Which raspberry pi

[u/Th0m4s29]

Hey!
I want to connect my entire house using Homebridge so I can control it from a wall-mounted iPad. I'm planning to use a Raspberry pi but I don't know which model to get.

Can you help me out?
Thanks guys

[u/paulrin]

I’m running on RasPi 4 w/ 8 GB of RAM. SERIOUSLY OVERKILL, but it works well.

[u/AllOneWordNoSpaces1 → u/paulrin]

I’m doing the same. I wouldn’t classify it as overkill though. Probably just right.

[u/paulrin → u/AllOneWordNoSpaces1]

I think my memory usage floats around 3-4%….

[u/scubascratch → u/paulrin]

Once you start adding plugins running in child bridges for reliability the memory usage goes up quite a bit

[u/blairyc1 → u/paulrin]

Same, but I’ve got pihole on it too, only issue I ever had was when streaming the Eufy camera feed, it would just never show the live feed properly…

[u/Uricashaw]

I’ve got a Pi 4B 4GB ram. CPU load = 1%

[u/dudeude → u/Uricashaw]

Same here for CPU load but my free memory is much lower. I was looking at options to address that

[u/AllOneWordNoSpaces1]

IMO: a mini-pc or Mac mini is overkill, unless you’re going to run other things on it (media streamer, pi-hole, etc).

[u/Jammybe]

Get a second hand mini PC off eBay/CEX etc.

Similar money, more horsepower.

I run a 12 year old NUC.

[u/jasinx → u/Jammybe]

More horsepower for what though?

RPi runs on 6 watts or something. 

[u/FewPipe816 → u/jasinx]

Yeah like if anything an older m series Mac mini. Works great double duty for other server hosting too and low power. I found my rpi 4b to be a bit slow

[u/Jammybe → u/jasinx]

Running HAOS.

Doing updates, running automations.

If you want slow and cheap to run. Get a Pi.

But Pi’s aren’t cheap to buy any more.

Have a look at Intel n150 mini PCs.

Edit. Sorry. Just clocked this Homebridge not home assistant.

Same approach still applies.

[u/jasinx → u/Jammybe]

I duno hey. 

If I have a headless node running 24/7, I would prefer it being ARM.

I’ve been using a Mac mini m1 and MacBook Air m2 for several years now. And I will not switch back to x86 anytime soon. 

Power efficiency should be the normal when looking for decent performance and non-heavy applications. 

If you’re into gaming and stuff, x86 makes sense. Maybe several other use-cases. 

But for everything else. There’s ARM. And it’s beautiful. 

[u/Holiday_Ad_9163]

I’m using a RP5 because I thought it might be more responsive. But in practice I don’t notice any difference from when I used an RP4. And even that was probably overkill.

But I do recommend a dedicated raspberry pi.

[u/jasinx → u/Holiday_Ad_9163]

You thought RPi5 would be more responsive but you think RPi4 was overkill?

I’m not understanding the slight contradiction? Help me understand. 

[u/Holiday_Ad_9163 → u/jasinx]

I was using an RP4. It was fine but sometimes accessories were slow to respond. I upgraded to an RP5. It made no difference. In retrospect, I don’t think that the speed of the SBC has much impact on accessory responsiveness. The RP4 was probably more than enough all along, but I’m not going to do a bunch of testing.

[u/acerbusalius]

I’m on like a 10-year-old Rpi 3 and it’s been great.

[u/Naxthor]

I run mine off a pi3 2gb works fine.

[u/Accomplished_Amoeba]

Mine ran on a RPi 2 for a couple of years. I now have a 5. I don’t notice much performance difference except that I’m also running a couple of additional services on the 5

[u/su_A_ve]

Old desktop in a corner. Not just Homebridge but a few other docker containers like an ARR stack, Plex, AdGuard Home..

[u/Biggerjake924]

Get a dell wyse for less than $100 on eBay. Load with proxmox and install Homebridge on a VM

[u/MeetMeAtTheCreek]

I recently moved my Homeassistant and Homebridge to a NAS and my RPI4 is just sitting here and doing nothing - happy to give you a good deal if you want it.

[u/UvuJ13 → u/MeetMeAtTheCreek]

Interested if still offering? Looking to set up my own home bridge server as well.

[u/International_Ad2651]

Buy a 5 and future proof

[u/sarahlizzy]

1. 5s are too expensive. 3s are gutless.

[u/rcrsvrddtr]

I’m on a pi 3b+ with a few plugins. Seems fine.

[u/Salmundo]

Depends on what HB plugins you are going to run. I had Zero Ws running HB, and still have one just for Pi-hole (not HB). If you are running streaming camera plugins, you need a lot of power and memory. Otherwise, it depends.

[u/jasinx]

Get a second hand Mac mini m1 with 16gb ram.