Please recommend mini PC for HS4

[email68]

I think it's time to upgrade my HS PC. It's a Dell studio hybrid running Windows 7 with 2g of ram and a 2.10ghz Dual Core CPU. Years ago I replaced the drive with a 400gb ssd.

I use all 5 of the USB to interface to things. One of them goes to an 8 port serial box. The RS232 serial converter talks to my thermostat, M1 Gold alarm, USB transceiver.

In any case, I'd like to update to something current. I only run HS on it, so I don't need a high power PC. It needs to be a small form factor like the Studio Hybrid so it can fit in my cabinet.

Should it be Windows 10, or 11? I have a HS 4 Pro license.

Suggestions welcome.

Thanks!

[jgreenberg01]

I used a (now discontinued) Beelink U57 Mini PC for a long time. It was really reliable - I can't recall having any issues with it - ever. I live in an area with less-than-clean power so I had it on a UPC.

When hurricane Ian blew through and we lost power, I learned how much my UPS units didn't like the power they were getting from my generator. It got ugly for my PCs and home theater equipment.

That's when I decided to go the route of using a laptop. I'm using an ASUS ExpertBook P2451 exclusively for HS4. It's actually way more than is needed for Homeseer, but I like to have some overhead just in case I want to run something else on it at some point.

It was all about the battery for me.

Also, upgrading from Win 10 to Win 11 made a huge difference with regard to cpu utilization. Windows 11 seems to be waaaay more efficient.

I ended up upgrading my desktop franken-computer to Windows 11 also. It runs Blue Iris with 10 cams, and typically 20 Chrome tabs open at any given time. The cpu utilization with Windows 10 was consistently 7%-10% when idling. Windows 11 brought that down to 0%-2%.

[NickTheGreat]

I have a Intel NUC that runs HS only for me. Bought it in December 2016, probably been running non-stop since January 2017.
https://www.newegg.com/intel-nuc5pgy...82E16883800009

It works fine, though I did end up adding some HDD storage to it. If I remember, I bought an external HDD, 'shucked it' and mounted it up inside. I think it had enoguh s torage, but not enough to download the windows updates. Or something like that, but it has been ticking without issue since then.

[kenm]

I use a laptop running Windows 10 Pro as my primary HS4 host. It's a Lenovo W530 with an older i7 and 32G of RAM. Way more than needed for HS but it was gifted to me when its support contract ended. I also have it connected to a UPS but that's really only for monitoring the UPS and coordinating an orderly shutdown of other equipment that's also on that UPS. I see good deals on refurbished laptops all the time but be aware you may need to replace the battery down the road.

[Mark S.]

This is what I chose for my HS4 update: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...0?ie=UTF8&th=1

I needed a bunch of USBs and a few RS232 COM ports for my connected devices, and I've learned over decades of automation PCs to get much more memory and processor than Microsoft and/or HST recommend, so I went with 16 GB in an i5. Initially, I was concerned about the quality of a no-name Chinese brand, but this thing has been great - no issues whatsoever. No heat, no noise.

I really like Windows 11 Pro - and make sure it is the Pro version so you can tweak. I changed to my other PCs to Windows 11 Pro also. Visually, Windows 11 is not significantly different than Windows 10, but I am finding 11 Pro to be much more stable and user-friendly than 10 - no more crashes. Some control has been given back to users with 11 - best of all, OS updates can now be easily controlled or stopped.

[wpiman]

What are the 5 USB devices? I had a bunch of Serial ports devices and moved to a Quatech over ethernet port, and used a AnyWhere USB device. This allowed me to moved to Windows on a VM which was far easier to maintain.

I recently jettisoned Windows altogether and now run HS on Linux in a docker container...

[Michael McSharry]

I now use Beelink as well. They seems to have cutting edge technology at a good price point. Get it at Amazon or cheaper a month later from China. In my case it I bought it as a group-funded development at an attractive price. I was not in a hurry so could wait a couple months.. They have been in business for some time so the risk that the development would not complete was small. In my case it was a AMD 5900HX. I believe this year they have the 6900 series. I was using a RPi4 before that. It worked, but was not responsive in the UI. Significant price difference between 5900HX and RPi4 so it all depends upon your needs and desires.

[email68]

Wow, this looks really great. Thanks for the link!

This is what I chose for my HS4 update: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...0?ie=UTF8&th=1

I needed a bunch of USBs and a few RS232 COM ports for my connected devices, and I've learned over decades of automation PCs to get much more memory and processor than Microsoft and/or HST recommend, so I went with 16 GB in an i5. Initially, I was concerned about the quality of a no-name Chinese brand, but this thing has been great - no issues whatsoever. No heat, no noise.

I really like Windows 11 Pro - and make sure it is the Pro version so you can tweak. I changed to my other PCs to Windows 11 Pro also. Visually, Windows 11 is not significantly different than Windows 10, but I am finding 11 Pro to be much more stable and user-friendly than 10 - no more crashes. Some control has been given back to users with 11 - best of all, OS updates can now be easily controlled or stopped.

[email68]

I have a
USB

8 port rs232 box
current cost
zwave transceiver
keyboard
mouse

RS232
M1 Gold alarm
UPB transceiver
Omni serial thermostat

What are the 5 USB devices? I had a bunch of Serial ports devices and moved to a Quatech over ethernet port, and used a AnyWhere USB device. This allowed me to moved to Windows on a VM which was far easier to maintain.

I recently jettisoned Windows altogether and now run HS on Linux in a docker container...

[TC1]

I think it's time to upgrade my HS PC. It's a Dell studio hybrid running Windows 7 with 2g of ram and a 2.10ghz Dual Core CPU. Years ago I replaced the drive with a 400gb ssd.

I'm running a decade old Dell laptop with almost the exact same specs. Zero issues with it and it's more than enough horsepower for HS4
Core 2 Duo
4GB ram
125GB SSD, partitioned into C: and D:

Total memory consumption is typically around 1.2GB after boot up, around 1.4GB after it's been running for a week. I auto reboot once a week over night.

I'm curious about your memory consumption? Are you pushing near the 2GB ram you have installed?

If you do decide to upgrade, I highly recommend getting a used laptop. The great thing about running a laptop is that it has a built-in UPS. You can configure Windows so that it still runs even with the laptop lid closed. Mine sits in a closet and I just remote into it whenever I need to configure anything.

[erkerb4]

I have a Lenovo m75q nano (256GB version & Win10 Pro Version), and I am quite pleased with it. There are no moving parts—completely silent. It uses very little power, and does not generate much heat. It uses a standard Lenovo power supply, so it's cheap to replace. It does ship with Windows 10 IoT; however, I have Ubuntu 20.04 LTS running on it. It has 2 serial ports if you have a need for it. This system can be powered by a USB-C dock, or a power-supply.

[tenholde]

Intel NUC

[CountryPlace]

I have a Lenovo I7 L420 with a 128GB SSD and 8GB of memory. It's 12 years old. It's been running HS for about a year. It takes up very little room. I bought a dock for it and that gave me 6 extra USB ports for a total of 9. $159 + $29 for the dock. I added a $20 keyboard and mouse combo so I could leave the laptop open on a top shelf and get to everything easily. It had W7 Pro on it when I got it, but it was still eligible for the W10 Pro upgrade.

[kenm]

The one nice thing I've found with Lenovo, Dell, HP, and I'm sure others, is the fact that the Windows license key is embedded into the hardware so installing/upgrading the OS is a breeze. I haven't run across a single branded machine that I haven't been able to upgrade to Windows 10 either Home or Pro.

Beware that most older laptops will not support Windows 11.

[email68]

Any thoughts on this?

https://computers.woot.com/offers/hp...?ref=w_gw_dd_3