Server recommendation needed, is Dell Optiplex 3050 good to run HA?

Hardware
1

My 10+ year old DELL Inspiron laptop is dead after a power outage. When it starts, beep for 30 seconds and then some error on screen “PXE-E53: No boot filename received”. I guess the hard disk failed so it won’t be able to boot.

I run HA container on Ubuntu server, along with some other containers such as mqtt / nodered / zigbee2mqtt / letsencrypt / ring-mqtt

I am thinking of get a renewed Dell Optiplex 3050 (https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Optiplex-Business-Certified-Refurbished/dp/B07DR68B65), is this hardware good to run HA? Or any recommendations with budget around $100?

Thanks.

2

If it will boot Ubuntu, it will run Home Assistant.

I don’t use containers or virtuals, just the X86 binary image of HAOS. (Yes, I know that HA is in a container, but I don’t have to manage or learn containers).

My HA computer is an Intel NUC i3 with 2Gb of M.2 SSD. Yes, it’s overkill but damn, it’s fast. A restart takes five seconds. A Node Red deploy finishes in one or two seconds. You can find used i3 NUCs on eBay for between $100-200.

Other mini PCs will also work, but I have read of people having problems using the Lenovo because it does not support UEFI. HAOS needs UEFI to boot.

(Reference: What is UEFI)

I just ordered a BMAX mini-PC to experiment with. At $120 it should be able to boot HAOS right out of the box.

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3

totally make sense.
it depends on how everyone started, I started with container so hope don’t have to learn something else. :sweat_smile:

4

And did you I stalled HAOS directly on the new BMAX machine?

5

No. The BMAX that I bought does not have a UEFI BIOS, which HAOS requires.
Some say that it will install in a container or VM, but I am not ready to go down that rabbit hole.

6

Same…I had HA in a container but now for 2 years run the OS itself. No more system updates with broken HA. The OS of HA itself is my opinion the best. Then I have to search for a mini Pc that support this setting in bios…

7

I’m now have a option for a Dell Optiplex 3050

Model: OptiPlex 3050 Mini
Processor: Intel Core i3-7100 3.40GHz
RAM: 4GB DDR4
Storage: 128GB SSD
OS default installed: Windows 11
graphics: Intel HD Graphics
Wireless connections : WiFi & bluetooth!

Manual say it have UEFi

This sounds good…

8

Yesterday got my Dell 3050. Migration went great! Running super fast. Restart HA done within 1minute. Reboot system done in less then 2-4 minutes…

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