NAS vs Raspberry Pi which is better

Hardware
1

Hi,

I am just getting into the world of home automation. Below is the hardware that I currently have:

  • QNAP NAS - TVS 673e - Currently use it for media server and webserver

  • Samsung smarthings mesh wifi with smarthings hub - got it to improve the wifi coverage, decided to go with Samsung instead of the google wifi because of the smartthings integration app. (I still have time to return it and get the google wifi mesh. Which is better? and why?)

  • TP Link smart switch HS 105

  • Amazon Echo

Now to the challenging part:
Is it better to install home assistant on the NAS or on a stand alone Raspberry Pi? I read on some forums that if you ave the Pi, you can add the zigbee or z-wave modules. Since i have the smartthings hub, can i use that for the sensors? Also by using the NAS i dont have to power one additional device, I hate using power strips. And i understand that with the NAS it will be a single point of failure.

Thanks in advance, for your help!

2

For what it’s worth…
I use to have a QNAP device but have no need for local storage these days so decided to sell it before getting into HA. Had I still of had it I would have installed HA on it for the exact reason you said its one less device to power.
However as I put more and more on HA I think I may have moved across to a PI just because I wouldn’t want it down everytime i did a QNAP upgrade. A PI is currently still a single point of failure but if your config is backed up then its so quick to get back up and running with HASSIO i don’t see it as a huge issue.

I have not played with samsung mesh but have google wifi and it just sits there and works, however it does miss basic advance functionality e.g. custom DNS if i was going to change it now i would go unifi like a lot of others on here have done.

3

Thank you for responding. You definitely bring a very good point with the system shutting during an upgrade and restoring backups. I have a ton of pics and other media that will become too expensive to host in the cloud. You have got me leaning towards a RPi.
Are you using - https://store.google.com/us/product/google_wifi?hl=en-US - I wish they had integrated the google assistant inot the product.

4

I looked at the Unifi Amplify but in the end choose Orbi instead of two reasons. Orbi has a designated backhaul radio, Amplify not and Orbi has a outdoor satellite that I needed for our 10000 sqm plot.

5

The RPis are so quick to setup with it. but like i said if i had my QNAP i would have probably started on that and got use to using it and setup my first automations etc before committing to dedicated hardware.

Yes that’s the WiFi im using. Like I said it just works but lacking some features I feel it should have. I think a lot of people use unifi because of the HA integrations.
Take a look at this

6

Started off on an RPi 3b myself, but eventually moved it to a NUC so i could make use of a better cpu and ssd storage.
Now it’s rediculously fast! You’ll soon outgrow an RPi i think :stuck_out_tongue:

7

Its possible and ive had to take node red off mine now because of the overhead, however there’s a few people who use multiple RPi’s and use the MQTT state stream, which was always my plan just because of the simplicity of HASSIO install

8

Almost identical to what I was about to post, so why not just quote you!

9

Anyone gone down the multiple Raspberry Pi route?
I hear of folks using one for MQTT and few other things to help take the load off the first.

10

I have a dedicated Plex server for my homestead and… well, I’m glad I put my HA on a seperate server (Pi3b+) so it doesn’t interfere with our media stuff. My HA is up and down so much I’m about to change the hostname to yo-yo.

11

I have it running on an RPi3 - works fine.

I thought about moving it onto my NAS or a dedicated NUC but that would require me to replace a few wired 95cts Reed Switches with something more expensive and more complicated because I’d lose the GPIO ports.

12

You could still use the RPi for the switches.

13

or “whores_knickers”

14

Yes, I like having them separated for redundancies, and not worry about adding the additional plug. Thank you

15

A very good point. What do you use the reed switches for?

16

I am having HA installed on a RPi which is running from a HDD preventing to break the SD card. On my NAS I’m running MQTT and will also to have Node-Red running on it. Up to now I didn’t manage to set up the docker with Node-Red correctly…

17

What NAS do you have? I tried it on the QNAP and HA did not find any other devices on the network other than the plex that was installed on the NAS.

18

I have a few door sensors, garage and crawl space doors, as well as my mailbox and water/flood sensor wired up to the Pi.

19

I know I could just use it as kind of an MQTT gateway - but I have a few standalone PIs running already, e.g. for my OVPN Server, the Dash-Button SW, my Ubiquiti Controller, and I’m just now spinning one up for the Zigbee2MQTT gateway.
So, the motivation to keep one running just for the Reed Switches - it needs to sit safe and far away, down in the basement ATM - is limited :wink:

20

I’ve got a couple of RIi’s one running HASSIO, the other running PiHole as the DNS. I’ve got Google WiFi and as stated by another contributor it just runs (much better than my previous router solution). I figure if I want Node-Red or MQTT then I’ll put them on the PiHole RPi to share the load burden.

I’ve gone for Lovelace for the UI and whilst there is more development to happen there I’ll stick with this setup as updates of the HA environment continue to be deployed. HASSIO is great for managing continuous updates (particularly for Noob’s like me). I may consider move to an alternative hardware platform, but only when I’m prepared to stop development and want steady state operation

I have invested in a high end 64Gb SDcard to mitigate (to what extent I don’t know) any failure there. I do also take regular backups, also just in case.