It’s been a year since I’ve been looking into HA. I have not gotten to it yet. I’m comparing the ASUS NUC 15 Pro and the Dell OptiPlex 9020 SFF Core i7 32GB Ram 1TB SSD. The budget is $400 and that includes all the additional hardware I will need to make migration to HA work on my existing devices. Besides a machine to install HAOS on, what other things should I be considered such as ZWAV and Zigbee add-ons etc.?
I looked at the eBay ad, it is an i7, but nowhere to be found what generation.
Yes, I don’t see that either. As for the NUC, it seems that price is basically for barebones only so it’s going to be more than my budget. Maybe I should consider other alternatives.
If you go the Zigbee route, check out the ethernet based coordinators like smlight.
The OptiPlex 7040 i7 is a 6th generation. Is it any good? Ideally what generation should be looking for?
I’ve had good luck for the last ~4 years running a fairly massive installation on an inexpensive, refurbished HP EliteDesk 800 G4 4CB30UT Mini Desktop (2.1 GHz Intel Core i5-8500T, 8 GB DDR4 SDRAM, 256 GB SSD, Windows 11)
It consumes about 12-15 watts.
I do have a Google CoralTPU.
I think you should be focusing on hardware quality/durability, not just performance, but understand that you would want headroom for future applications.
My setup includes Frigate running as an add-on with 12 cameras and the following:
alarm_control_panel: 2
assist_satellite: 4
automation: 249
binary_sensor: 523
button: 246
calendar: 11
camera: 88
climate: 3
conversation: 4
counter: 1
cover: 5
device_tracker: 16
event: 72
fan: 6
geo_location: 1
group: 1
image: 42
input_boolean: 33
input_number: 6
input_select: 4
input_text: 1
light: 111
lock: 3
media_player: 33
notify: 3
number: 133
person: 2
remote: 5
scene: 11
script: 88
select: 157
sensor: 1425
siren: 14
stt: 2
sun: 1
switch: 294
tag: 4
text: 2
time: 4
tts: 2
update: 179
vacuum: 2
wake_word: 1
weather: 5
zone: 1
FWIW: I’m running HA on a Hardkernel Odroid N2+, which is the same hardware as the old “HA Blue”. It would easily fit your budget. Performance does not look very exciting in benchmarks, compared to more current hardware. But it does the job and I don’t perceive any performance issues when running HA.
Of course, the choice also depends on what your use case is. If you’re dealing with cameras and do want to process the video feeds, I’d look for higher performance. But for just turning on lights and monitoring energy usage, an Odroid, or Raspberry Pi for that matter, should suffice.
Yes, that is a good point. Currently I only have my Ring doorbell that has camera on it. I planned to install a bunch of security cameras in the future; however, those cameras will be on its own unit/system. As I’m starting out, I don’t want to spend too much but at the same time I don’t want to suddenly find out I need to upgrade.
$150 Beelink Mini PC, Mini S12
$10 ~ USB extension cable x 2
$40 ~ Zigbee USB gateway
$40 ~ Z-Wave USB gateway (e.g., Zooz 800)
With the remaining money you can connect (several) external storages, maybe even build your own mini NAS.
I have tried previous Dells, HPs, and other refurbished mini business PCs. After messing with them and having hit and miss, I broke down and starting buying new NUCs. Tried several vendors, Beelink was the most consistent. Super low power, great features, low heat, and inexpensive.
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I have an early model Odroid H series, the H2, which has served me well for nearly 6 years.
These are the current options:
It’s a bare card which needs to be provisioned as described, but I think it will be within your budget.
I would also go for a new Mini-PC at the current prices (or get a quite-new used one if you want to go a little bit cheaper and find one).
But I would prefer an N100 over the N95, as it should have a lower idle power consumption.
agree.
I just wrote the S12 because I actually have a few of them, and they are chugging along nicely. I was going to build this fancy proxmox box to run all the things, then I realized I can get four of these minis and dedicate things to them - still be cheaper, still lower power, and lower heat. not only that, if one of them goes bad, nothing else happens to the others, they won’t even blink (i mean unless they are talking to it). Gofiger.
Have you used this radio? Asking because I am looking for a replacement in one (very hot) installation site.
Yes, I have a SLZB-06p7. It’s not in a very hot environment though.
Thanks! Imagine 150F/65C attic/garret, with 90% humidity in a cinder/concrete block building.
How well would it work?
I have no clue, I’m not even sure they’ve tested it in those extreme conditions. Why do you need to have it in he attic, isn’tthere parts of the building that are not saunas where you can place it?
Thank you so much for the suggestion. I’ll take a look at the Beelink.
not really :/. considering that Zigbee is 2.4GHz, it would need to be somewhere high to be outside of the concrete areas. As soon as it is placed inside a concrete room, all other rooms will lose connection.
I need distributed Z-Wave, Zigbee, BT/BLE in this scenario. the smlight concept is glorious, PoE with just the radio & MC makes perfect sense. Might get one for Christmas and surprise myself.
You do not need to spend all of your $400 budget. almost ANY computer can run HA. You need a dual core, 4GB RAM and about 30GB disk. A Raspberry Pi4 works fine. But if you want to go first class buy an N100 powered Mini PC from Anazon. The ones with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSSD sell for about $150 and are over powered for HA.
I am using an old Intal i5-based Mac Mini for the production system and for testing and experiments I have a second HA runing in a ProxMox server that uses repurposed gamming PC. But that old i5 with 16GB RAM was a"fast" computer in its day, today it is about equal fo rht N100-powered mini PC.
While “anything” can work. It will be runnng 24x7 so you wnt to look at the power it uses. THose N100 mini-PCs burn roughly 4 or 5 Watts when idle, comparble to a Raspberry Pi but are better.
Then in addition you will need a Zigbee and Zwave dongle. See here for both https://www.home-assistant.io/
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