I know asking about computers to run HA is quite common, so I have tried to do my research and limit this to specific questions. I have been running HA on an Odroid XU4 for over 5 years now but as the ARM 32-bit support is being dropped seems like its time for me to find something else. Whilst the XU4 has done the job and reasonably well, I think the replacement needs to be X86_64 as there have been things which annoy me about ARM systems.
I use HA in docker containers, I want to keep working that way with the OS of my choice, I really don’t want HAOS.
I feel the idle power use is probably something significant I need/want to pay attention to. Electricity isn’t cheap here, the idle power use sets the base cost of having the system running and there could be significant times when its sat at idle (eg. over night). Power use under load doesn’t feel quite so bad to me, at least I am paying for something to happen and also there is a chance I can moderate how much it is under load if I want to reduce costs.
As soon as power efficiency is mentioned it seems to be when and not if someone mentions Intel N100 processors. In that I will also include others in that family like the N200, N300, N305, etc. Having looked at comparisons of different systems (eg. NoteBookCheck can compare their power measurements) I conclude N100 doesn’t stand out at idle and can have higher idle power use by systems with faster processors such as AMD Ryzen HS processors. Where the N100 does seem to win is power use under load, but equally being a slower processor it will probably be under load for longer, so how does the energy use actually work out?
Considering older AMD Ryzen mini PCs can be had for similar to an Intel N300 mini PC, I am swaying that way. I notice there are a few mini PCs with AMD Ryzen U processors. I am struggling to find how these compare on power/energy use. Generally it seems to be said U is for where power is constrained or heat may be a problem and HS is a step up in performance but where power use is still to be limited. The limited information I can find suggests both U and HS may idle at similar levels and the difference is in the max power they can use under load. Is this a correct understanding of the difference between U and HS Ryzen? If so is it worth looking for a U processor or can I achieve similar with a HS Ryzen and power management in the BIOS and so have the freedom to choose performance or energy use.
Finally, I notice ARM easily beats X86_64 on idle power (eg. the Odroid M2 uses less than 2W without a display connected). Should I get over my feelings about ARM and its quirks and issues that creates? I’ve heard ARM has improved but I get the feeling its still not as straight forward and universal as X86_64.
I use a Dell Wyse mini PC for it’s low power usage and mainly because it’s fanless.
When I measured power usage it used about 5-7W vs the Pi4 it wasn’t to much higher but x86 is much more flexible.
Running proxmox on the Wyse is well worth the extra wattage.
Thanks will look into it. Fanless is definitely a consideration. What you say about X86_64 is very much why I am thinking I should go that way.
Mine has a Intel J4105 and has worked flawless for HA, if you want to eventually setup a voice assistant than the get something that has AVX, anything intel i3/i5/i7 2nd gen and after.
J4105 does not have AVX.