100 board for backups, DNS, VPN and development services." canonical: https://martinhicks.dev/articles/n100-home-server-build last-updated: 2026-05-02 --- ![Illustration of a small server with radiating network connections on a dark grid background](https://martinhicks.dev/images/articles/n100-home-server.png)3rd July 2025 # Building a tiny Intel N100 home server Over the past few years my home setup has gradually grown more complicated. Between family devices, work machines, backups, development tools and general tinkering, I'd slowly accumulated a mixture of cloud services, routers and older hardware doing different jobs. None of it was joined up, and none of it was particularly efficient. I wanted a **single small home server** that could handle a few key tasks: - Network services (DNS filtering, VPN) - Time Machine backups for every Mac in the house - Some lightweight file storage - A place to run a few containers - Something quiet enough to live in the office and cheap enough to run 24/7 After a bit of research I settled on building a tiny **Intel N100 based server**. ## Why the N100 The Intel N100 is a 4-core, 4-thread processor from the Alder Lake-N family. It was designed for low-power, embedded use cases, but it's surprisingly capable. The key specs that sold me: - 6W TDP (yes, six watts) - Hardware AES-NI (important for VPN throughput) - Support for DDR4 or DDR5 depending on the board - Passive cooling on most boards For a home server that runs DNS, VPN, backups and the occasional container, it's more than enough. This isn't a Plex transcoding box or a development build server. It's a quiet, reliable workhorse. ## Hardware The core of the build is an **ASRock N100DC-ITX** motherboard. This board is powered by a standard laptop-style DC barrel jack, which means no ATX PSU, no fan noise from a power supply, and a much smaller footprint. The full parts list: Component Choice Motherboard ASRock N100DC-ITX Case SKTC MX01 mini-ITX RAM 16GB Crucial DDR4 SODIMM Boot drive 500GB Samsung 980 NVMe SSD Storage 2TB WD Blue 2.5" HDD Power 19V external laptop PSU Total cost was around £250. The whole system is incredibly compact and almost entirely silent. The only moving part is the 2.5" HDD, which only spins up for backups. ## Assembly The build was straightforward, if a little tight due to the mini-ITX case: 1. Slot in the SODIMM RAM 2. Install the NVMe SSD (M.2 slot on the underside of the board) 3. Mount the motherboard on the standoffs 4. Install the 2.5" HDD in the drive bay 5. Connect SATA data and power 6. Route the DC barrel jack through the rear panel 7. Close up the case The result is a very tidy little machine that sits quietly on a shelf next to the router. No fans spinning. You'd barely know it was on. ## Operating system For the OS I chose **Debian 12 (Bookworm)**. I considered a few alternatives: Option Why I didn't choose it TrueNAS Overkill for my storage needs, heavy Unraid Licence cost, more NAS-focused than I need Proxmox Great, but adds a virtualisation layer I don't need yet Ubuntu Server Would have been fine, but I prefer Debian's stability Debian felt like the right balance of stability, simplicity and long-term maintainability. The N100 is well supported in the 6.1 kernel. Everything worked out of the box, including the Realtek NIC which can sometimes be problematic. I'm running everything directly on the host for now, with Docker available for anything that benefits from containerisation. No VMs, no hypervisor. Keep it simple. ## What it runs The server now handles: - **[AdGuard Home](https://martinhicks.dev/articles/adguard-unbound-dns-home)** for network-wide DNS filtering - **[WireGuard VPN](https://martinhicks.dev/articles/wireguard-safe-browsing-kids)** so family devices stay protected outside the house - **Time Machine** backups over SMB for three Macs - **Samba** file shares for general household storage - **Tailscale** for low-effort remote access to the server from anywhere - **AirConnect** for bridging AirPlay to Chromecast and UPnP speakers - **Netdata** for live system monitoring on a local web dashboard - **Fail2ban** guarding SSH - **Docker** is installed for the occasional container, though I'm not running anything in it long-term right now The DNS and VPN setup in particular has been a real quality-of-life improvement for the whole family. Some of these services get their own dedicated articles in this series; others are smaller pieces I'll possibly cover in shorter follow-ups. ## Power usage One of the key goals was efficiency. This thing runs 24/7, so every watt matters. Typical measurements with a plug-in power meter: - **6-8W idle** (SSD only, HDD spun down) - **10-12W** when the HDD is active (backups running) - **8-9W** under light CPU load (DNS, VPN traffic) At roughly 8W average, that's around 70 kWh per year, which costs about £20 in electricity. Compare that to an old desktop repurposed as a server pulling 60-80W idle, and the difference is stark. ## What I'd change If I were doing this build again: - I considered SSD-only, but in hindsight the spinning HDD has been the right call for Time Machine. Backups are network-bound, not disk-bound, and putting that volume of writes onto an SSD would chew through its endurance for no real gain. The original concern about HDD noise turned out to be overblown too - a one-line `hdparm -S 120 /dev/sda` (run as a tiny systemd unit at boot) puts the drive into standby after ten minutes of idle, and since Time Machine is the only thing using it, I genuinely can't hear it from the same room. I'd keep this same split. - **A case with better airflow.** The SKTC MX01 is compact and looks decent, but cable management is tight. Something like the Jonsbo N1 would give more room, though it's larger. Overall though, I'm really happy with this build. It's been running for months now without a single issue, and it's become one of those invisible pieces of infrastructure that just works. --- _This is the first in a series of articles about my home server setup. Next up: [running AdGuard Home and Unbound for private DNS filtering](https://martinhicks.dev/articles/adguard-unbound-dns-home)._ ## Further reading - [A year with my Intel N100 home server: what changed A year on from the £250 Intel N100 home server build. What's still earning its keep, what I removed, what I added, and what I'd do differently.](https://martinhicks.dev/articles/n100-home-server-a-year-on) - [Running AdGuard Home and Unbound on a home server Using AdGuard Home and Unbound together for fast, private DNS resolution and network-wide ad blocking.](https://martinhicks.dev/articles/adguard-unbound-dns-home) - [WireGuard for safe browsing on kids' devices Configuring WireGuard so children's devices always route DNS through home filtering, even on school Wi-Fi, friends' houses and mobile data.](https://martinhicks.dev/articles/wireguard-safe-browsing-kids) --- Source: https://martinhicks.dev/articles/n100-home-server-build