Hello
My goal is to run proxmax. One vm for the home assistant is, one for synology (xpenology) for light home photo backup and surveillance station for my one doorbell cam. So two Linux vm. Is a n100 with 12gb ram sufficient? I’m looking at Amazon.com: GMKtec Mini PC, Intel N100 Windows 11 Pro (3.4GHz), 16GB DDR4 1TB PCIe M.2 NVMe SSD, Desktop Computer 4K Dual HDMI Display/4x USB3.2/WiFi 6/BT5.2/RJ45 Ethernet Nucbox G3 : Electronics for about $200. It’s ddr4 vs ddr5, is that a dealbreaker?
Also I want to run it headless, how would I get Linux on that internal SSD? Also it doesn’t have usb c, is that bad?
I've run Proxmox on N100 mini pcs, it works OK (in general, the N100 are fairly slow - not horrible, but not great - but should be fine for your listed use cases). I run my home assistant on an N100 - bare metal/HAOS not in Proxmox though - and it is fine.
Also keep in mind there are Intel N97 mini pcs out there too, they would be fine as well and are usually cheaper.
For virtualization it is nice to find a mini pc that you can change the bios to always boot on power loss/recovery so that it doesn't just stay powered down if you ever lose power. But those are hard to find without looking at a lot of reviews (and even then a lot of them don't go into the bios) or trial/error sending things back to Amazon.
You will need a keyboard/monitor on the mini PC for the install, but it can be removed after.
Normally to install proxmox you would download the ISO, burn it to a USB drive on another computer, then boot the mini pc off the usb drive. How you do that is different on every mini pc, but there is usually an F-key that will take you to the boot menu for you to pick the boot device.
DDR4 vs DDR5? 4 is slower than 5. 
Depends on the speed you want, but I would say if you are looking at N100 cpu you don't care that much about ultimate speed anyway so DDR4 is fine.
USB-C, that's up to you / depends on if you want to use something that needs USB-C.
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I have two of these.
One my wife uses for regular stuff and the other I use as a dedicated server for my Uniden scanner. The processor is a N4000. Comes with Win11 Pro activated. My PC has been running great for almost a year always on and my wife’s has been running off and on for about 3 months.
I like these so much I have a spare on the shelf.
RAM is onboard and not upgradeable. There is a M2 (?) slot on the board for additional storage.
It is fanless and barely warm to the touch.
Every PC I own has a label with the product key.
They are $64.24 right now. I have bought lots of stuff from AliExpress (my wife thinks I need an intervention) and have never had an issue. The few times I was unhappy with something I bought, the return process was easy. They insist you take a VIDEO of the item. Not a photo. Then depending on what it is will determine whether you send it back (postage paid) or toss it.
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@TomG This intrigued me, ordered one. Found a 14" 2 A usb powered HDMI monitor for $69. Could be perfect for low power RV boondocking
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Is that the ProScan software running with an SDS200? Wondering what you're using the monitor for...
ProScan runs on the PC for the SDS00 and serves the stream. It is just an old Vizio monitor. I use it to update the scanner when changes are made to the radioreference database.
The screen on the SDS200 is too small for these old eyes so the monitor lets me enlarge the screen.
The server is up 24/7 and monitors local fire, police, EMS, school buses and whatever else decides to key up. Sometimes I will let it scan and heard someone in the neighborhood on their cordless phone. Baby monitors, wireless microphones, etc.
I heard an IDOT plow driver say he heard they can work remote tomorrow. 
The URL is http://sds200.duckdns.org:5000/
I use this CWWK N305 with 16gb RAM and 1tb NVME SSD. But I’d recommend 3 so you can run them in a quorum.
