Home Assistant 2024 - Which Hardware to Buy + Full Install Guide

*UPDATE - Error flashing via etcher? Use this version of etcher, we found that the latest version has problems: github.com/balena-io/etcher/releases/download/v1.1…

Great timing. Finally ready to make the jump to HA. Was going to get the green until I watched your video on it. Been surfing eBay looking at older HP Elitedesk Minis now.

You neglected to mention the Dell Wyse Thin Client 5070. I purchased mine on eBay for only $35. It has a fast quad core Intel CPU with 8gb RAM and 16gb SSD. It however has an M.2 slot so for $12.00 more I purchased a 256GB SSD on Amazon. It's very fast in fact I use a second one for my desktop computer as it's as fast as a typical NUC or mini desktop PC. Draws about 4-5 watts and CPU never Hits more than about 10% CPU under full load running Home Assistant. I'm also using a 3rd unit as my home media server with an external 4tb hard drive. Streams movies and audio easily to all my home media devices. These Thin Clients are basically mini PCs and enterprise grade construction bullet proof.

Using an old second hand i5 NUC, chugs along at 5-10% CPU and has been solid for 3 years so far. I used an nvme to USB adaptor to initially image HASSOS and occasionally pull it and write a backup image in case the drive ever dies, I keep HASS config backups as well but it’ll be up and running again quickly if disaster strikes.

I went back and fourth on this for a while. Tried it on a mac, then on a zimablade, and then just finally went NUC and installed it bare metal. Should have done the NUC right from the start. Eventually I'll get more comfortable with docker and try something more powerful, but for now this was pretty plug'n'play

This channel is always informative and down to earth. Thanks for this video!

Thanks for listing the wattage for each device

Such a nice detailed explanation. I like what you did here. Just as it is, no bla-bla-bla ;-) Thanks Digiblur!

If you use a Blink, don't forget to save your windows license that comes with it for possible future use.

Thanks Travis.

I'd love to see how you add Z-Wave and Zigbee controllers with MQTT these days. Also, Z-wave smart door locks with PIN codes are a hot mess with Home Assistant. Can you show us how it's done? Locks are a pretty important component of a smart home and Home Assistant doesn't make it easy, especially managing PIN codes.

Great stuff, I just picked up some Intel NUC's I5 CPU with 16 meg ram and 128 m2SD , i scored 2 for $40 bucs each. 😁✌

See a lot of videos starting with HAOS where integrating plug-ins is easy. How about putting Debian and Docker on a device and integrate NodeRED, MariaDB, Mosquito, InfluxDB, … into HA for those that want to build out a more robust home auto / home lab server? HAOS does run Docker but gets upset if you install anything on it.

I'm starting to hit some bottlenecks on my PI4. My plan for now will be to continue running basic HA and most add ons on it. I'm going to run more CPU intensive parts of HA elsewhere however. My thought is basic home automation tasks will continue to run normally when I'm playing with advanced stuff on another server. Perhaps at some point I'll move everything over to something more "beefy" but I don't see a point of breaking a very stable and snappy system.

Thanks!

Dude! I love your new style, you fucking rock Stone Cold Steve Austin. :)

Disappointed that you did not mention running HA on the lava lamp shown in the thumbnail 😂

Running of a BeeLink but BT driver and wifi not working well with current HAOS kernel. But also with older BT USB adapter I loose frequently connection to my IOT device

Great video, on something like the N95, how hard is it to get a google usb tpu frigate stick working, also 2 external spinning rust drives, one for frigate and another as a nas to share media for external kodi machines etc. Cheers, p.s, kids a great shot, handguns not allowed in UK unfortunately 😔

I like the new look