I am running on a nuc i5 with 16 gb ram and 256 ssd. Ubuntu with docker. Running ha plus mqq, nodered, mariadb and also traccar traking server and xeoma camera server. All in docker Still cpu usage is 10-15% and most of that is the camera server
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Just setup my new NUC, it’s the cheap $130 one and it’s plenty fast. I put 8GB ram in and 120GB SSH, total was $230 for everything. Loving is so far, running homeassitant, appdaemon and mqtt on it so far.
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Ahh I just saw “what hardware to run HA on”
A PI3B+ ($65 with 32GB MicroSD, case and power supply) a Wink I hub ($30) all talking to my Cable/Phone company already existing router (free)… serves me well.
I’m running hassio in a docker under Ubuntu. It is on a SFF (small form factor) desktop PC (LENOVO M93P) with i5 4th gen, 4gb ram, and 500gb HDD. I bought the SFF second hand to reduce the budget. I agree that with NUC or SFF like this, you can get more creative and innovative wih various application and you can always upgrade (some of) the components.
I also use broadlink for RF and IR blaster and is going to setup zigbee2mqtt (parts are under way). I don’t have zwave and don’t think will get one due to price consideration vs zigbee and wifi counterparts.
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I’m running hassio in a docker under DietPi (best OS ever for embedded micro server). It is on the best ratio perf/price Asus Tinkerboard S (eMMC inside). Just buy a decent power adaptor for it (3Amps).
I run on it (in docker too) : Node-red, InfluxDB, Grafana, Pi-Hole, Let’s Encrypt/Duck DNS addons.
Still have more than 1,5 Gb memory free, quad core under 15%.
For dongles: i use a cheap Zigbee dongle from the projet https://github.com/Koenkk/zigbee2mqtt/wiki/Getting-started, RFxcom RFXtrx433E and Z-Wave Plus Z-Stick GEN5 - Aeon Labs.
BLE / Wifi / Ethernet : embedded.
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I have the same setup. PI 3 running node red in addition to Hassio and a Wink hub. I added a Zwave+ USB to the PI to play with, but it is not really anybetter than the Wink as long as the internet is reliable. The Wink hub is a cheap, stable zwave and zigbee bridge. I bought a bunch of iris lights at Lowe’s on clearance for $4.95 each. It was nice to have zigbee just to save some money. I also have an old Vera for backup to play with, but it doesn’t offer much at this point.
Any news on this front? I’m currently designing my new home with full automation in mind, and crazy ideas are boiling in my head…
I think the question is “What is the most reliable hardware for HA” , and the answer is “nothing involving SD cards”.
HA has insane reads/writes cycle for a SD and it trashes even the most rugged ones in 2-3 months.
So entrusting your house(and its security) to an SD card that will fail often is not a good idea.
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Only if the database is on the SD card, if you have the database on an external HDD or NAS than HA on an SD is very reliable
How would you put it on external HDD in hassio?
I run it on a hexacore i7 (though in VM on Ubuntu) next to a windows server VM and a standard Windows 10 VM.
Works perfectly fine whilst not bothering the other VM’s. I have assigned it 6GB of RAM and 8 virtual cores. Works fine for me, my setup has over 10.000 lines of code and no issues here. My lovelace.yaml alone is over 5000 lines.
HA starts in around 15 seconds (frontend available) and is fully functional/loaded within 30 seconds. I would recommend using decent hardware over any Pi. I would also recommend a SSD. But that is probably just me, as I prefer SSD’s over HDD’s for ANY operating system.
Though an Intel NUC sounds like the better choice if you seek something that is standalone. But if you want to run multiple VM’s like I do, get server hardware (or consumer hardware that comes close to server hardware, as it saves you a lot of money)
I use a NAS myself with MariaDB 10, but this may work if you have a USB HDD:
does it apply to hassio on Pi?
Smae config here 
I’m in the same boat, only have older Synology NAS’ and RPis and so I’m after an energy efficient but sufficiently powerful hardware to host Hassio (plus other process mentioned above), seems an Intel NUC is the way to go then…price vs spec? or possibly an older laptop so gain from the builtin battery backup 
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Hello @eon, I’m experimenting with an old laptop running docker on Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS and it runs very very well. The laptop is a really low end one (even when was new 
so performance wise it’s no big deal, I’d say it’s a bit better than the RPi 3B+. But the battery backup is very nice to have.
My next move will be testing the same solution (Linux + docker) on AWS, let’s see how that goes. If I like it I will provision the new home with two ISPs for redundancy and connect them to an AWS’ VPC using an Watchguard firewall.
Also gotta check what AWS has to offer on their IoT products.
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I’m running ha in a dell optiplex fx160 thin client with 4gb RAM and a 60gb ssd.
totally fanless, Ubuntu server 18.04 LTS
about 55 € (thin client + ram + ssd)
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About 2 months ago I finally got tired of having stability issues, random crashes, and automations performing poorly on my raspberry pi 3. I moved everything onto an hp 8100 i5 desktop. I have it Debian installed with a VM running Ubuntu + Hassio and I couldn’t be happier. Things are instant now. Upgrading to a new version takes less than 15 seconds. Restarting the home assistant service, and the front end is back up in less than 8 seconds compared to the 15 minutes I was up to on the Pi.
Best investment ever.
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Some nice and varied tips there thanks. Although the RPi is a key target device for HA, the boot and update speeds plus other services running on the same host are also a key factor for me (and unreasonable waiting also drives me nuts) . So I think I’ll be looking for something with a higher spec for my first delve into HA. Cheers.
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