Where to buy a mini pc
I'm looking to buy a cheap mini PC to run Home Assistant. I found lots on Amazon.es but I don't want to give them my money. Looking for something like a cheap €200 n150 box. Any suggestions where I can buy this in Europe?
Question of curiosity: why not consider RaspberryPi for the task? It is definitely going to be cheaper and more power efficient when comparing to mini computer (even if you take new one), because has so much more computing ability per Watt. I've been running HomeAssistant + cups server + small file server on RaspberryPi 3b+ without any issues for few years, and it was pretty actively used.
Additional point, RaspberryPi is publically traded company on London Exchange, and was founded in Britain, which mostly matches the "Buy European" motto ;)
Raspberry pis are 90€ now instead of 30€ plus you need a SATA hat which is another 40-80€ (unless you want to start having corruption after some years), plus the power supply, another 15€, that is now the price class of an Intel n100 mini PC that has 10x the power, all of that built in, and still great efficiency.
Yeah the RaspberryPi is perfect for those things. They also have Suggested hardware for that. I don't know about your country, but here in Germany electricity is expensive.
RaspberryPi + USB connected SSD would be my recommendation for HomeAssistant. Using an SSD reduces the risk of SD card flaking
And just to be clear, I boot from the SSD and don’t use an SD card at all.
I went with a fanless solution, the Slimbook Zero, if that fits your taste.
Wow, I expected that to cost much more than it does
That's quite cheap indeed
Oh cool, 4x 2.5G ethernet for €200! These could make an awesome pfSense / openSense router.
I've seen similar boxes on AliExpress etc , but there you never know what you're getting, with model numbers and "manufacturers" all over the place. And forget about any form of support.
Ahh, the same tech lust I used to get when I saw microboards with multiple ethernet ports. pf is awesome.
Edit: somehow forgot that HA sell their own devices, HomeAssistant Green for 100$ and HomeAssistant Yellow which also supports the project.
Original comment:
Highly recommend a used "enterprise mini PC" from Dell , HP or Lenovo. Get it from your local IT refurbisher, eBay or your local ebay-equivelent.
These are sometimes called 1L PCs for their 1 Litre size. Model names are Dell Optiplex, HP Elite desk or Prodesk, Lenovo Think centre. Prices are €100 to €1500 depending on age and specs. €150 should be more than enough for HomeAssistant.
Alternatively https://slimbook.com/en/ sells Linux PCs out of Spain, and https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/ out of Germany.
Another option is the british RaspberryPi, but that might be more hassle. You need to separately get a good power supply and cable, good SD-Card, case, maybe with fan. And its ARM not x86, but that doesn't matter for HomeAssistant unless you're doing something very exotic.
You need to separately get a good power supply and cable, good SD-Card, case, maybe with fan.
To be fair, if you're not fussy and just want to use it as a computer, you can buy all those things together as a kit. Like so:
There are a lot of refurbished ex-corporate mini PCs (Intel CPU, 8-16Gb RAM, Windows 10) on eBay for around €100. It should be possible to install Linux on them.
Lenovo thinkcentre tiny is awesome, also very very easy to open if you want to add RAM or switch the 2.5" drive. It also has a nvme slot.
Linux runs perfectly on it.
If you want machines built in Europe, there are Fujitsu-brand mini-PCs that were made in Germany.
Digitec/Galaxus Sells pretty much all the tech stuff amazon does but is a swiss cooperative.
Switzerland is part of EEA/European Market, so no tarriffs.
I tried searching for n150 minipcs but there is just one on galaxus; probably geekom, beelink and acemagic just don’t know about it
Btw I’d like a source for
swiss cooperative
To me it looks like a normal company but with big majority of shares held by a coop corporation (that it a corporation made of coops, so galaxus is more an asset of this corp not a full member)
Obviously all of this is still by far better than Amazon so I’ll try ordering from them when the stuff I need is available on it :)
I just knew it was owned by coop which I had been told by my economics teacher in high school was a cooperative (a long time ago!). You digged further than me!
Research on https://www.minisforum.com/ and https://liliputing.com/.
Not European so I can't answer that part.
If you are only looking at running Home Assistant, why not look at one of their own boxes? Such as the Home Assistant Yellow. Or maybe something along the lines of a 1 liter PC such as the OptiPlex 3070 or whatever the best bang for the buck is on eBay nowadays.
Yes this! They sell HomeAssistant Green for 100$ and HomeAssistant Yellow does ship from various European sellers at various prices.
Otherwise agreed a used 1liter PC from a local IT refurbisher the best option if buying a general PC for HA.
I got a home assistant green and it's great. I just plugged it and it works.
One option is to look for used and repaired thin clients.
Have you tried https://www.pccomponentes.com/ ? You could try fnac too (although I'm not sure where are they from). There's also pc box I think. You might try your luck in those
As others have said, a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 will do everything you need for HA short of voice support.
If you do want to set up voice recognition, honestly, my first stop would be Wallapop/eBay. You can find something marginally more powerful than a Raspi that way if you don't mind the additional power consumption. Or, given what's out there, I'd try to put something small together as a bit of a project from used parts.
Have you looked on eBay? You can either get second hand from someone local to you like I did recently or a just check on who / where the item comes from before buying?
edit to add more clarity
Seen as this is buyeuropean and you may not want to give eBay its percentage what I meant by check on who / where the item comes from is using eBay as an aggregator, checking for sellers and then looking for their storefront outside of eBay to avoid giving them their sales percentage.
Have you tried looking up on AliExpress? I've got only good experiences with them. Just make sure the product is marked as "Choice", as you'll get free shipping and customs already paid.
Just order directly from the manufacturer: https://www.gmktec.com/products/nucbox-g3-most-cost-effective-mini-pc-with-intel-n100-processor
If you stick to official sellers and sellers with plausible-sounding positive reviews, AliExpress can be fine, and shipping is often quick, though warranty support is a bit of a gamble. There are loads of cheap N100/N150 boxes and other Mini PCs on AliExpress.
Buying there should be really the last option, IMO.
I agree, if you can find something more local with warranty support it's preferable.
I picked up a second hand nuc for this purpose and its great.
Have you looked at HP elitedesk mini g5/g6?