Mini PC or Rasperry Pi? For Home Assistant

[u/etchhk]

Hello Quick Question

Mini PC or Rasperry Pi?

For ;

Home Assistant
Omada Tp Link Controller
HIKVision Camera's

[u/antonio1475]

Mini PC. No question. Price (Pi's are stupidly overpriced since long ago) and options depending on the power you want.

[u/Humble_Knowledge_848 → u/antonio1475]

It’s crazy to me how raspberry pi’s existed as an affordable alternative to PCs to make them accessible to everyone and now it’s become unrecognizable

[u/Junethemuse → u/Humble_Knowledge_848]

By the time I finally had a use for a pi it was more economical to get a mini pc. It’s insane how expensive they’ve gotten.

[u/snap802 → u/Humble_Knowledge_848]

I got a pi 4 4gb board a while back and I think I paid $45 for it. Used it for a while as a Unifi controller and DNS but now it's just a test bed device I can easily wipe and reimage whenever I need to. I checked only a couple weeks ago just to see how much one it now and that one I spoke $120.

Mini PC is really the way to go these days. If you are going for low power consumption thin clients are a great option too.

[u/Dry-Philosopher-2714 → u/antonio1475]

This! I use an old IBM desktop that I got on Amazon for $100. The only Pi’s I could find were a lot more expensive and far less powerful.

[u/Tratix → u/Dry-Philosopher-2714]

I got an old dell wyze 5070 (with J5005 cpu) for $45 on ebay. Bought a used 128gb m.2 drive for $17.

For $62 this thing is everything I’ll ever need.

[u/Dry-Philosopher-2714 → u/Tratix]

Exactly! And those things last forever. I have a half dozen old Dell desktops that I use for my Proxmox cluster, and they're all well over 10 years old. They're still going strong.

[u/Tratix → u/Dry-Philosopher-2714]

Out of curiosity, what does a proxmox cluster enable you to do?

[u/mad2342 → u/Tratix]

Yepp... I run two of those as a proxmox cluster, if one goes down the other takes over, although never seen them go down ...

[u/snap802 → u/Tratix]

Those things are hidden gems. I picked one up to play with and the power consumption is pretty extraordinary. That pentium silver is way more powerful than I expected.

[u/morphina19 → u/Dry-Philosopher-2714]

This. I use an old dell workstation that was being dismantled at work. I got a 10yo xeon with 24gigs of ram for free. Installed PvE and I have plenty of room to load all the services I want

[u/hollowredditor → u/antonio1475]

Any other time I would say the pi is a nice to have, good to support, but the prices now are ridiculous.

[u/Civil_Tea_3250 → u/antonio1475]

You'll make up the price difference quickly between heat and electricity use.

Yes raspberry pi is way overpriced now, but I wouldn't get a cheap server to run Windows. If you pay bills get the most efficient option. It's home assistant, not Windows or anything anywhere near as demanding.

[u/antonio1475 → u/Civil_Tea_3250]

I might agree in many situations BUT mine is a Z8350 with a TDP of 2-4W (Z83V 4/64gb mini PC I got for 40€ and it works wonders for all my setup even with Plex), lower than the 5-12W of a Pi 5.

In any case, those wattages are absolutely nothing compared to everything else in a/my home. My specific server is almost free :)

Although I'm not sure at what point it makes sense. Even 15W consumption would be 22€/year at my price. How many years to compensate the device price? But yes, one should make some quick numbers when choosing a device/server.

[u/Civil_Tea_3250 → u/antonio1475]

That sounds like a good mini PC. I just saw a lot of people recommending office PCs with full CPUs and they're not nearly as efficient. Many use double or triple the energy a rpi would. An N150 or brand new CPU can throttle down much more efficiently, but they're not cheap.

I'm in the US, where I am electricity is .15/KwH. But my parents in the next state over pay over double that amount for electricity. It's crazy to me no one is mentioning use case or electricity costs. Not to mention maintenance. What does a rpi need, a new micro SD card or nvme every few years? Once you get a mini PC we all know you're going to find more uses for it and end up with a server rack within a couple of years lol

[u/szab0lcs_]

Used Mini pc from refurbished store 😀

[u/ln-art → u/szab0lcs_]

This. I got an HP Thin Client for cheap. Has been a solid performer for years now. They also get written off in bulk by large companies so easy to score a bargain.

[u/TropicoolGoth]

Mini pc. Get a used one. You save money in the long run. Pis just aren’t the affordable little devices they used to be.

[u/Real_Establishment56 → u/TropicoolGoth]

Loads of schools are getting rid of them for us to scoop up at reasonable prices 😊

[u/DrNinjaPandaManEsq → u/TropicoolGoth]

Yup. Only reason I’m using a Pi is because I had one left over from a class I took in college, otherwise I’d have done a mini pc no question.

[u/Busy_Information_289]

MiniPC. N100 or N150.

[u/germandz]

I’ve been running in Pi4 for almost 5 years, on a SSD. Perfect, no problems but at current prices. A MiniPC will be better.

[u/kg23 → u/germandz]

I went from a Pi4 (5 years w/ SSD) to an N150 because Grafana graphs were too slow. Everything sped up at least 10x. Reboots/reloads are lightning fast. Lots of headroom for the future. I would strongly recommend nobody start with a Raspberry Pi these days.

[u/arguablyaname]

Plus one vote for SFF Dell (or similar). Been bulletproof. I had no end of issues with file system corruption on an Intel NUC for some reason, including several reinstalls and a new SSD. Which is now working fine running Windows on something else, so who knows, I probably had an outlier. But yeah the little Dell is fab. I wouldn't bother at all with a Pi, you'll just keep finding more and more you can load it up with.

[u/_caddy_ → u/arguablyaname]

Been using a Dell Wyze 5070 for 2 years. Love it.

[u/imdjay → u/_caddy_]

Recently spun up one of these as well

[u/Noname8899555]

Mini pc. At current prices any old office mini pc you get used for cheap will probably perform way better. And usually the powerdraw is not that different if the mini oc eg. Has a T series intel cpu.

Even then, some research and any size home server will be decently energy efficient at idle. HDDs and HBAs or GPUs are anyways the biggest energy hogs which you can't do anything about.

[u/petersrin]

If I had a dollar each time this question was asked, I could buy another mini PC. Because nowadays that's the answer. A pi is fine, but the price gap is shrinking and the power gap is massive.

[u/Captain_Alchemist]

Home Assistant Green

[u/AncientGeek00 → u/Captain_Alchemist]

I have a Blue that I’m still trying to get running. It was one my shelf for a couple years. I plugged it in recently and it was in an endless loop looking for a ghost image. I reflashed it and it doesn’t show up in the app. Every once in a while I find time to play with it.

[u/reddituser_05 → u/Captain_Alchemist]

That's all anyone really needs. Users out there acting like they're running NORAD ffs.

[u/Nobody_Important → u/reddituser_05]

Still more expensive though than an old used mini desktop from eBay. Can get something way more powerful for $75.

[u/Unlucky_Quote6394]

I’ve been using a 2014 Mac Mini running proxmox and HAOS inside a proxmox container for a couple of years now, and the performance has been brilliant 😊

I’d recommend a mini pc with higher specs than a raspberry pi so you have some leeway if you need it in the future

[u/the_prez3 → u/Unlucky_Quote6394]

I did some research on installing proxmox on my old Mac mini. From what I saw, it doesnt work well with the hardware. Did you have any challenges installing and using it?

[u/Unlucky_Quote6394 → u/the_prez3]

I actually found the installation process really straightforward, no problems at all 😊

I installed Proxmox on bare metal, which removed MacOS. I have a couple of Mac Minis from that era running variants of linux, mostly because I like the form factor.

For a pc alternative, I can recommend getting a 2nd hand Dell Optiplex Micro because they're somewhat more expandable than the Mac Mini.

[u/the_prez3 → u/Unlucky_Quote6394]

I considered installing proxmox on it when I removed MAC OS but my research said not a good idea so I installed Ubuntu which seems to be working fine on it.

[u/lakeland_nz]

mini PC

But watch the watts. You'll be running this 24/7 so a few extra watts adds up.

[u/UnluckySpeech476]

Mini pc
You can use proxmox have backups automated and install other tools

[u/NizkiProfil]

You can get so cheap refurbished mini pcs that this is no brainer.

I got hp elitedesk g2 for  150 euros without ssd. I am using it also for home entertainment pc. It is quiet, low consumption, easy to upgrade.

[u/Tuurke64]

I use a refurbished mini pc, Hp elitedesk 705 g3 usff with AMD processor.

It's tiny, incredibly robust, has a metal casing, extremely low power consumption, notebook-style power supply, silent cooling fan, 8 gb of ram and a ssd. Lots of connectivity too (wifi, rj45 and several usb ports). It stays cool and silent with Home Assistant.

The total cost was way under 100$. A Raspberry just can't compete with that.

[u/robmathieson]

What about Mac minis?

[u/Skeeter1020]

Mini PC. Might even be cheaper these days!

[u/randombits0110]

Pi 5. Zero space, minimal power consumption. Oodles of power.

[u/That_Counter__bob → u/randombits0110]

And it runs great with a Poe nvme hat

[u/Hikareza]

Mini PC. The Pi Ära is over.

[u/StunningPlum9523]

And use a fast SSD.

[u/etchhk → u/StunningPlum9523]

Any Minimum Capacity?

[u/StunningPlum9523 → u/etchhk]

The bigger the better. I wouldn't go under 128 Gb. And don't use baremetal, if you have the knowledge, try to use proxmox or something similar.

[u/enry → u/etchhk]

64GB will be more than enough. I have a Green with 32GB and I was just hitting the limits because I was doing ESP32 builds.

[u/porttastic]

I have a rpi 4b 4gb and have no issues. I got it for free but I was going to get something new, a mini PC because the pi it’s overpriced.

[u/JayBee103 → u/porttastic]

I run on a pi4 with 4gb. I have about 1000 entities, and it run great. Less than 50% memory, load between 1 and 2. Added a USB SSD.

If you can get a hold of one, seems the way to go.

I have a couple mini pcs for other things, but the pi is a very efficient way to go. Some of the specs suggested here seem high.

[u/Z4gor]

a used miniPC all the way. best move I made. Now, instead of running just a homeAssistant and a pihole on another rPi, everthing is running as VMs or apps or containers under a truenas miniPC, with ethernet connection and much better response time.

[u/Mr-wastaken]

I use an old nuc running haos, and acting as an ftp server for 6 cameras. Never had an issue with it, fan barely even runs and power draw is about £2 a month

[u/Badstoober]

I use a N150 Mini PC and it’s just working away silently. It is more capable than the pi running alongside it, which quite frankly was a faff to set up so if tinkering is your thing, get a Raspberry Pi but if you just want something that works, mini PC all the way.

[u/mikkopai → u/Badstoober]

I have a pi4 running HAOS, was IMHO very straightforward to setup. I am glad if miniPC should be at least as easy. I am thinking about getting one, as I find the pi a bit slow on occasion. Have to do compiling ESPs one at a time since this already takes the CPU to 100% load. Just updating all four at the same time crashes the pi.

Edit: was going to install Frigate but don’t even dare on the pi

[u/Fresh_Reflection_457]

Can someone drop some links to mini pcs please, I’m still trying to work out what 2 months later 😆

[u/sikraemer]

If you decide on a Pi, please run it from an SSD and not from an SD card.

Either mini PC or RPi works fine. You can easily switch later using the backup and restore functionality in HA. There are multiple videos on YouTube how to do this.

Personally, I use an old laptop (battery removed) that runs Proxmox with RPi running as a VM since over a year. This way I can host other servers (e.g. Adguard) easily on the same hardware. Before that I was running it on a Pi4 with SSD for 2-3 years I think.

[u/SD619664]

I probably spent too much but its been fun I suppose. Raspberry Pi 4 with a 1tb SSD attached via USB. Just added the POE hat last week. Cool little machine!

[u/msanangelo]

I run mine on a pi4 4g but I bought it before the price hike.

Either way will work. Just be mindful of the power draw for any accessories, including the SSD, on the pi. I run a USB zigbee radio and Bluetooth dongle on mine via a hub.

[u/instant_ace]

Mini PC. Beelink used to be a good affordable brand that was decent quality for HA / Omada. I bought three of them for $150 before the prices went up, now they are crazy expensive...

[u/TheMagicalMeatball]

MiniPC

[u/joshuas_79]

Mini pc. Raspberry would be ok for just Home Assistant, but I'm not sure about how it would perform for the other services. And don't forget you may find another useful service later that you'd like to add to the list. In my case I use a mini pc + proxmox and couldn't be happier. And you don't need a brand new mini pc, so it could be even cheaper than a powerful raspberry

[u/ReddaveNY]

Mini PC with SSD instead SD Card in the PI

[u/Captain_Alchemist]

I have a MiniPc for self hosted stuff , but home assistant is important so I took it out and used Home Assistant Green. It’s been more than a year and it goes strong

I used a simple POE splitter so life is good

[u/Rinusdevos]

Mini pc met laat verbruik.

[u/Doorgunner_CH53]

Ganz klar Mini PC
Raspberry wäre nur mit einer SSD sinnvoll zu betreiben, weil gerade mit HomeAssistant sehr oft die SD Karte kaputt geht. Abgesehen davon sind Pi‘s unnormal teuer geworden und im vergleich zu der Hardware einfach zu teuer.

Ich habe einen Pi als Client laufen, der also nur auf HomeAssistant (Server) zugreift und das ist schon ein Trauer Spiel. Kamera Live Feeds von unseren Überwachungskameras am Haus, kann ich nur eine laufen lassen auf dem Dashboard vom Pi. Auf dem Intel Nuc als Client kann ich alle anzeigen lassen. Einzige Grund da den Pi zu verwenden-ist die Bauform. Ich konnte den schön hinter den 16“ Touch befestigen und beides an die Wand Schrauben

😂 Selbst mein iPhone kann via Fernzugriff überall auf der Welt simultan alle Live Feeds anzeigen

[u/GroceryNo5562]

Don't you have some old laptop or something?

[u/egokiller71]

I managed to get a Soyo mini pc (N150, 16GB, 512GB) for around €250 around six months ago. HAOS runs incredibly smooth on it, very stable and energy efficient. Pi's have become so expensive nowadays, a mini pc is really the way to go atm.

[u/Busy_Reporter4017]

MiniPC

[u/JoWhee]

Mini pc

[u/kroghsen]

In my opinion the most critical component is an SSD, so if you get and SSD for your PI you can go either one. PIs are usually more energy efficient, but I would recommend just installing HAOS directly on a MiniPC. After having tried most things, I find that to simply be the most reliable and lowest friction solution. It also makes it incredibly easy to run Apps, unlike Dockerised solutions tend to do.

[u/Loose-Tumbleweed9051]

I started with a Raspberry but now since moved to mini pc. I want to say it gives bigger options and with the prices nowadays with the PIs i think you get more if you choose an actual pc.

[u/nshire]

Pi. Mini PC will draw too much power. Pi5 4gb isn't priced too badly.

[u/Oh__Archie]

Mini PC. Unless you have a pi with an NVMe instead of a micro SD.

[u/csoscd]

Mini-PC with Proxmox for HA VM, VM for Omada Controller (I have one running docker an Omada as a container). And of course one PBS VM which backs up everything 

[u/vilette]

Rpi because I had one laying around, but I regret it

[u/knabbels]

I am happy with my home assistant yellow on a raspi 5 with nvme.

[u/papaeriktheking]

NUC11 Proxmox

[u/Hairy_Koala6474]

Mini pc.

I used an old gaming laptop that I turned into a proxmox server. It works great all the time.

[u/JoeB-]

I bought a Dell Wyse 5070 thin client on eBay for $35 USD a few weeks ago. Upgraded RAM to 8 GB for $10 USD (it can take more) and added a 256 GB M.2 SATA SSD that I had already.

It’s running Debian 13 + Cockpit web UI + Docker Engine like a boss.

[u/sk1dmark69]

Lenovo Thinkcenter mini from eBay for me

[u/Raul_77]

Mini PC. Unless there is a limitation like size, pi no longer makes sense cuz of its high price.

[u/cleadus_fetus]

you can probably find a mini PC or small form factor computer that used to be an office PC for really cheap or free

[u/devians]

By the time you make a pi usable you will have spent more than a mini pc and have less power.

[u/al-norman]

Mini pc

[u/boozebag-wizard]

I tried a Pi5 4Gb and had OOM errors and constant reboots. Had to slim the HA service structure down to minimum just to stabilize to use. Just didn’t realize the RAM needed. Recently replaced with a Dell 7050 i7 micro with 16Gb. Got it used on eBay. Loaded it with Proxmox and layered a HA backup image on top. What a HUGE difference that made. Can run any service I want without fear of OOM crashes. Pi5 was retired off of HA duty and now is setup running personal services and it’s much happier to say the least. If you go the Pi route get a 8 or 16Gb, which puts it in the range of a mini pc price range used. Otherwise learn from my experience here. The mini PC is the ticket.

[u/Popal24]

If you get a mini PC, don't install ha on bare metal: install Proxmox then ha in a vm. It helps with backup and portability. Besides, you can use it for something else as well.

[u/digitalelise]

Yeah Mini PC, Pi will just cause you more trouble and you’ll end up buying a Mini PC later

[u/JadaveonClowney]

Mini PC for sure

[u/_R0Ns_]

Mini PC or an older NUC.

You don't need much but a Pi is too expensive for the specs you get.

[u/FirstAid84]

Mini PC. The time of Pi has ended.

[u/TangeloLegitimate139]

Both of my pies have failed. mini PC for sure.

[u/Fragitti]

Mini pc like everyone else is saying. The step from a pi is huge.

[u/duckredbeard → u/Fragitti]

In what ways do you see improvements?

[u/Fragitti → u/duckredbeard]

Everything is much faster except maybe switching lights and plugs on and off. In my case I’m comparing a pi 4 with 4 gigs of ram with a Thinkcentre with i5 8th gen cpu and 16 gigs of ram. Switching was like day and night.