I'm putting together my first Proxmox build to replace some laptops I have. Will be used as a Plex Server and NVR (Blue Iris) to start but I'm sure I will expand on what it's used for in the future. I was planning to put in an i3-13100 but I can get an i5-13400 for ~$100 CDN more. Is it worth it? This started as a low consumption replacement for workstation laptops but would the extra two performance cores and the 4 efficiency cores be a big benefit? I know the 13400 has a higher TDP but if it's not running full out will the power consumption differ much from the 13100?
Do you plan having VMs or only Containers? Because Plex, alla ARR stuff and NVR can work on containers. In that case the i3 is extremely overkill too, but if you plan to run a lot of VMs, the i5 of course have more core.
In terms of power consumption, both idle around 25W (generic system with no GPU and Idling HDD), the i5 would peak more, but depend on the usage, generally server idle 99% of the time.
TDP doesn't mean Power Consumption for Intel, but is related to Thermal Dissipation. The i3 would consume the same as i5 idling, because of C-state and the ability to almost shut off the unused cores, then on peak power, having more cores and frequency, mean more power consumption, but peak mean burst of 1 second at max.