Looking to build my first server out, trying to figure out if there is a "better" platform for my needs. Right now I'm just planning a mix of machines and containers in Proxmox for running a NAS and Plex server, router of some sort (also, any preferences on wireless access points?), a pihole if that's not just as easily done in whatever router OS I decide on, VPN, and 3-5 various machines/containers going in and out of service as I find what my needs else I want to play with and host continuously..
Basically just looking for bang for the buck CPU/chipsets people are getting for this use case. Any advantages of AMD vs Intel in mid-consumer level options? Is getting something similar with more efficiency cores worth worrying about in a hypervisor use case?
The multi port NIC can work, although I would recommend jumping straight to a managed or enterprise switch that can do VLANs. It saves on physical wiring and a managed switch often overlaps with other desired homelab features anyway, like PoE, IGMP/MLD snooping, and STP or loop-protect.
Its more about having physical separation between wan and any of your networking. Removes a potential avenue of misconfiguration, and means you dont have to debug switch config, proxmox bridges/firewalls etc if your internet goes out.
Having a physical port for lan means it can adopt the default anti-lockout rules of opnsense (pfsense has similar). So mistakes on the firewall doesnt mean bricking your network.
And passing them through via pcie passthrough means you can never accidentally join a VM to the wrong bridge.