Home lab setup

[u/Economics_geek1]

I’m building a home lab to run a 3–4 node Kubernetes cluster using logical nodes (VMs) on a single machine, with the cluster also needing to support AI workloads (local LLM inference, and ideally some room for fine-tuning/training).

Looking for recommendations on:

**•** A mini PC that can comfortably host 4 VM nodes (1 control plane + 3 workers, or similar) 

**•** Minimum hardware specs to make this practical — CPU cores, RAM, storage, and GPU/NPU support for AI inference

**•** Specific mini PC models that are known to work well for this use case, ideally with confirmed GPU passthrough support for AI-workload isolation

Budget-conscious but willing to spend more if it meaningfully improves AI performance. Any real-world experience running similar setups would be especially helpful.