Which hardware to start with? | Home Assistant | Page 1

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 5:27 AM

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Hi all...I'm a bit lost as to where to start with HA. I don't have it running yet, because I can't seem to decide on what hardware to use. I have an Unraid server that I've run locally for a few years, but from what I read, it's better to have dedicated hardware than to run it there in a docker or a VM. But I don't really know what to get. I see there are Green and Yellow versions that are "official", and if I understand right, Green + that one adapter is often recommended for beginners, whereas Yellow has more capabilities, but purchasing it seems to require a lot of understanding of which modules you need (and while I've done various pc builds and upgrades, I've never messed with a Raspberry Pi). But I see some people get a mini PC of some sort and run it there, too.

At this point, I literally only have a few devices -- a Reolink Wifi doorbell, an Ecobee thermostat with an external sensor, a couple Wifi Kasa plugs, and then whatever from Unraid would integrate with HA. But I know I want to do lightswitches, presence sensors, tower fans, a few cameras, some exterior lighting, and maybe more. I figure I should get something that can do Zigbee, Z-Wave, and act as a Thread router, since I don't know what I will eventually choose, and I'd rather have the capabilities up front.

Happy to give any other specifics as needed. Recommendations appreciated! And if there is some guide written for this exact situation, apologies for not seeing it, but will read if someone can link one!

blazing sedge Jul 31, 2025, 5:33 AM

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I would install Proxmox VE on a sff pc. i5+8Bram. Then install HAOS as a VM using the installer script. Dont go for Raspberry...

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This will provide a stable system with a lot of headroom.

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e.g. look for Beelink N100 with minimum of 8gb ram

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 5:36 AM

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so the pc would be just for HAOS, but through proxmox?

blazing sedge Jul 31, 2025, 5:37 AM

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yes, proxmox is your VM server, then install HAOS as VM. You can also install other VM's or Containers on Proxmox

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 5:38 AM

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what would i need adapter wise for zigbee/zwave/thread with that setup?

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(have never used any of those 3)

blazing sedge Jul 31, 2025, 5:39 AM

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if you like HA, get the one from Nabu Casa...

solar turret Jul 31, 2025, 5:39 AM

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I found this guide useful (and is updated as of a couple months ago) with a beelink s12 pro — https://www.derekseaman.com/2023/10/home-assistant-proxmox-ve-8-0-quick-start-guide-2.html

Derek Seaman's Tech Blog

Derek Seaman

Home Assistant: Proxmox VE 8.3 Quick Start Guide

Do you want to run Home Assistant OS (HAOS) in a virtual machine using Proxmox VE 8.3? Check out my guide for the complete how-to with lots of tips!

blazing sedge Jul 31, 2025, 5:39 AM

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for zigbee, for the others i can not give you advice as i dont use them 😉

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 5:41 AM

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ok thanks, i will look into those and check out that guide

solar turret Jul 31, 2025, 5:45 AM

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I started with a HA green and it works well, but wasn’t as fast as I wanted as I started to expand addons, building esphome projects, etc (which you may or may not end up ever doing)

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 5:45 AM

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i figured it was kinda limited hardware. what pc did you go with?

solar turret Jul 31, 2025, 5:46 AM

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I went with the Beelink S12 Pro (and installed proxmox on it and HAOS VM in proxmox)

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 5:46 AM

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do you run other things on it too?

solar turret Jul 31, 2025, 5:47 AM

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Scrypted for some camera stuff, homebridge because it does a better job with air purifiers in HomeKit than HA’s HomeKit bridge, random Ubuntu install for misc

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 5:48 AM

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hmmm. wondering if i should reconsider doing a VM on my Unraid box

blazing sedge Jul 31, 2025, 5:49 AM

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dont

solar turret Jul 31, 2025, 5:50 AM

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I have the zooz zwave 800 usb dongle for zwave, an rtlsdr device for random radio things. I have the sky connect or zbt-1 whatever zigbee/thread thing but haven’t really used it. There’s a lot of thread stability issues reported with it (I have 1 thread device and 9 other border routers so also don’t need another one) and no zigbee devices

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But easy to add other dongles as needed

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 5:51 AM

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yeah i saw it had some kinda multi-mode firmware that wasnt super stable

solar turret Jul 31, 2025, 5:52 AM

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Ive read it’s fine for zigbee but maybe not the best for thread, but have little direct experience

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The zooz zwave thing works great

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(I also have basically the same hardware in 2 different locations with some variety of devices/use cases and has been great at both)

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 5:53 AM

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ive seen people say that zigbee is better than wifi for little stuff like switches/plugs/sensors, so i was wanting to give it a try

blazing sedge Jul 31, 2025, 5:53 AM

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zibee is better..

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 5:53 AM

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i saw the zooz page too with zwave stuff. im a little unsure when i should pick between zwave/zigbee still since i havent use either

blazing sedge Jul 31, 2025, 5:53 AM

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wifiNO zigbeeGO

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 5:53 AM

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lol

solar turret Jul 31, 2025, 5:54 AM

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WiFi is just battery hungry. For plugs, etc I’ve had no issues with WiFi devices

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For random sensors I went zwave (for no real reason other than I think I started with a relay and bought a zooz one)

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Though I’ve been building some thread esp32c6 sensors lately so who knows

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 5:55 AM

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what is the esphome stuff?

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havent come across that

solar turret Jul 31, 2025, 5:55 AM

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I also just don’t think any given ecosystem or protocol has everything you want

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 5:56 AM

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i was looking at innovelli switches as one option and saw they had all the various protocols as options

solar turret Jul 31, 2025, 5:56 AM

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Switches are a dark rabbit hole

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esphome is a related open source project for running on esp32 chips. They power lots of things but are easily programmed and can talk directly to HA

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 5:58 AM

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why do you say that about switches?

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and should i wait to pick some of those until ive done more stuff lol

solar turret Jul 31, 2025, 5:59 AM

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There’s just a lot of options, unclear “best”

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Lutron is probably best, but also $$$$

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 6:00 AM

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yeah that was another on my list...but like 100 bucks per switch is a high bar

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(that was also the FIRST one i ever looked at prices for, which almost put me off switches in general lol)

tender nest Jul 31, 2025, 6:23 AM

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granite cradle Hi all...I'm a bit lost as to where to start with HA. I don't have it running ye...

in terms of server hardware:

I have a write up on server hardware selection - https://gist.github.com/MichaelMKKelly/7a7bfed8610491a2c93acb44a2400866
also i have a video about setting up a mini pc with proxmox then haos in a vm - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pxfuXXd1Ds

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 6:26 AM

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tender nest in terms of server hardware: I have a write up on server hardware selection - h...

appreciate the links! will definitely read and watch through. trying to learn as much as i can before diving into actually using HA

tender nest Jul 31, 2025, 6:27 AM

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i am updating the write up a bit at the moment so maybe refresh in a bit 😛

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 6:27 AM

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hah, will do. tbh as late as it is (central time in NA for me) i just bookmarked both and will look tomorrow

hasty bronze Jul 31, 2025, 6:36 AM

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Me, newbie, can confirm. Proxmox is a great platform to experiment on with all kinds of things I always wanted to try. Setting up HAOS and Nginx Proxymanager was a thing of an hour. HAOS almost immediately recognized all my Philips and Google devices.

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But I was warned that Proxmox makes a bit addictive and as I added more and more services, I also set it on a used server board. Core wise 14 cores and 28 threads are far too big, and only 16GB out of 64 are in use with HA, Paperless, Jellyfin, samba and Nextcloud but I also started to virtualize my workstation, so I have different VMs for different projects I work on.

tender nest Jul 31, 2025, 6:42 AM

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hasty bronze Me, newbie, can confirm. Proxmox is a great platform to experiment on with all k...

yup, to be fair. just firing it up and seeing what it detects is a great starting point. most people will likely have some stuff it will find out the box

hasty bronze Jul 31, 2025, 6:42 AM

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And if you compile ARM Linux Kernels 20 times a day, you love to have more and more cores.

tender nest Jul 31, 2025, 6:43 AM

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hasty bronze But I was warned that Proxmox makes a bit addictive and as I added more and more...

homelab for the win

hasty bronze Jul 31, 2025, 6:46 AM

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Mine is 12 HDD trays and 4 SSD trays in a gaming case

rn_image_picker_lib_temp_94cd466e-bd74-48f9-853f-53a4103c980d.jpg

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But battery backed

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Still building my network infrastructure

tender nest Jul 31, 2025, 6:49 AM

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nice 🙂

hasty bronze Jul 31, 2025, 6:50 AM

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@tender nest May be you want to have a look into my issue? You seem to be very deep inside the hardware / platfomr thing of HAOS?

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That Fritzbox will hopefully leave the setup today. Switching providers today and the new one doesn't require any Fritte in between Unifi and ONT

tender nest Jul 31, 2025, 6:52 AM

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hasty bronze <@354452014068924428> May be you want to have a look into my issue? You seem to ...

you have a thread open? link it

hasty bronze Jul 31, 2025, 6:52 AM

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https://discord.com/channels/330944238910963714/1400363365641224283

tender nest Jul 31, 2025, 6:52 AM

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hasty bronze That Fritzbox will hopefully leave the setup today. Switching providers today an...

i ditched some isp equipment this week and plug ont straight into one of the mini pc's which runs opnsense in proxmox 🙂

hasty bronze Jul 31, 2025, 6:53 AM

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I am supporting some companies using Unifi and so it makes sense to run my own setup. Also I am switching to all Unifi in the next month with battery backed access and protection

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All the Ring Equipment will leave the scene till next summer and is being replaced by Unifi stuff. And HAOS shall link all that to my solar system and battery storage.

tender nest Jul 31, 2025, 6:55 AM

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i have some unifi stuff just not rack stuff

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a flex 2.5 and a couple of APS. unifi manager running in lxc on proxmox 🙂

hasty bronze Jul 31, 2025, 6:56 AM

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Me too. II live in an old farm and all the buildings are very old and have very big walls. Staying cool in summer. But I need 3 APs to just cover the main building that only has one floor 😅

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I was thinking about the unifi lxc but as I will move to Unifi Access and unifi Protect, I keep things autonomous and separated, even battery backup is separate. I still want to get into the building, when power has failed due to some unpredictable reason

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Don't create SPoF! (Single Point of Failure)

tender nest Jul 31, 2025, 6:59 AM

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made me a little box of networking recently 🙂

tender nest Jul 31, 2025, 7:00 AM

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hasty bronze Don't create SPoF! (Single Point of Failure)

yeah i am setting stuff up on other systems in the rack to be able to fall back to them to do stuff if something fails

hasty bronze Jul 31, 2025, 7:01 AM

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Oh, I have a similar setup for emergency linking. 5GHz parabolic antennas to link to very remote locations in case of bigger / longer outages.

tender nest Jul 31, 2025, 7:30 AM

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@granite cradle sorry for derailing your thread a little 😛

blazing sedge Jul 31, 2025, 8:56 AM

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Hi Michael, is the proxmox ve/haos script up to date?

tender nest Jul 31, 2025, 9:15 AM

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blazing sedge Hi Michael, is the proxmox ve/haos script up to date?

yup, the haos vm helper script works fine.

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 6:38 PM

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tender nest <@120787318293397504> sorry for derailing your thread a little 😛

hah no worries, a good discussion merits being had whenever!

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 7:22 PM

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question in case anyone sees this: theres only like a $20 difference between the beelink s12 pro and s13 pro...is that worth it? seems to be the n150 instead of the n100 processor. also, how much difference would 16gb vs 8gb ram make? (im assuming the storage drive upgrades are irrelevant especially since i have a nas) (looking at this one: https://www.amazon.com/Beelink-EQ13-PCIE3-0-Computers-Support/dp/B0D5QXTFHH?s=electronics)

Beelink Mini PC, Mini S13 PRO Intel 13th N150(Up to 3.6GHz), 16GB D...

System configuration: Processor: Intel Twin Lake-N150 Memory: 16GB DDR4 RAM Storage space: 500GB NVMe SSD(Equipped with an additional M.2 PCIe interface for expansion to 2TB) processor Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 24EUs 1000MHz Ethernet: 1000 Mbps LAN X1 WiFi: WiFi 6 (802.11ax) Bluetooth: 5.2 Int...

solar turret Jul 31, 2025, 7:24 PM

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N150 is slightly newer (s13 wasn’t out when I got my s12s) but perf difference seems marginal

fast arch Jul 31, 2025, 7:24 PM

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I actually wouldn't recommend the N150 right now. Definitely get 16GB RAM though.

solar turret Jul 31, 2025, 7:26 PM

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(Also if you play the this one is only $X more game for a bit you can quickly decide you should just get the SER9 for only a lot more….)

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 7:28 PM

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Lol that's true about the just a bit more game. I guess my question is more, if the mini pc vs Ha green is such a big upgrade, is there any tangible benefit to going just a bit more?

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And why not the n150? I know nothing about those tiny PCs cpus

fast arch Jul 31, 2025, 7:30 PM

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No real benefit but more power consumption/heat/noise and compatibility issues.

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You can't really go overkill with a server. There are thousands of things to self host. You can't even properly run a Windows 11 VM with just 8GB. Not that you need to, just to give some perspective.

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 7:31 PM

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Ah fair enough

solar turret Jul 31, 2025, 7:32 PM

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Prolly should just build a threadripper cluster

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 7:32 PM

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And is there a compatibility reason not to do this in a VM on my Unraid box?

fast arch Jul 31, 2025, 7:33 PM

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You mean skip buying anything and run HAOS on unraid?

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 7:33 PM

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i5-10400, 32gb ddr4

fast arch Jul 31, 2025, 7:33 PM

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Unraid is not as good of a hypervisor as PVE but otherwise probably not.

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 7:34 PM

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Yes. I have read that dedicated hardware for HA is a better choice, but all the discussion around the mini pc seems to be about how it can also do other things

fast arch Jul 31, 2025, 7:34 PM

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Well so can unraid. People just love PVE/virtualization/LXC and Mini PCs 🙂

solar turret Jul 31, 2025, 7:35 PM

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I view proxmox just as easy optionality on dedicated hardware

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 7:35 PM

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Would a mini pc running it on bare metal be advantageous?

fast arch Jul 31, 2025, 7:35 PM

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Big waste.

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I'd argue it's harder to install too.

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 7:36 PM

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Even if I was only using it for HA?

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(since I already run anything else I need on Unraid)

fast arch Jul 31, 2025, 7:36 PM

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Yes: https://gist.github.com/Impact123/c23c36eafe1672ec056233e450a86ae2

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I think I said before to just run it as a unraid VM.

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 7:39 PM

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I suppose the main downside to that, similar to when I tried to run Pihole on Unraid for a few months, is that when my server is turned off for maintenance, upgrades, etc. then HA would also be off lol

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And yeah just quickly glancing through those examples in your link I can definitely see why not bare metal

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Is proxmox free for home use?

fast arch Jul 31, 2025, 7:42 PM

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FOSS even.

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 7:44 PM

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Nice. So the n100, a model with 16gb ram, to be used as "dedicated" but virtualized. Any reason to get more than 256 or 512 or whatever the model comes with? And is the skyconnect (insert updated name here I just forget) still a good choice for zigbee on one of those?

fast arch Jul 31, 2025, 7:49 PM

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If you really just want to use it for HAOS then no. I'd also recommend something like the M720Q instead. Much cheaper, better upgrade path, etc.
I usually recommend the SLZB models. You'll see why if you read their website 🙂

granite cradle Jul 31, 2025, 7:53 PM

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Alright, will take a read over those options. Really appreciate all the help!

void notch Jul 31, 2025, 9:56 PM

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Starter myself and I've read all the 'get a mini pc' route and opted against it. Own a happy little pi5 now. For german citizen power consumption of a 24/7 device is actually crucial. The pi with just ha running snips around 3w total including the power supply and an nvme. I call that impressive and as far as I could figure out no n100 or n95 or whatever mini pc can compete with that. 25 vs 80kwh/yr is quite a substantial difference

fast arch Jul 31, 2025, 10:01 PM

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Here are my reasons why I don't recommend a pi to anyone: https://gist.github.com/Impact123/6ee130240bdc6a7fed2d5224616544a0
3W is indeed pretty low. Less than 6W will be hard to achieve with a Mini PC.
The Dell Wyse 3040/5070 can apparently go down to 4W but I can hardly recommend that.

void notch Jul 31, 2025, 10:10 PM

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But that's now a question of who to target. For regular peeps that just want to get their power consumptions stored and some lights to switch(oversimplifying here) those are all non reasons really. For IT people, administrators and such a pi is far from ideal. So one has to always ask who is it for - to me for an average person pi with pios+docker+ha. Perfect. It's never meant to do but from USB, run any distro, they don't debug. For pi you have to get a nvme disk. Everything else is temporary. SD card to me is a good way to creat test env on a separate os instead of doing it on the live one. There is something for everyone I guess

hasty bronze Aug 1, 2025, 8:01 AM

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For de-centralized jobs I personally prefer those SFF PCs. Mostly HP G6 or so. Small, rigid, SSD and M2 slots, upt to three screens can be attached. Good enough to run HA and a few more tasks. I use one to manage my radaio shack, one in the lab for work and OBS and one smaller to control my 3D printers.

deep mulch Aug 1, 2025, 1:03 PM

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slate echo Aug 14, 2025, 10:13 PM

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So im moving a well established HAOS on RPi5 install over to a miniPC (Beelink EQ14 /w dual 2.5g NICs) running proxmox 9.0.5 with a HAOS VM, i got everything up and running and the last thing was to move my sonoff dongle E and get it passed through to the VM.. or so i thought

Dongle works when put back in the original machine, on the miniPC 'dmesg -w' shows its present but 'lsusb -t -v' doesnt show the dongle and its not possible to select or pass it though to my HA VM, this doesnt seem to be exclusive to the dongle, other usb devices dont seem to work either

i feel like im missing a driver for the usb controller, anyone come across this and know how to fix ?

fast arch Aug 14, 2025, 10:17 PM

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Is it still passed to the VM? If yes PVE will not necessarily see it any more.

slate echo Aug 14, 2025, 10:18 PM

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its not passed to the VM cant see it to do that

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nevermind found the issue

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had a different device passed through to get the bluetooth controller into the VM

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removed that and all the usb devices are visible again

fast arch Aug 14, 2025, 10:34 PM

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Do you pass by id or the whole port? Maybe they also share the same id.

slate echo Aug 14, 2025, 11:03 PM

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passing only the bluetooth usb hadnt worked but its a part of the nic so i passed that to the VM and it worked

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i had a mini bluetooth dongle lying around so i've used that instead and passed it as a second usb device

wise dust Aug 22, 2025, 11:33 PM

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hey guys, looking to get into HA
how well does Ikea hardware integrate? it’s probably the most accessible for me

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just want to do lighting and motion sensors

tender nest Aug 22, 2025, 11:38 PM

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wise dust hey guys, looking to get into HA how well does Ikea hardware integrate? it’s pro...

i think most ikea stuff is zigbee and works pretty well but you need a zigbee coordinator connected to your home assistant setup

wise dust Aug 22, 2025, 11:42 PM

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Thanks, good to know, I’ll do some research.

drifting berry Aug 23, 2025, 7:59 AM

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This is very much my personal opinion - but the absolute king of Zigbee Coordinators is SMLight's SLZB-06

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https://smlight.tech/product/slzb-06/ - the CC2652P based variant

SMLIGHT Official Homepage

admin

SLZB-06 Zigbee Ethernet PoE LAN USB WiFi Adapter CC2652P | Zigbee2M...

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Works perfectly with Zigbee2Mqtt

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I originally went for the USB powered Sonoff Dongle 3.0 Plus

#Which hardware to start with?