Same over here. Once you’re happy with your home automation setup, you might want to jump into other things like traccar or paperless. Don’t go too short on resources in the beginning. Will be way more expensive later on to upgrade or add a second machine.
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I recently built my own nuc with a ASRock j4105 8 GB ram and a 250gb SSD. HA is much more responsive. The board I used is fanless so while it sits in the middle of the house next to the TV, you can’t hear it. This was very important to me. I have built enough htpcs (hence the user name) to know that there are times you don’t want the whir of a fan.
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Have you looked at Xeoma as camera server?. The best I have ever seen. Not free, there is a one time licence fee per camers, but it is worth every euro.
My 8th Gen i3 has a fan, but I’ve never heard it. They’ve put in a larger fan apparently, so it’s quieter as it does not have to spin as fast. I had to look at a review to confirm it has a fan.
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I’m using a 5th gen NUC with a Core i3. Added a spare 4GB RAM stick, and a spare 128GB m.2 SSD. It’s fanless and running like a champ. Plenty of headroom for anything I’ve thrown at it.
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Thanks everyone I really appreciate the answers, there is some great advice and information here.
But, I’m getting greedy…
I have a follow up question How to choose an operating environment for a NUC?
I personally have lubuntu (linux) on my nuc and hassio etc running via dockers.
I chose lubuntu as it is a lighter version of the full blown ubuntu.
I have a NUC7CJYH - the most powerful celeron based one… much cheaper than i3 or i5 etc with a 240gb SSD and 8gb RAM.
I was not/am not planning on running cameras so an i3 seemed like overkill and was out of my price range.
It really depends on what you want to run. I run hass.io with a bunch of addons… I think I have around 26 docker images/containers. Not all are Home Assistant related. It doesn’t even break a sweat.
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I just setup one of these with 8G Memory and a 120G SSD for about $230 US. You don’t need a lot to run what we do and I am running more on it now. Using Ubuntu 18.04 Workstation with Docker. I am very happy with it, did a write up on it here.
Has any one tried the cheapish NUC style computers from AliExpress like this one. They seem very well priced especially if you go for a bare bones system.
Also for HA are there any major benefits for going for a latest generation CPU over an older one? Ie. 7th Vs 4th gen i3, i5, i7?
I have a device like that for my pfSense Router / Firewall.
Not had any reliability issues at all, it has been on 24/7 for just over 27 days now as that was when I last updated pfSense version.
You normally find it cheaper to buy just the device it’s self and source the RAM and SSD Locally.
One thing to remember with nucs is that the ram is double channel. Two 4 gb ddram is much faster than one 8gb.
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TIL. Where did you find that info?
If you mean about the double channel memory make a search on google. Its valid for most systems. No rocket science. Simple google search. https://www.google.com/search?q=double+channel+memory&oq=double+channel+memory&aqs=chrome..69i57.11140j0j7&client=tablet-unknown&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
From wiki
Dual-channel architecture requires a dual-channel-capable motherboard and two or more DDR, DDR2, DDR3, DDR4, or DDR5 memory modules. The memory modules are installed into matching banks, which are usually color-coded on the motherboard. These separate channels allow the memory controller access to each memory module. Identical memory modules are not required, but are often recommended for best dual-channel operation.
It’s much faster when you compare the two options with benchmarks but makes barely any difference in real life with the kind of apps you’ll use for home automation.
So better to buy the swingle chip and upgrade later than by two lower capacity at the start.
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I see a LOT difference because I also run the camera server with nine cameras on the same NUC
Really? Disk IO would be far more important than RAM performance in that scenario.
However, I bow to your experience.
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I have a NVME disc so it is quite ok. But all builds with built in graphic is helped with dual memory
always helps to know what to google 
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