NiPoGi E2 with Intel N150 as a mini server review

In today's test, I present the new NiPoGi E2 Mini-PC in conjunction with Proxmox as a home server. What can you expect from the new Intel N150 processor? The Intel N150 is an alternative to the well-known Intel N95, N97, N100 and N200 models.

Technical data

The mini PC that NiPoGi provided us with for testing has the following technical data:

Processor : Intel Processor N150, 4 cores, 3.6GHz max. (6W TDP)
RAM : 16GB 3200MHz DDR4 (Rayson RS16GS4C16)
SATA SSD : Rayson RS512GSSD310 512GB
Power supply : 12V 2.5A (AD0301-1202500GB)
Network: Realtek RTL8111/8168 Gigabit LAN
Wi-Fi adapter: Realtek RTL8821CE WiFi 5 802.11ac (433 Mbps)
USB: 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2, 2 x USB 2.0
GPU: Intel® UHD Graphics (24 EU - 1.0 GHz)
Monitor ports : 1 x HDMI 2.0, 1 x DisplayPort 1.4
Audio connections : Headphone jack
Expansion : 1 x M.2 2280 compatible with NVMe PCIe 3.0 x4 or SATA (occupied)

Comparison with the Raspberry Pi 5

NiPoGi does not offer the E2 mini PC permanently, but it is often available on Amazon for around 200 euros. Both systems are at a similar price level when you take the features into account. Below we compare the individual aspects of both devices as mini servers.

Power consumption and performance

The NiPoGi E2 with Intel N150 consumes about two to five watts more for comparable performance, but allows access to significantly higher CPU and graphics performance.

At maximum load, the Raspberry Pi 5 requires around 12 watts, while the NiPoGi E2 consumes around 21 watts. However, the NiPoGi E2 offers more than twice the multi-core CPU performance.

The CPU of the NiPoGi E2 is clearly superior to the Raspberry Pi 5 and offers significantly higher performance in both single-core and multi-core benchmarks.

The integrated iGPU of the Intel processor makes it possible to encode multiple H.264 or H.265 streams simultaneously with comparatively low energy consumption – a function that the Raspberry Pi does not support.

Memory - Storage

When it comes to RAM, the NiPoGi Mini PC with 16 GB has a clear advantage over the Raspberry Pi, which offers a maximum of 8 GB.

The expansion options for hard disk storage are also better with the NiPoGi, as it has an NVMe connection (PCIe 3.0 x4).

Connection options

The connectivity options are similar, with one HDMI and one DisplayPort port each, and four USB ports (2 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0). However, the Raspberry Pi requires additional adapters (e.g. for micro HDMI), which can incur additional costs.

Connectivity

Both devices have a gigabit network adapter and thus offer a high transfer speed. The Wi-Fi adapter of the Raspberry Pi and the NiPoGi E2 each supports Wi-Fi 5 with up to 433 Mbit/s. Replacing the Wi-Fi adapter on the NiPoGi E2 is also not possible.

Installing the correct Linux kernel

In order to recognize the integrated Intel graphics unit of the Intel N150 processor, a more recent Linux kernel is required than is included by default in most distributions. For example, the kernel in Proxmox VE 8.3, Debian Bookworm or Ubuntu 24.04 was too old to correctly recognize the Intel graphics card.

Without a suitable driver for the integrated graphics unit, power consumption increases while performance decreases.

You can use the lspci -v command to check whether the corresponding kernel module for the Intel graphics is loaded and used. If the kernel does not yet support the integrated graphics card, the last two lines are missing.

Comparison of power consumption of different Linux kernel versions with Proxmox

kernel version	power consumption without power top	power consumption with Powertop
6.8.12-4-pve	8.6 W	7.8 W
6.11.0-2-pve	5.7 W	5.4 W

Installation of Proxmox

When installing, you can follow the installation instructions from Proxmox. You just have to make sure that you select the appropriate network card depending on your intended use.

After installing Proxmox, two specific scripts from https://community-scripts.github.io/ProxmoxVE/scripts are useful for correctly configuring the Proxmox installation and bringing it up to date.

Proxmox VE post install script

bash -c "$(wget -qLO - https://github.com/community-scripts/ProxmoxVE/raw/main/misc/post-pve-install.sh)"

Install the latest Linux kernel

apt install proxmox-kernel-6.11

Home Assistant OS VM Install Script

bash -c "$(wget -qLO - https://github.com/community-scripts/ProxmoxVE/raw/main/vm/haos-vm.sh)"

You will then find a Home Assistant VM in Proxmox that can be started and set up.

Energy consumption

Below I have put together some load scenarios with different loads on one or more CPU cores. The measurements were carried out without a connected monitor and without USB devices using a Shelly Plus Plug S. The setting powertop --auto-tune was used for all tests.

For the test, an M.2 SATA SSD was used as a hard drive.

Consumption when one core is in use

Usage (%)	Power (Watt)
10%	5.7
20%	6.9
40%	9.1
60%	10.7
80%	13.0
100%	15.2

Consumption when using four cores

Usage (%)	Power (Watt)
10%	7.8
20%	10.5
40%	13.6
60%	16.8
80%	18.7
100%	19.6

Application-specific energy consumption with Proxmox

Without load, i.e. without an active virtual machine, the power consumption is around 4.7 watts.
When Home Assistant is running, idle consumption increases to 5 to 6 watts. With computationally intensive processes, consumption can rise to up to 15 watts.
A connected ZigBee stick increases the idle consumption to about 7 to 8 watts.

NiPoGi E2 with Intel N150 as a home server

Suitable tasks as a home server

The NiPoGi mini PC is well suited for simple tasks such as home assistant, use as a storage server or less demanding computing tasks. Thanks to the integrated iGPU with hardware acceleration, it can also be used as a host for a Jellyfin instance. Thermal throttling is not to be expected, as the large heat sink reliably cools the Intel N150 processor.

The mini PC works almost silently – even under full load it is only audible from very close up.

Simultaneous use as a Linux desktop

The integrated Intel graphics card can be passed through to a virtual machine, so the NiPoGi E2 with Intel N150 can be used as a desktop computer at the same time. To do this, a virtual machine is created, a Linux distribution with the latest kernel such as Ubuntu, Debian or Arch Linux is installed and the Intel graphics card is passed through via PCI passthrough. This means that the hardware acceleration of the Intel GPU is also available within the VM.

This setup allows the mini PC to be used simultaneously as a media PC with Jellyfin or as a desktop computer without affecting the virtual machines already running in Proxmox.

Small Storage Server

Thanks to the ability to install an NVMe SSD, the NiPoGi can be used with up to 8 TB of storage. This figure is based on the maximum available capacity of NVMe SSDs, but has not been tested in practice.

WLAN access point

The integrated WLAN adapter can be used as a WLAN access point. The adapter can simply be passed on to a virtual machine. However, the exact configuration and operating system of the access point are not covered in this article.

Conclusion

The NiPoGi E2 is a solid alternative to the Raspberry Pi 5. Thanks to the more compact housing, the mini PC is only slightly larger than the Raspberry Pi 5.

The often tedious search for suitable accessories, as is necessary with the Raspberry Pi 5, is also eliminated here. The NiPoGi E2 comes as a complete mini PC with a case, fast SSD, power supply and display connections - without the need for additional adapters.

This makes the NiPoGi E2 ideal for building a minimalist home server for home automation or other simple server tasks.

Depending on usage, the power consumption is about two to five watts higher than that of the Raspberry Pi, but the NiPoGi E2 offers noticeably higher performance and more features. In certain scenarios, such as encoding videos with the integrated GPU, it can even work more energy efficiently than the Raspberry Pi.

The NiPoGi E2 with Intel N150 is offered on Amazon for 249 euros (RRP), but is already available for around 200 euros with frequently available vouchers, making it an interesting option.