Would this hardware be suitable for my HA needs?

Installation
1

Hey, just joined here as about to complete on our new home and I want to plan as much home automation as possible into it from the beginning.

In my current house I have a number of Alexa’s, including a Cube for the main TV. We have some plug in socket adapters that Alexa can control for on/off, plus some smart bulbs which again she can control. Ring doorbell and a couple of cameras. I also have some Blink cameras boxed away, left from my previous home.

For the new house, I’d like to setup integration for the electric garage door, some cameras outside the house, to automate the driveway gate etc. Potentialy monitoring my Wife’s PHEV Mini Countryman charge as well.
Planning on replacing the shower with a Mira Smart shower, could that be integrated in some way?
It has a Solar system in place, so monitoring that would be great.
We love to have friends over for a party, planning lights that can be normal during the day, but used for ‘party mode’ in the evening would be great. Plus lights in the garden and outside entertaining space that can be controlled remotely.
Previously used Alexa’s linked to amplifiers for syncronised music between garden, lounge and kitchen.

I have a Gigabyte Brix BXi7-5500 Ultra Compact PC spare at home:

Technical Details

‎Gigabyte|

|Product Dimensions|‎10.76 x 3.39 x 11.44 cm; 500 g|
|Item model number|‎GB-BXI7-5500|
|Manufacturer|‎Gigabyte|
|Series|‎5500|
|Colour|‎Black|
|Form Factor|‎Small Form Factor|
|Screen Resolution|‎1366 x 768 pixels|
|Processor Brand|‎Intel|
|Processor Type|‎Core 2 Duo|
|Processor Speed|‎2.4 GHz|
|Processor Count|‎2|
|RAM Size|‎16 GB|
|Memory Technology|‎ddr3l|
|Computer Memory Type|‎DDR3 SDRAM|
|Hard Disk Description|‎SSD|
|Graphics Chipset Brand|‎Intel|
|Graphics Card Description|‎Intel HD|
|Graphics RAM Type|‎DDR3 SDRAM|
|Connectivity Type|‎Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, NFC|
|Wireless Type|‎Bluetooth|
|Voltage|‎1.35 Volts|
|Operating System|‎Windows 8|

I can rebuild it with a newer O/S, as required.

Would this be suitable to host HA?
Would I also need a local server to store CCTV footage etc?

Thanks in advanced to thoughts, ideas and suggestions :slight_smile:

2

Just to run home assistant it’s enough, maybe add/confirm that you have 16GB of RAM and that you have two sticks for dual channel, and add an SSD.

The CCTV depends a lot on what cameras you have, but you could run proxmox on the mini PC, then run home assistant as a VM and then either a VM with windows for blueiris , or there are open source alternatives. Storage could be an external USB HDD.

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3

I currently have some Ring cameras and some Blink. Seem to recall some wired Axis ones in a box somewhere too. Plus probably need a video doorbell for the front gate as well.

Need to decide what to go for at the new house, to be simple to manage, easy to consume feeds into systems etc. Don’t really want to be worrying about batteries needing changing.

4

I’m not sure if/how you can get a rstp stream out of those cameras.

If you are starting out now, and if you want a easy to use system, Ubiquiti cameras and NVR all integrate very well, or you can see how to get rstp streams and use something like blueiris to do the NVR and motion detection.

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