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:

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00:00 Intro & Hardware Choices
06:52 NVME and Beelink Internals
08:46 Kamrui N95 Internals
09:34 Loading HAOS on the NVME
13:37 BIOS Settings
16:32 Onboarding Home Assistant
20:40 Closing
22:00 The BEST Part!

[digiblurDIY]

*UPDATE - Error flashing via etcher? Use this version of etcher, we found that the latest version has problems:

[chiraldude]

My Raspberry PI died. Instead of trying to figure out how to fix or replace it, I bought an old laptop on eBay for less than $100. Loaded VMware, installed HA OS and restored into a new instance of HA from my PI backups. Runs great! Rebooting my PI took about 5 min but the VM restarts in about 1 min so I know I have lots of CPU power to spare.

[jeremyjedynak]

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

[djkilla]

I've watched alot of hours of people doing this. I had so much trouble getting anything to work but once I follow you step by step man thank you 🙏 it was very easy and I got it up and working. Please upload more videos showing all kinds of other stuff. I would love for you to show us because you explain everything for actual beginners like myself. Thank you again for the awesome video!!!!

[johnm]

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.

[Ecoi]

Thanks for this. I was really looking for this type of video. All of the other videos I saw were about installing on a rasp pi without really considering the other options. I feel rather committed to getting into HA and there's a lot I am interested in so willing to put in some more thought into hardware choices.

[Musicman-]

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.

[chrisgrose]

Thank you for the sabrent tip and explaining so well I have switched to haos fun times

[MichaelBennett]

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.

[WimVeen]

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

[icharlemagne]

Thanks for listing the wattage for each device

[vaughanza]

Thanks for great video, your son is really growing up, awesome.

[erbartlett]

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

[linearburn]

I would recomend a N100 firewall box you can get them for around 150 buck with 8g ddr5 ram and a 128g nvme SSD 4 core atom

[Lonestar]

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.

[The_Mup]

Another option is an Asrock N100DC-ITX motherboard in a small itx case with an external DC power supply. You'll have a RAM slot and a PCI-E slot. And the boards are relatively cheap.

[Thev]

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. 😁✌

[ihasmax]

Great timing. I've been frustrated with my rp4 + HA setup (specifically z-wave issues and SD card concerns/performance). Had a few rp5 boards on hand but started doing all the math to put together a complete setup with SSD and everything and the beelink S12 just seems like a no brainer for what I need.

[jmorris]

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

[gadget]

Many thanks for the content and you are correct the Beelink is a better choice...It has all that you need and tad more .... And point you missed on the "Kamrui " it has a fan where as the BeeLink does not ... so the Beelink is a lot more quite .... My only gripe with HOS is how big of pain in the ass it is to use the second drive that the Bee has available to install... .. Again thanks for the the work and content