What is the realistic minimum for this setup?

[RNGesusHatesMe]

Hey guys looking to do a home setup with a NUC and wondering whats the baseline ill need to do this.

so the idea is the following

 

esxi (6.5?)

running 2 VM's

Psense (configured as a router/firewall for my internet)

an os (havent decided) configured as a file server

 

would be running 8gb ram (might bump this up to 16)

looking at the celeron kits but thinking id need an i3 ?

 

[LukeSavenije]

I would recommend going to a i3 for more cores... 8 gigs is enough for most vm's, but it depends on your needs with it

[WereCatf]

2 hours ago, RNGesusHatesMe said:

would be running 8gb ram (might bump this up to 16)

Pfsense runs fine even with just 512MB RAM, so that'd leave everything else for the file-server, so I don't really see the need to bump the RAM to 16GB.

[Eruainur]

I agree, it really depends on what you want to do with the server/vms. 

But honestly, regardless of the use case, i'd also go with the i3. You will notice the difference in performance in most tasks and even if you don't need the horsepower right now, you can always use it for something else in the future.