r/homeassistant • u/theguyinthehoodie69 • 2h ago

šŸ’¬ Discussion Is home assistant device worth it?

I have an old pc which i can turn into home assistant but just asking is the hardware itself worth it ? Any perks ?

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u/Possible_Warning2766 2h ago

If you already have the PC, its basically free to try and that old hardware will handle most setups without breaking a sweat. The perks come from automating stuff youd normally tap through an app for, and once you get a few devices tied together you start finding uses you didnt plan for

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u/jesterOC 2h ago

Iā€™m not sure what you are asking. Are you asking about using a turn-key hardware solution vs just using an old PC?
If so I assume a small dedicated device is more energy efficient than an old PC. My old PC defaulted to about 60 watts running Home Assistant. Compare that to the mini PC i bought that runs Home Assistant and Plex and several other virtual machines for about 12 watts. It is also much smaller.

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u/44henq 2h ago

It runs on a rpi, so it will probably run on your box. You need external antenna if you for example want to add Zigbee or Matter devices. Millions of manuals on this.

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u/TiFooN 2h ago

I don't think so. I bought a Pi to reduce my electricity consumption, but any PC would do the job

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u/purrfectly-cromulent 1h ago edited 1h ago

What specs does the PC have? HA will run on a Pi (with varying success depending on model), so I'm willing to bet your PC will cope. That said, old PCs can be power-hungry, which is why people tend to go for Pis, mini PCs and fanless thin clients.

If you're asking about dedicated HA hardware like Green, I can't compare as I've never used one. But I expect it runs quite efficiently.

I ran HA on a Pi3B, just to see what the interface was like. It would drop out a lot, particularly when using the frontend. But it did run its automations reliably. I changed to a cheap used mini PC that I got for Ā£10, an AS1 or something, and it runs much more easily. The fan only kicks in if a big update is happening, or I'm doing a lot of work on HA.

Other hardware is surprisingly minimal. Automate any smart things you have now, and consider a ZigBee controller for future add-ons. I got the controller from PiHut, and it was a lot cheaper for me than from anywhere else, including Amazon and Ali Express. So shop around and don't discount the smaller retailers.

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u/spoo4brains 1h ago

You have to look at the power usage of that PC to work out if the electricity costs and potential heat and noise are worth it for you. People generally use low powered energy efficient PC's or RPi's for HA.

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u/mcflyrdam 1h ago

It depends a bit on your old computer. In general it should work. Won't be the most energy efficient situation but if you DGAF then that's perfectly fine.