Outgrowing the Pi: Hardware Recommendations?

Hardware
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Lately, I’ve been increasing the number of automation, sensors, and all-around work I am doing with my Pi 4. I’ve noticed that despite my higher quality SD card, I’m starting to have issues with lag. I also, occasionally, seem to have startup problems.

While I am not maxing out the hardware at this time, it seems like it might not be quite powerful enough to handle all that I have going on. Prior to this year, I was largely using it for one or two things, and it worked just fine. This year I’ve made some huge additions, and that is when I started noticing issues. I want to start getting in to the openWakeWord and building my own satellites that will let me do local-only voice. I think that this will put the Pi over the edge.

I might be able to make the pi work, which would be fine, but I just think it is time to move on to something else more robust. I wanted to get away from the SD card setup anyway, since that’s not the most reliable. It doesn’t seem worth it to get away from the SD card and not just do a general hardware upgrade, especially with my extended use cases.

Husband approval factor is a huge deal for me, and the recent instability I’m seeing with the Pi/SD combo is not ideal.

That being said, what are your hardware recommendations? What do you use? What are the pitfalls of this approach?

My first thought is an Intel NUC:

Decent price for what it has in it, IMO.

I’d like to not spend more than $200. I’d like this to be a permanent (as much as it can be) solution.

Note:
I am using HA OS, because I like the add-ons, one button updates, and whatnot. Please don’t come for me. I do k8s for a living, and if I have to fuss with containers after work my head might explode :laughing:. Short of needing to do it I’d rather not. I just pretend it’s not all docker under the covers and continue tinkering with hardware.

Thank you!

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I don’t know what the numbers actually are but my experience on the forums indicates that there are far more users on HAOS than other methods, nobody is going to come for you :slight_smile:.

Depending on what you are doing, you will almost certainly find upgrading your SD card to a bootable SSD drive will considerably improve your performance. I started on HAOS on a Pi 4 + SD and moving to SSD made it feel like a rocket in comparison (plus is not nearly as prone to storage problems). Once I outgrew that I decided a virtual machine was my best bet and when I feel that’s no longer an option I’ll probably go bare metal. One advantage to using a virtual machine is that not only do I get backups of HA that I can restore if something goes wrong, I also have backups of the VM that can be fully restored in a minute or two - something not easily achieved with micro computers or even bare metal.

A LOT of folks use the NUC and it’s proven to be a good system. I think it’s possible you still have some life left in your Pi 4.

I actually still use the Pi 4 + SSD in my RV and it works well with ~20 devices. I don’t use any of HA’s voice systems since I rely on Apple HomePods for that so I cannot speak to what works best, but I’ve seen on here that a lot of folks have great success with simple ESP devices for satellites, which implies it’s not quite as resource intensive as one may think.

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Pi4 + SSD. Only time you need to upgrade to NUC is if you have CCTV. Two broke me!

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The NUC is definitely a good move coming from RPI4. I moved to it and it performs way better. Not that my RPI was doing bad with SSD though.

But hearing you intend to start experimenting with voice, there might be another option worth considering.

Unless you are using Nabu Casa cloud for voice, and instead are you considering to run TTS, STT or maybe even some local AI, you might want to pick hardware that can do that well. But then the question arises, do you want HA to run on that hardware as well? Maybe you should consider upgrading the PI with a SSD, and offload some addons to a separate device?

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Go for the NUC. Yes, the Pi with an SSD is also a good idea but the speed and power of a NUC blows it out of the water.

It doesn’t have to cost you $200 - second hand ones from companies which are upgrading go for about half that price if you search in the usual sites. You might already have an older laptop lying around which you can use, and nothing’s cheaper than free.

Side note - if you do end up with a machine that’s too powerful to just run HA alone and feel you might wanna run other stuff, I’d recommend going the proxmox 1-click install route.

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Thanks for the replies everyone. I’m thinking the NUC would be good, though maybe I will try the SSD before I bother with the NUC. I am looking at some of the older ones available on eBay.

I’m most notably seeing issues loading between screens, which could be it fetching the data.

Also, fwiw, I am running just under 200 devices at this time, and I’m often adding more. I’d like this to be future proof.

Another point was the voice. I already run TTS with piper, but I do want to do STT. However, I’ll do that processing with Assist if I get that far. I’m using one of my many Pis to run a 7" touch screen that I plan on adding a speaker/mic puck to for just messing with it.

Edit: A few additional thoughts after re-reading the replies.

  • The NUC would be nice if I do decide to use a VM. Restoring quickly is a big deal to me.
  • It’ll be easier to plug into when there’s issues. For the life of me I can never find my little HDMI adapter.
  • The previous sentence can be prevented by ssh, but occasionally I have issues with ssh too. Or, you know, forget to enable it like happened to me yesterday. >.<
  • I agree that free is best, and I do have laptops laying around, which isn’t a bad point, so maybe I’ll look at that first. Bonus would be it already has all the peripherals attached so I don’t even have to think about that. Bonus dashboard.
  • The pi-reuse plan (I have three) is currently starting with one setup with the 7" touch screen. The touch screen isn’t great, but it works. I’m not running HA on that, just a browser. That might change if I dig into the voice stuff (re: satellites that folks are working on).
  • If I do go the route of local processing of voice w/o the cloud, or any AI stuff, I’ll need a GPU regardless. This system won’t ever do that work. I’d have to do it on my gaming PC.
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I’d go for an N100 based mini PC since it has lower TDP than the i3, I have set one of these up for a relative a couple months ago: https://www.gmktec.com/products/nucbox-g3-most-cost-effective-mini-pc-with-intel-n100-processor

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An option I’ve been playing with (more than that now that this topic brought it back to the front of my mind) is using a older Mac Mini running Proxmox instead of MacOS - that’s going to be a pretty scalable and powerful server for HA. This for my RV, my house is happy on VMWare for now.

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N100 miniPC NUC /

Moved a rather complex install to one 8 months ago and will NEVER move back to a pi.

Theres enough beef I could run HAOS in virtual and still have plenty of juice. My next move will be an AI enabled 12 Gen nuc so I can run the AI locally. But those are still $700 + USD.

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Based on all of your responses, I decided to switch gears and use a SSD I have laying around before jumping into the NUC.

While I don’t mind spending the money, the free is best point is very good (and I’ve already spent a bunch on home automation this year). I also think it’s good practice to get it working.

I’ll let y’all know what my results are.

If anyone checks this topic though, anyone have luck with M.2 for a Pi?

Not sure if it’s worth it. I’m just going to do a SATA enclosure → USB for now.

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I just noticed we posted similar questions around the same time (-> Seeking affordable, reliable, compact and passive-cooled hardware for headless HA setup). Three aspects I find relevant when upgrading HA from a Pi to a Mini PC are: passive cooling (unless you can store it in a closet), a COM port for easy laptop connection without needing a separate screen or keyboard, and hardware built for 24/7 operation. While the GMKtec Mini PC is affordable and the N100 is fast, it isn’t designed for continuous uptime. A device from e.g. Protectli might be a more reliable alternative.

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I built my current system from spare parts. 10th gen I7 Processor and 16Gb Ram with a 500GB SSD. I picked up a cheap case and motherboard, tossed it together and its been rock solid. Bare metal, its the only thing on that machine.
I dont anticipate any issues for years to come, except maybe the ssd. I do daily backups, so that would be a quick fix. I have a few laying around.

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Not sure about M2 specifically, but there was a post here a while ago with all compatible SSD adapters for the pi4.

Lemme see if I can find the link and edit my post

Edit: this isn’t the guide I was looking for, but it does contain a link to chamber’s research on supported adapters

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I’ve always used the StarTech and it’s worked fine on Pi’s and is on that master list.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00XLAZODE

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Adding my reply here: you can find good thin clients for a very low price. I have one with 4GB ram, installed a sata ssd I had laying around and it’s really fast. Rpi is good but arm cpu are not on the par even with a cheap 4-core intel.
Thin clients usually don’t have fans so are silent as tombs an so can stay hidden almost everywhere.

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Moved from a Raspberry Pi to a NUC (i5). Perfect little device.
Running Music Assistant and Frigate on same device, all running without any issues.

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Update: Ended up doing the SSD route. I had to pick up a SATA → USB 3.0 adapter at Best Buy.

BOY does she rip now. Wow. I wish I had done this YEARS ago.

Thank you everyone for your responses! This SSD is old, so I very well may swap over to a NUC or thin client at some point, and I am glad to hear many of you have success there as well.