cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/24823173

Hi folks, looking for a bit of steer to get off the ground with self hosting. My goals to start with are pretty straight forward:

  • I want to set up Home Assistant to move my smart devices off the cloud and fully contained within the walls of my home.
  • I want to set up my own little Pixelfed server for my family’s use, along with some other federated socials.

From what I was looking at, I think my easiest route to doing both of these things is with a Home Assistant Yellow (built-in Zigbee and Thread system) with a Raspberry Pi 4.

I’ve never done anything like this before but I’m interested in learning. If anyone more experienced has any insight or direction, I’d really appreciate it! Cheers!

  • SK
    12•13 hours ago

    If not a Pi, try to go for those (used)mini PCs, they will allow you a bit more power than a Pi and cost just about the same. Then get docker on it and you’re all set for easy deployments.

    And look up homelab youtubers, they have some good tutorials for beginners. thats where i started. Jim’s garage would be my recommendation, especially his older videos about hardware, security and networking basics. You will need to learn these to keep things secure.

    • Possibly linuxEnglish
      7•12 hours ago

      The Pi needs to stop being used and recommended for everything under the sun. Even its power consumption isn’t competitive.

      • mesamuneEnglish
        1•10 hours ago

        It was :(

        My pi 4 is right on the cusp. 3 B+ was the best when it came to no dongles and power. Now its taking about the same power as a mini PC and you have to by the enclosure, fans/heatsink/dongles/etc…etc… I suppose you can still buy the old pis but man I miss when that was the form factor they were going for.

        I bring over my 3/4 for hacking projects all the time. But I cant justify the 5 without looking at getting a mini pc for 10$ more and it comes with a hard drive ment to last longer than an SD.

    • ShadowEnglish
      6•13 hours ago

      This. Go pick up something like a used Lenovo Tiny. You’ll get way more power and flexibility

      • @[email protected]OPEnglish
        3•12 hours ago

        Thank you both, got similar advice on the original post on going more mini pc route! Can’t say I’ve done much research on them, but will certainly take a look using the Lenovo Tiny as a bench!