I initially went for proxmox (Maybe overkill, but anyways: Move from PI 4B to I5/I7) but it turned out to be a headache for me. I struggled adding a Coral to Frigate and other stuff.
I ended up installing HA on bare metal (Generic x86-64 - Home Assistant) and adding a Coral was plug and play then. I run Frigate where I record clips and snapshots to a 2TB SSD (no secondary drive, just a 2TB drive for HA and everything else). I also run Double Take with DeepStack and CompreFace, and everything has been plug and play.
If you are like me and not very fluent in the programming syntax required for proxmox then I would recommend going for the bare metal installation. For me there has been only benefits.
As for CPU choice, if you go for the bare metal option, I think the CPU with the highest single core performance would be the way to go. As I understand it, only a single core is used anyway.
Edit: I asked ChatGPT about single vs multiple cores, and considering if an i5-6500T or AMD Ryzen 5 3600 would be the better choice for me (those were my options), and it gave me the following answer:
"You’re correct that Home Assistant itself is primarily a single-threaded application, which means that its core functionality is largely dependent on the performance of a single CPU core. However, when you’re considering a system that is also running additional tasks such as Frigate for video processing, the additional cores and threads of a CPU can still have a significant impact. Here’s why:
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Multitasking and Parallel Workloads: While Home Assistant’s core operations may be single-threaded, having additional cores and threads can allow your system to handle multiple tasks simultaneously. In your case, running Frigate alongside Home Assistant means that video processing and other background tasks can be offloaded to separate cores, leaving the primary core to focus on Home Assistant’s operations. This can help maintain the responsiveness of Home Assistant even when resource-intensive tasks are running in the background.
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Operating System and Overhead: The operating system itself, along with various background processes, also requires CPU resources. Having additional cores and threads ensures that these system-level tasks have dedicated resources, reducing potential contention with Home Assistant’s main thread.
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Future-Proofing and Flexibility: As software and applications evolve, there is an increasing trend towards better utilization of multiple cores. While Home Assistant may primarily use a single core today, future updates or add-ons might take advantage of additional cores and threads. Opting for a CPU with more cores provides some degree of future-proofing and flexibility for potential changes in software architecture.
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Energy Efficiency: Many modern CPUs are designed to dynamically allocate power and clock speeds to cores based on workload. This means that when only a single core is in use, the CPU can allocate resources more efficiently, leading to potential energy savings even if multiple cores are available.
In summary, while the core functionality of Home Assistant itself might be primarily single-threaded, the presence of additional cores and threads can still positively impact the overall system performance, multitasking capabilities, and future potential for your setup, especially when running additional tasks like Frigate for video processing. Therefore, the AMD Ryzen 5 3600’s advantage in core and thread count still holds relevance in your scenario."
Perhaps ask ChatGPT which of the options you listed above would be best and why?