As much as I dislike Apple, I have to admit that Apple Silicon changed the world, for the better. Even M1 was truly impressive for its insane efficiency, and now we’re already at M5. Microsoft and Qualcomm have bet big on their own ARM-based personal computers. Let’s discuss if that is awesome, or awful.
In 2025, a $35 second-hand laptop might sound like e-waste, but for many people it’s still surprisingly useful. Whether it’s retirees on a fixed income browsing the web and reading the news, field techs needing a cheap laptop for on-site work, or anyone looking for a ‘beater’ machine, an old, inexpensive computer often fits the bill perfectly.
While you’d probably never use a laptop as a server in a production environment, for a homelab, laptops actually make great Proxmox hosts. They use little power, and the battery is basically a built in UPS. However, an issue you may run into is that the laptop’s display is always on. This is typically undesirable. In this article, I’m going to show you how to easily put the screen to sleep on your Proxmox host.