Why I don't recommend ARM SBCs for running servers

Why no SBC.md

There's no question that many people successfully run SBCs and are happy with them but here's some of my biased reasons why I don't recommend ARM based SBCs like the pi, HA Green, HA Yellow, HA Blue, etc for running servers.

• They have a poor price performance ratio
• Some need a powered USB hub if you want to reliably use their USB ports, for example for a external SSD [2]
• Their internal storage sucks [1]. SD cards corrupt easily
• USB boot can be finicky and likely has to be configured:
  • https://www.home-assistant.io/faq/usb_boot/
• You need a HDMI adapter or USB C cable and a serial software to debug some of them
• You can only run specialized distros on them and hence can't easily boot just any live iso to troubleshoot or test something [3]
• You're limited in what you can run (ARM) and debugging tends to be harder
• Its hardware can't be extended/modified. For example by adding more memory or a GPU for LLM/Voice
• You can't properly (as in a pain free, supported and and in a performant way) virtualize of which I'm a big fan of [4]

In comparison. For about 100$ (SFF or tower PCs for even less than 50$ in some locations) you can get a small x86 PC with none of those deficits that can run pretty much any OS and software, can be extended with more RAM, a different CPU, or PCI(-E) devices like a network card. They are also generally a lot faster. A real general purpose PC.

Notes

1. Some like the pi 5 and yellow can use a NVMe SSD which is nice but there's compatibility issues. Green and blue use eMMC. The green's eMMC is not replaceable.
2. I don't know why the pis can't provide reliable power via USB but it was observed many times that external SSDs connected without a powered USB HUB experienced corruption.
3. In the case of the green you can to my knowledge (for now) only run HAOS for example
4. Popular virtualization suites like Proxmox VE don't support ARM yet. The limited memory and inability to extend it also make this unreasonable.

What do I recommend instead?

I don't like to recommend specific models because prices and availability change all the time and are different for different regions so here's some general recommendation to find a good device or at least narrow the choices down. If you need help with choosing you can visit the #hardware channel of the Home Assistant discord server.

General

• Buy used if possible. I like to use eBay for used and Aliexpress or Amazon for new devices
• Get at least 4 Cores, 8GB of Memory and 120GB of Storage. Intel 4th gen or higher. Check/compare performance with CPU Benchmark
  • While you might get by with half of that the bang per buck ratio is not really better
• Avoid eMMC or M.2 SATA
• Get a tiny PC from Lenovo, HP, Dell, etc. For example ThinkCentre M920 Tiny
  • These often have dual channel memory support, two slots and support more memory in general
  • You can usually exchange the CPU
  • Some models support adding a half height PCI(e) card
  • Often better and longer support such as firmware/BIOS updates and better resale value
  • Might have vPRO for remote control
• If you need something fanless, smaller, or something that comes with more network ports out of the box get a Mini PC. For example Beelink MINI S12 Pro or search for Fanless N100 on aliexpress

If you want to virtualize

Highly recommended.

• Get at least 8GB of RAM, better 16GB and 250GB of storage for "future-proofing"
  • Or buy something with 8GB and a empty memory slot which you can fill later. This can sometimes be cheaper too

If you want pure HAOS

Bare metal HAOS is not recommended. Make sure the device supports UEFI. 4GB of memory is okay here but see note above.

If you want to do AI

Such as LLM/Voice

• Make sure the device has a PCI(e) slot and the power supply provides PCIe power to support a GPU of your choice
  • I started with a used RTX 3060

I found this just in time. I'm not a dev or programmer, but am a total geek and love technology. Is there a particular unit / model that you would recommend as a good start? I do plan on adding cameras in the future as it seems my simplisafe won't work, plus, i need better! :)

I was about to buy a USB stick and the dongles, but now I may just go down your route. I am using Hue, Govee Lights (a lot of them), TP Link plugs and a dozen govee temp sensors (because why not). Now i'm seeing that the Hue Motion sensors I have already have temperature built in, so i may be able to reduce the number of Govee sensors.

Anyway, What's your suggestion for a PC that I can grow with?

Also, the hubs I have (Not sure which i need to keep - Hue (Older Bridge), Smarthings, and Lutron)

Thanks in advance!

@tmeezy75 Thanks. I added some suggestions to the article. Let's talk on the linked HA discord server/channel for details :)