You did…references to RPI4 generally put it in the 1200-1300 passmark range. If all you are going to run in home assistant and nothing else that’s cpu intensive, the nuk you’re looking at is massively overpowered 
The wyse 5020 with it’s AMD GX-415GA processor is just slightly faster than a pi 4. I’d be looking for a nuc with a processor that’s about 3000 passmark. the passmark on the nuc you are looking at is over 6000. It certainly will run home assistant Processor isn’t everything, of course but you get the idea.
NUC. Despite what any are saying here, practically any NUC is going to outperform a pi4.
I’ll further suggest NUC. No more SD card failures. Plus it’s nice not to worry about outgrowing the pi4 in the near future.
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Never had an SD card failure in 2 years across two different Rpi (3, then 4)… but I’ve started to feel like my luck might run out. I am also looking at having the HA system handle more than just HA with zoneminder/frigate, and just… a lot of other stuff so I can repurpose the other machine that’s running all that stuff into another machine. I just ordered a NUC (NUC10i7FNH1). It’s MASSIVELY overpowered, but that’s the point, considering how much random stuff I’m going to cram onto it.
I love the flexibility the NUC gives me. My rpi would get sluggish as I start adding things. The NUC might be overkill but I’ll grow into it.
There have been a number of threads recently on the forums discussing this same topic. You could also check those out to get some information and view points. Here’s a couple with a quick search that I found that might help.
This probably depends a lot on the “age” of your SD card. If it’s brand new and fairly large, it may go a long time without reaching a point where it actually can’t write data (and thus fails). For me the tipping point wasn’t so much SD card failure, but speed. SSD is just so much faster.
My NUC runs Windows+Virtual Box+HA running in a virtual machine which may seem complex compared a PI dedicated to running HA alone. However, it was easy to find the method for starting the virtual machine unattended when the system reboots and easy to find complete instructions for the setup.
I can set up the virtual machine with more resources than currently available on the PI. (I’m currently running fine with only 3GB RAM, but I could expand that considerably if my RAM use get much, much larger.)
The thing I like the most about the NUC is (as brandont also says) the flexibility: There’s a lot of high-speed I/O already built-in, particularly for SSDs. Further, there are more “lanes” for that I/O as well. There’s also much more built-in expandability (eg: RAM and storage).
The one downside is, of course, with all this, the NUC will draw more power. You can get a UPS module for a PI that runs a long time on a couple of batteries. You’ll need a bigger UPS for a NUC.
I recommend the NUC8i5BEH
PI4/NUC is not the only choice. Any amd64 PC will be a good option. I am a bit sick of this forum being an advertising space for the Intel NUC. It is just another PC in a small form factor.
My current HA machine is a Lenovo Thinkcentre M72e. Tiny and indistinguishable from any other PC, just like a NUC.
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Couldn’t agree more
X2. I scooped up an i5 small PC for $120 shipped with an SSD and 8gb of RAM. I have like 20 containers churning away on this thing, including 6 rstp streams through Frigate (with a coral too), and it is barely breaking a sweat. Besides the usual home assistant stack, im running stuff like nextcloud, guacamole, bitwarden, fail2ban, etc, and it just takes it all:
Those blips are me backing stuff up. I ended up with an HP Elitedesk but all these things are basically the same. There are a ton on eBay now for around $100.
Edit: 22 containers, plus other stuff, including gnome, all on Ubuntu 20.04:
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Well yeah. I’ve been misusing the term NUC to mean any relatively tiny form PC. Mine is actually a Lenovo m92. I did replace the original rotating drive with an SSD.
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There are edge cases where NUCs may be required, but largely they are not.
I run multiple VMs using Proxmox on an i5 Dell Optiplex 990, runs very well and without issue. The same machine records HD camera streams 24/7 using Shinobi, runs an MQTT server and a Plex server, among other things. I purchased on eBay for $100 AUD and only needed a $25 SSD to upgrade from the HDD it came with. The machine shipped with 8gb RAM, however I chose to upgrade that to 16gb after some time, but, only ever use about 8gb of it anyway. I use a Dell USFF 790 in my business, again, runs extremely well, no issues and another sub $100 purchase.
In all but extreme edge cases, a 2nd hand amd64 machine, like @nickrout mentioned, from eBay for less than $100 will happily do almost everything someone will want to do with HA. NUCs are highly overrated, and almost unnecessary for HA. If you have the cash burning a hole in your pocket, then sure, get a NUC, but there are better places to invest the money in HA, like an excellent network/router/AP if you have a budget to work within.
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Yes, but you will need memory and ssd…
Ok, you’re all set. I would not take 4Gb but miniaml 8.
And TAKE A PRO SSD!!! read write on non-pro is dramatical low (quickly broken)
In comparison, this is half the price once you add your RAM and SSD. (just picked Germany eBay, not sure where you are located)
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Looks good!
My location here is irrelevant because I am not buying anything right now. Just pointed out one possibility which I thought was reasonable. I really do not say it is better than anything else. I have two of those running HA and they have suited my needs well enough.
But yes it is great everybody can make their own choices based on their own preferences.
There is one downside using a overpowered server that is power consumption.
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