Migrating from Raspi 3B+ to Intel

I’ve seen similar threads, but most of them are at least two years old …

I’ve been using a Raspi 3B+ for a year or so, and have reached the point where I’m beginning to rub up against the speed limitations of the little box. Initially, I was looking at a Raspi 4, but that whole concept has gone out the window in 2022. For less than I can find a ‘like new’ RP3 or RP4, I can get something like a refurbed Lenovo ThinkCentre M600 with a 1-year warranty. Plus, I worked 10 years in the PC side of the world, and have lots of spare pieces laying around.

Has anyone else gone down this route? How seamless is the move from HASS on a Raspi to a dedicated Intel-based machine? (No VMs.) Can I transfer a backup from one to the other? I have a lot of customizations.

How much extra power am I going to waste, assuming I’m not doing video or a media server? Does an Intel setup make use of standby features, when running HASS in generic home-management tasks?

Any insights would be much appreciated.

Regards,
-BW

Very seamless. Pretty much the only thing you may have to change are system sensors (e.g. cpu temp, network adaptor).

Yes.

Depends on a lot of factors including which cpu you get. But for a rough guide you can compare the thermal design power of the CPUs:

TDP:

  • Pi3b BCM2837: 4W
  • Celeron N3050: 6W
  • Pentium N3700: 6W
  • Pentium J3710: 6.5W
  • Core i5-6500/6600, i7 6700: 65W

Thanks, that helps me a lot. I was hoping for a seamless transition. Setting up the Intel side should be relatively easy for me, but I wasn’t looking forward to duplicating automations and sensors.

The Lenovo has an N3700, so it looks like the power delta is “up to 50%.” But to be fair, moving to a Raspi 4 – which would have been the obvious choice, in say, 4Q2019 – would probably bump the power by 10-15% (even though technically, it has the same TDP). And it’s still way below using an i3 or an i5.

I tried this route with an M600, but stuck on no OS found. Installing HASSOS is not as easy as installing Ubuntu on one of these things. Will keep trying.

Actually, my migration on the M600 went pretty smoothly – although the process took a long time, with lots of on-screen text flying by. The biggest problem I had was that the seller sent me the wrong power supply, and I had to wait for another! I did the install in late April 2022, so the exact details aren’t as fresh as they might be – but it can be done! I used the exact online instructions for the x86-64 from the HA site, the M600 with 4GB of RAM, and a Crucial 512GB SATA SSD. I am running hardwired Ethernet (vs. WiFi) and no Bluetooth, FWIW.

I find that a cold power-up takes longer than the RasPi did, but everything else is 5-10x faster. And the 512GB SSD has more space than I’ll probably ever need, even though I do constant changes and backups.

I tried again on the Lenovo M600 Tiny, and this time it worked.
The first time I had the SSD attached to my Windows PC using a USB adapter and had Etcher write to it, but it would not boot when put into the M600.
This time I used Ubuntu live, and wrote directly to the SSD in the M600. Then it all worked nicely.

Glad to hear everything worked out. Your problem might be related to the USB adapter itself. I have a ‘good’ one from Startech that is USB 3.1 and 100% reliable for partitioning and cloning drives. I also bought a couple of “improved” (their words) cables from another manufacturer. I tried them 2-3x, and always had problems. I finally tossed them out and bought another Startech as a backup.

@wellsi and @drawbars : what processor did you end up getting in your m600. considering this route, also after outgrowing the Pi3. the one considering is 1.6 GHz Intel Pentium J3710 Quad-Core processor. I don’t plan on doing any multimedia. Thx.

I bought a few of these. I migrated from a RPI to this and happy with it so far.
Lenovo ThinkCentre M600 Tiny PC Pentium J3710 1.6GHz 8GB RAM

Memory 1.1GB used (/ 8GB)
Processor, typically 6% - occasionally 10%
Storage 4% (/216GB)

So Home Assistant is not stressing out the M600 - and it is silent

I’m also using a Lenovo ThinkCentre M600 with similar specs:

  • Intel J3710 1.60 GHz
  • 4GB DDR3
  • 512GB Crucial MX500 SSD [came with a 250GB HDD]

It runs quiet and cool. Generally speaking, everything one does on a regular basis is faster on the Pentium M600 vs. a RasPi3+, except a cold power-up because of the OS overhead. The SSD helps with load speeds, but 512GB is more space than I’ll ever need. (I had one lying around from another project.) You should be able to find a similar ThinkCentre with at least 128GB SSD for under $100USD in refurbished these days.

Regards,
-BW

Thank you both @wellsi and @drawbars. You’ve both got the model I was considering. I saw earlier in this thread that processor may draw 6.5W.

Curious with your SSD and machine running idle if you’ve put it on a kill-a-watt or have total power consumption of the machine? Also, is it fanless?

Never put a wattmeter on it, so I don’t know. It’s been running for months and the case feels cool to the touch. Certainly much cooler than my i3-1115G4 laptop runs, and that’s far from ‘hot.’ Also cooler than the RP3+ did in its aluminum case. I believe that it’s fanless – been a while since I popped the top. There isn’t any discernable noise at all, and no detectable air movement.

Regards,
-BW

Hi all, thanks for some advice. Im currently looking to progress from Rpi3+ to a more capable machine as ai start to get more invested in HA

Would anyone have any advice on this from eBay UK? Lenovo M600 Fanless Tiny Mini PC N3000 2GHz 4GB RAM 120/240GB SSD

That PC is very similar to what I’m using, with the main difference being the CPU. Same RAM size and speed, likely a similar SSD. Both the J3710 and N3000 are Braswell architecture and use a BGA 1170 socket, with 2MB of L3 cache. So, we’re really comparing a 6.5WTDP Pentium 4-core @ 1.6GHz vs. a 4WTDP Celeron 2-core @ 1.04GHz.

If you are mostly reading sensors and turning on lights and switches, then I suspect that the Celeron will be just fine; my Pentium is running so cool that I have to believe it is not working hard. But, I don’t have any hard benchmarks to prove it. If you have the opportunity to trade up to the J3710 for a moderate price bump (25 quid?), you might consider it as ‘future insurance.’ Or, if you can tolerate a little more power/heat and a fan, i3/i5 3rd, 4th, 5th, and even 6th generation microPCs are often available in the same price range.

Regards,
-BW

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Thanks for this response BW,

Really looking to improve the setup from from my 3B+ to attempt some sort of future proofing.

My knowledge of Computers/Equipment is less than limited - so some of what you have said is completely alien to me - however i appreciate it!

Would it be possible in anyway to drop you a PM for some advice?

@davidskibob I’d be happy to try to help you out!

Regards,
-BW