I use a Optiplex 3060 now (though about to sell it), same processor, upgraded to 64GB of ram (yes it works, even though the spec sheet says 32GB max). I’ve been running 4 VMs and about a dozen containers with no trouble.
The biggest downsides are lack of SATA ports for connecting a lot of drives, and only a single 1GB nic.
If the price is right, it is a great low power server.
Grandstream GWN7811P and 7812P. 2xSFP+ and 8 gigabit POE or 4xSFP+ and 16 gigabit POE, respectively.
Nice work! Studies have shown many times that visibility into ones energy usage is the most helpful tool in reducing energy usage. You can’t adjust effectively if you have to wait a month to see the results, being able to monitor energy live lets you make realtime tweaks to see what works.
My homelab has been running at about 90W for a long time, but had gotten up to 150W after adding an HPE ML30 and a new switch. I’m now about to retire one host (should have an Optiplex 3060 Micro for sale soon…), combining two POE switches, and hoping to get back down to at least 100W.
Does it need to be a fully featured node? If not, then a remote PBS server or borg host could allow for encrypted backups without any access to services or unencrypted data.