HA on a surface pro 3, please help

Installation
1

Hi!

I’m completely new to Home Assistant (HA). I previously used a Homey Pro (2016), but it broke a few months ago. Now I’d like to switch to HA. Since I’m still in the discovery phase, I want to keep costs as low as possible.

Here are the devices in my home:

Hue: Over 30 lights, 4 sensors, and several remotes

Hikvision camera system (I plan to expand this with a Hikvision AX Pro alarm system)

Siemens appliances: Washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, and stove (all Wi-Fi enabled)

Sonos

Chromecast

Google Hub

…and many more, but these are the ones I use most frequently.

I have an old Surface Pro 3 at home and was wondering if it could work as a Home Assistant device. I’m considering installing HA as the operating system directly on this device. Would the touchscreen still function? Do you think this setup could work as a sustainable long-term solution, or would it only be suitable temporarily?

Additionally, I have a Raspberry Pi (I believe it’s a Pi 3) that I’m not currently using.

I don’t use any Z-Wave devices, so I think I’d only need to buy the HA Zigbee stick to connect everything.

I’d appreciate your feedback. Is this a good plan, or should I consider another setup?

Looking forward to your thoughts!

2

I can’t see why not. Any computer running on an x-86 processor and with a UEFI BIOS will work. The Surface Pro 3 has an Intel Cort i7 processor, so Home Assistant would run well there.

No. The touchscreen I/O is handled by the Operating System. HAOS has no GUI. It is strictly a terminal.

Here’s your mistake. Home Assistant is basically a Web Server running on a limited industrial version of Debian Linux. All user interface is done through a browser. My Home Assistant is running on an Intel NUC i3 in my basement. Where I never see it. I do have a monitor and keyboard plugged into it, but I can’t recall the last time I ever turned the monitor on. All of my user interface, what people point to and say, “that’s Home Assistant”, is just a web page. Any web browser on your network can open that web page and interact with Home Assistant - the server in the basement.

So, while the Surface Pro 3 is an even more powerful processor then my Intel NUC i3, which is orders of magnitude more processing power than a Raspberry Pi3, I wouldn’t recommend using it for a Home Assistant server. If it still runs Windows, then just run a browser and use the Surface as an interface into your Home Assistant server. (The one in the basement).

Most people begin with a Raspberry Pi 3 or 4 to run Home Assistant. You could certainly start with the Pi3. I did. In fact, Home Assistant is an option in the Raspberry Pi Imager program. It couldn’t be simpler.

All of your devices except the cameras should be no issue with the Pi. My hesitation on the camera is that I’ve never seen anything HK Vision. I have eight cameras around my home, mostly Wyze Cam3 with the RTSP mod, (no cloud), that cost me $35 each.

This is the view using the Frigate NVR Add-on:

8 cameras
8 cameras1408×812 233 KB

Since money is no object (Hue lights), I would recommend that when your requirements (quickly) outgrow the Pi, and cameras can do that, that you can buy a used Micro PC, like the Intel NUC, for less than the cost of a new Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 plus case and power supply, and the resulting system will blow dust in the Pi.

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@stevemann Thank you very much for your reply. I was thinking to install HA as the operating system because I don’t use te surface pro any more. By the way, it is een i5.

Today I realised that I have also an synology nas. I think it is also possible to run HA on that. hmm more options…

My camera system (NVR+cameras) are all hikvision. I can see a integration on the page of HA.