For me I was weighing up 2-3x the price of ArgonOne 4B for the NUC, imo with the increased heat/noise of the NUC and possibly having to deal with that issue, I’d rather save the money and lose a bit of CPU power on the pi4b
I usually tell everyone to go with a gigabyte brix with a j4125 processor, but goiy luck finding that right now. Luckily there are similar items that are even more reasonably priced:
Limited-time deal: Mini PC Windows 10 Pro, TRIGKEY N4 Micro PC Intel 4-Core J4125(up to 2.7GHz) Processor 8G DDR4 128G M.2 SSD for Working Computer. Equipped with WiFi 5, Gigabit Ethernet, BT4.0, 4K Dual HDMI Output https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09LLR3NK9/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_dl_J7GPC2STQM55DE4643YG?psc=1
This is way cheaper than you can find a pi for right now and a lot more powerful.
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Hmm interesting I’d probably have gone with that if I’d seen it, here’s a UK link for others: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Computer-TRIGKEY-GREEN-G1-Industrial/dp/B09PR9SVLQ/
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The problem is that the Pi is impossible to find at the moment. I was lucky to find one below retail price on Facebook Marketplace, being sold a guy that just didn’t have time to do anything with it and literally only used it twice. So many people on eBay and Marketplace are selling them at hugely inflated prices though 
The processor on these boxes really is a great fit for this type of application. It has enough power to host websites without lag, runs extremely well with Linux, and even with memory and hard drive runs only at about 12w tdp.
hello everyone, sorry for the obvious question but I don’t know anything about this subject and I’m learning about it thanks to what’s happening on insteon. According to what I am reading with a mini computer I can make it work home assistant.
Depends what you mean by mini computer I guess
But to answer more seriously, you can run home assistant on any reasonably modern PC. The size is irrelevant. Most people want low cost, low power and reliability.
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Jajajaja. I was referring to a mini computer like this one. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09KPKLCPF/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?pd_rd_i=B09KPKLCPF&pd_rd_w=gn26O&pf_rd_p=34ddd399-3313-4562-9a30-685d1d7ce226&pd_rd_wg=kRHuv&pf_rd_r=8ZS0H7G07TDK9RBACW7Q&pd_rd_r=b3628cac-0e51-4688-b497-f7372530ef23&s=pc&smid=A38A2JHWJ5XQ18&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyVENXTlFTMzgwTlFWJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMjY2NTIxM09GNk02QUpKTVVVTCZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNDUzNzI0M0dKUVlEVUcwQkNUSSZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2RldGFpbF90aGVtYXRpYyZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU&th=1
I think that falls into the definition of “reasonably modern PC”. Of the options on there I would choose 8G/128G just to puture proof it. No one ever got sacked for buying too much RAM or storage.
By the way you don’t have to post that full url. This is enough
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I switched from a RPI4 to this Beelink SER3 Mini PC lately available from Ali Express and preconfigured it with these tweaks.
Replaced the preinstalled Windows with the latest Debian 11 and installed HA Supervised onto it following kanga_who’s Guide.
All went flawlessly no hiccups during the whole installation process and during continuous use ever since. It just works. The system is very snappy, no waiting times and plenty of ressources left for future-proofness.
For users with some basic Linux knowledge definitely a recommendable device and much cheaper than a NUC with similar specs.
Since the Mini PC is compatible with the latest Debian 11(out-of-the-box support for all hardware components) I believe installing Home Assistant OS instead of HA Supervised should not pose problems.
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thanks for your answers I decided to buy a mini pc to install homeasistant, someone can share with me a video or manual to install home asistant, what happens is that the mini pc comes with windows and what I read is that the operating system is home assitant.
Just make sure that Mini PC supports/is supported by Linux. No matter whether you are going to install HA Supervised (not really recommending this to you) or Home Assistant OS (recommended): Home Assistant OS is also based on Linux.
Watch this video to learn about the latter.
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If you watch it you’ll notice that it is not something to follow but to help to decide about a instalation method.
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BTW, all the options are listed here and includes a table for comparison: Installation - Home Assistant.
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Hi Brandon, hoping you can help me connect to my Home Assistant Bundle - Standard ODROID-N2+ 2GB/16GB eMMC. Server wasn’t found when Scanning for Servers in the iOS HA app so I connected a keyboard and monitor and obtained IP address. When I type http://192.168.1.107:8123/ (or https)
In a browser I get the message 192.168.1.107 refused to connect ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED. Following another suggestion in this thread I tried http://192.168.1.107: 4357/ and I get this message:
Home Assistant observer
| Supervisor: | Connected |
|---|---|
| Supported: | Supported |
| Healthy: | Healthy |
Tips/pointers greatly appreciated!
Be sure to watch the power consumption of that old computer. An old laptop might consume 30 watts idle. That’s 262.8 kWh a year. Depending on your electricity rate, it could be a non-negligible amount of money. Electricity can be expensive in some countries (Europe) or US states (California). For example, around here, non-solar users, PG&E charges between 32 and 41 cents/kWh at current rates, and those are slated to go up further. 262 kWh a year costs between $81 and $107/year of electricity. At the average US rate of 14 cents/kWh, it’s about $36/year - still not negligible. There may be additional electricity usage from your air conditioner, also, since the laptop puts out heat.
A Raspberry Pi 3B+ in comparison consumes about 3W idle, which would mean just 10% of the electric bill usage annually. Pi 3B+ is what I’m running Home Assistant on currently. And 3W is what I measured with an energy meter, a TP-Link KP125. Even with the crazy shortages of new Raspberry Pis, you can still find a used 3B or 3B+ for under $100 with PSU and SD card. It can still make financial sense to buy one vs an old laptop.
Laptop’s built-in UPS may not do you as much good as you think, depending on devices you use. Your Ethernet switch, Wifi access point, and any plug-in devices will be offline during a power outage, unless they are all plugged in to a UPS. HomeAssistant will not be able to accomplish much in those situations.
Keeping the laptop’s battery fully charged 24 hours a day also consumes some energy. If you already have a UPS for your other devices, and still choose to use a laptop to run HA, it may make more sense to remove the battery from the laptop, and plug in the laptop to the UPS, to avoid the cost of charging multiple batteries unnecessarily.
Also the battery is usually the first thing to go in a laptop, so might not give much protection.
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Every watt for a device that’s on 24/7 adds up. Personally, I would rather save the money, and use less energy. 8 watts seems reasonable to run HA, though. I currently use a Raspberry Pi 3 with microSD which consumes just 3 watts.