I am currently running my HA on a RasberyPi 4 8GB with a microSD. For the most part, it is running okay. But I am starting to have issues with my Bluetooth devices, mostly Govee Temperature sensors dropping off for a short time. I am also having issues with my Zigbee devices. Some say they are connected but do not respond when an update is sent. I am using the Home Assistant SkyConnect with the extension USB cable.
Would I be better off running on a 2011 Mac Mini 2.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 with 8GB of RAM and an SSD? I have one lying around.
I don’t think the issues you describe will be improved by moving to the Mac (how nice to have one lying around, though!). They sound like Bluetooth/Zigbee network things which will still be there regardless.
Could you give us more details? How many Zigbee routers, for example; are you using Bluetooth proxies?
Personally I’m not a fan of Bluetooth - I also get temperature sensors dropping out - but I have a fair-sized Zigbee network running on a Pi/SkyConnect with no problems.
One or two Bluetooth proxies might improve your Bluetooth coverage - they’re quite cheap, but you have to do a bit of flashing yourself.
They also allow you to play with room presence detection, if you’re interested in that sort of thing.
The standard advice for Zigbee would be to experiment with a few more routers. There isn’t a magic ratio of routers to end devices - it depends entirely on the layout and structure of your house - but the key thing is that messages need a choice of many possible paths. You would expect to see a complex web of connections between routers (the ovals) and a single connection to each end device.
