same recipes · same unknown policy · no generic winner
Lenovo M720q i5-8500T vs ASUS PN42 N100 for the Pilot Workloads
Compare the same bounded homelab assumptions on a used i5-8500T business mini PC and a fanless N100 mini PC without declaring a generic winner.
- record type
- comparison
record at a glance
- profiles compared
- 2
- pilot recipes evaluated
- 3
- measured head-to-head runs
- 0
- best attached evidence
- grade B
- accepted grade A runs
- 0
comparison contract
This page runs the same 3 bounded public-pilot recipes against two exact evaluator profiles. It does not declare a universal winner, compare price, or invent benchmark numbers.
Default unknown assumptions stay unknown for both profiles. That keeps the comparison symmetric and prevents a guessed configuration step from becoming a positive result.
server-rendered prerequisite-fit comparison
| bounded workload | Lenovo M720q Tiny | ASUS PN42 N100 |
|---|---|---|
| Proxmox host with two light service VMs | Conditional this profile's limiting axis: compute · grade D | No this profile's limiting axis: memory · grade D |
| Home Assistant OS virtual machine | Unknown this profile's limiting axis: operational · grade D | Unknown this profile's limiting axis: operational · grade D |
| One concurrent 1080p Jellyfin hardware transcode | Unknown this profile's limiting axis: media · grade D | Unknown this profile's limiting axis: media · grade D |
the axis that separates the two boxes is not always the axis that limits either one.
A Conditional, No, or Unknown label describes this exact recipe and assumption set. It is not an overall product score.
differences that change a decision
Every rule below ran on both profiles and returned a different guard outcome or a different verdict. Rules the two profiles agree on are not rendered, and a rule that only one profile ran says so. The comparison is keyed by the rule's own identity — ruleId@version — so an edited rule cannot pair with its earlier self.
The axis that separates the two boxes is not always the axis that limits either one.
| bounded workload | rule | axis where the two profiles disagree | Lenovo ThinkCentre M720q Tiny — i5-8500T / 16 GB / 512 GB NVMe | ASUS ExpertCenter PN42 — N100 / 4 GB / 128 GB NVMe |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proxmox host with two light service VMs | physical-outcome-constraint-m720q-sata25-pcie-mutual-exclusion@legacy | storage | Conditional no guard recorded · grade D | Unknown rule not run on this profile · grade Unknown |
| Proxmox host with two light service VMs | req-proxmox-two-vm-memory@1 | memory | Conditional comparison passed · grade D | No comparison failed · grade D |
| Home Assistant OS virtual machine | physical-outcome-constraint-m720q-sata25-pcie-mutual-exclusion@legacy | storage | Conditional no guard recorded · grade D | Unknown rule not run on this profile · grade Unknown |
| One concurrent 1080p Jellyfin hardware transcode | physical-outcome-constraint-m720q-sata25-pcie-mutual-exclusion@legacy | storage | Conditional no guard recorded · grade D | Unknown rule not run on this profile · grade Unknown |
| One concurrent 1080p Jellyfin hardware transcode | req-jellyfin-memory@1 | memory | Conditional comparison passed · grade D | Conditional comparison failed · grade D |
documented and modeled hardware facts
| fact | Lenovo ThinkCentre M720q Tiny — i5-8500T / 16 GB / 512 GB NVMe | ASUS ExpertCenter PN42 — N100 / 4 GB / 128 GB NVMe |
|---|---|---|
| processor | Intel Core i5-8500T | Intel Processor N100 |
| cores / threads | 6 / 6 | 4 / 4 |
| installed memory | 16 GiB | 4 GiB |
| system drive | 512 GiB nvme-ssd | 128 GiB nvme-ssd |
| wired link | 1 Gbps | 2.5 Gbps |
| Intel Quick Sync modeled | yes | yes |
what is still missing
- No exact retail specimen identity or firmware revision is attached.
- No comparable same-protocol head-to-head power, thermal, acoustic, or sustained-load run exists.
- No price observation or total-cost model is maintained in this pilot.
- Unknown deployment and storage assumptions must be answered per build.
Comparable head-to-head Grade A run pairs: 0. Hardware facts and evaluator outcomes are useful, but they are not a benchmark leaderboard.
show the comparison takeaway
The two profiles produce a mix of Yes, Conditional, No, or Unknown outcomes across the bounded pilot recipes. This is a coarse prerequisite summary, not a benchmark score or a generic winner.
receipts
12 sources · 0 accepted grade A runs · best evidence grade B · reviewed 2026-07-26
record identity, publication and review
- record id
- config-lenovo-m720q-i5-8500t-16-512::config-asus-pn42-n100-4-128
- canonical path
- /compare/lenovo-m720q-i5-8500t-vs-asus-pn42-n100/
- publication
- candidate · noindex
- reviewed
- 2026-07-26
- review again by
- 2026-08-25
evidence boundary
Grade A count: 0. A Grade B source can establish a documented specification or requirement. Grade D records are modeling inputs. Neither is proof of measured throughput, thermals, power, reliability, or physical fit.
14 attached evidence records
a grade describes how well attested a statement is, not how good the hardware is. grade a is a lab run we reproduced with a published method. grade d is a model, a reasoned inference, or a single unverified report.
- evidence grade b 12 records
- evidence grade d 2 records
evidence grade b · official sourcesupports
The M720 Tiny family supports i5-8500T configurations, two DDR4-2666 SO-DIMM slots, an M.2 SSD, and an optional 2.5-inch SATA drive; Lenovo specifies that the 2.5-inch HDD/SSD and PCIe card are mutually exclusive.
evidence grade b · official sourcesupports
The i5-8500T has 6 cores, 6 threads, Intel 64, AVX2, UHD Graphics 630, Quick Sync Video, VT-x, VT-d, and EPT.
evidence grade b · official sourcesupports
The PN42 N100 configuration uses one DDR4-3200 SO-DIMM slot with a listed 16 GB maximum, M.2 NVMe storage, and 2.5 Gb Ethernet.
9 further grade b records · official source
evidence grade b · official sourcesupports
The Intel N100 has 4 cores, 4 threads, Intel 64, integrated graphics with Quick Sync, VT-x, VT-d, and EPT.
evidence grade b · official sourcesupports
For production, Proxmox VE documents Intel 64 or AMD64 with hardware virtualization, at least 2 GB for host services plus designated guest memory, fast redundant storage with SSDs preferred, and redundant multi-gigabit network interfaces. Its separate evaluation-only minimum is not a production recommendation.
evidence grade b · official sourcesupports
The generic x86-64 Home Assistant OS image requires x86-64, UEFI boot, compatible storage, and a supported network adapter; Secure Boot must be disabled.
evidence grade b · official sourcesupports
Home Assistant documents a KVM/Proxmox QCOW2 deployment with minimum VM resources of 2 GB RAM and 2 vCPUs, requires UEFI, and directs KVM users to a non-Secure-Boot OVMF image. The example KVM command allocates 4 GB, while the guide says resources should be sized to the expected workload rather than asserting a universal higher recommendation.
evidence grade b · official sourcesupports
The official July 2026 release notes list Home Assistant Core patch release 2026.7.4.
evidence grade b · official sourcesupports
Jellyfin recommends 8 GB RAM, SSD storage for application data and transcode cache, wired gigabit networking, and properly configured hardware acceleration for transcoding.
evidence grade b · official sourcesupports
Jellyfin publishes an official Debian-based container image and documents 10.11 tags, but does not establish the pilot's additional KVM guest layer.
evidence grade b · official sourcesupports
Jellyfin 10.11 is a documented stable server release line and requires a 64-bit operating system on ARM.
evidence grade b · official sourcesupports
Jellyfin says Intel 7th through 10th generation integrated graphics remain capable for existing owners, but are no longer recommended for a new purchase because Intel deprecated the relevant toolkit.
2 further grade d records · modeled or inferred
evidence grade d · modeled or inferredsupports
The five configuration records are explicit evaluation fixtures selected for feasibility work; they are not observed retail SKUs or tested lab specimens.
limitation: This is a modeled or inferred claim. It cannot establish measured performance.
evidence grade d · modeled or inferredsupports
Resource allocations in candidate recipes and the starter stack are planning budgets, not measured throughput or latency claims.
limitation: This is a modeled or inferred claim. It cannot establish measured performance.
source ledger
Official facts and first-party modeling are shown separately. Source prose, tables, and diagrams are not republished.
- 12 sources
- 11 with a public link
- 2 component manufacturer specification
- 1 first party modeling policy
- 2 oem specification
- 5 official application documentation
- 2 official release notes
component manufacturer specification · 2 sources
first party modeling policy · 1 source
- Super Evil Robots Repositioning Master Plan
oem specification · 2 sources
official application documentation · 5 sources
official release notes · 2 sources
record and source history
This projection is generated from homelab graph version 0.1.0. The generated lifecycle index exposes only history events that are explicitly present in the structured record. It does not invent an earlier revision when the graph contains only its creation baseline.
- — current candidate record reviewed against the attached evidence set.
- — next required review under the monthly pilot-record review interval.
- This route does not map to one simple lifecycle entity. Inspect the generated index for its component records; no route-level revision is implied.
inspect the complete generated lifecycle and change-history index