I run Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi 4. I like the installation, small, neat, quiet and very low power consumption. I have around 40 connected device, 25 integrations, and several automations/scripts. Nothing heavy duty!
Recently I had several problems with the Samsung SD card (128GB) so instead of replacing the SD card (again) I decided to move to SSD. This brought about the need for a case which would house the attached SSD adapter and drive. I did not want to go with a cable and loose drive because I wanted it “all in the box”.
Thought about upgrading to RPi 5 but with the pierce gouging going on currently I chose to stay with the RPi 4 which I have several.
I did not want something cute with lights or looking like a game console, just a plan case preferably metal. It did need to have the space for the adapter card and
SSD. Searching the Internet, Amazon and other online fours I finally found and decided to purchase this one from Amazon. GeeekPi Aluminum NAS Case for Raspberry Pi 4 I did not need a power supply as I had a very good one on hand.
To shorten this, the outcome has been dynamic! Temperature before using the official RPi 4 case, heat sinks, and fan was between 40 and 45C. The building of the case is well documented in the case instructions, installation of HA can be found on Youtube, there are several, just pick the guy you can understand. After the temperature now runs a very cool 31 to 34C. Of course speed is up and all is happy. Power consumption has decreased a bit from 4.7W to just about 4W (average).