How to choose a NUC?

Hardware
21

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?

22

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.

23

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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24

TIL. Where did you find that info?

25

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

26

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.

27

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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28

I see a LOT difference because I also run the camera server with nine cameras on the same NUC

29

Really? Disk IO would be far more important than RAM performance in that scenario.

However, I bow to your experience.

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30

I have a NVME disc so it is quite ok. But all builds with built in graphic is helped with dual memory

31

always helps to know what to google :wink:

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32

I went with:

So far very happy with it, primarily using it for Drone CI, Node-RED and running some experiments. Very silent device. I was quite surprised that it has a wifi, makes things a lot easier :slight_smile: And yeah, totally worth getting this little PC, although I am still running my RPI in parallel.

33

When you say the Z-wave is slow, do you mean waiting for it to load up? Or for the network function itself? I am curious to see if upgrading from a Pi to a NUC will improve my motion detection reporting times. Thanks!

34

I didn’t say it was slow, I said it was the slowest part. Its just because the Z wave stick has to try to talk to all the devices, determine hops, etc. I have 40ish Z wave devices so this is a factor too. The NUC really isnt much of a factor here at all.

Just for reference, a restart of Home Assistant takes about 30 seconds until the front end is ready again. Its another few minutes for Z wave to be ready (I have a notification for it), but everything else is very usable in that period of time.

35

If you have delays in motion sensors I would suspect your z wave mesh to have issues instead of computer power. I have 7 z wave motion sensors and they all report motion pretty instantly. They did that both on the pi and also on the server I use now.

36

I have some MSI cubi n systems which do not have any fan.

37
  • Memory (amount and type) - HA doesn’t really use much memory out the box but with a few addons it can use quite a bit more. I’d look at your current setup and see how much it’s already using. I’m using 1GB for my HA machine and it’s fine
  • Processor speed - Again out the box will need very little CPU, it even runs on a Raspberry Pi. However once loaded up with lots of addons and if you have a large database then a Pi will struggle and a faster CPU will help. Again it depends on how exactly HA is used. Look at your taskmanager on your current cyctem and see how much CPU it’s using.
  • Number of cores - this is similar to CPU speed really, dualcore of quadcore will be fine, anything more is probably a waste.
  • … anything else? - disk speed, probably the most important thing that affects HA start up speed.
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38

@yuran, @petro, @anyone_else_with_a_view

Ok, so only three months later and I am up and running with a NUC. This weekend I got it up and running and it’s like I moved into a different world. If I want to restart, well, now just restart. It’s great.

However, I am still uncertain if I am setting things up the ‘best’ way.

I have gone for hassio on Proxmox and so far that is all I have done which is really the root of this question.

I really want Bluetooth back but I have found out that it doesn’t work on Proxmox and I have been advised to install an Ubuntu VM and then docker and then hassio which is fine except that I have not been able to install a working Ubuntu 18.04 VM in Proxmox. I know it can be done (obviously), it just doesn’t work for me for some reason. It installs but won’t start. But that is probably not really a question for this forum?

My actual question (at last!) is how have you got your NUC setup? I’m quite happy to completely rebuild mine if there is a proven platform with flexibility to install other things* that does not require a deep understanding of Linux to at least get up and running.

*For example and just for starters I am very keen to get my UniFi controller off my Windows Desktop.

Thanks for any guidance.

39

I’m running Ubuntu 18.04 w/ hassio in docker. It works well seeing that I’m doing everything from docker pretty much aside from apcupsd, which is running on ubuntu outside docker. I’m using cockpit, which is a nuc-only ubuntu app that allows you to access the system without needing the front end anywhere on your network. It has terminal and a bunch of other system information.

40

Thanks, so no VMs then?
I’m still trying to get my head around what the pros and cons are with VMs or using Docker…

Also I think I saw a picture of one of your Lovelace screens that had Unifi switches. Is the Controller happy in Docker?