Upgrade of hardware: what's best?

[Lightning707]

It's black friday time. I've been thinking for some time about upgrading my system to better hardware. In 2017, I started with Domoticz on a Raspberry Pi 3b, with just a few devices. Over the years, this system has grown tremendously. As a result, more and more software is also running on my raspberry pi (Node red, InfluxDB, grafana, Homebridge, etc.). A few months ago, of course, my 16GB SD card also proved to be getting too small and I replaced it with a new 64GB SD card. I know an SD card is not the most reliable and would also prefer to replace it with an SSD.

I was thinking about buying a Raspberry Pi 5, combined with NVMe SSD. But I still wondered if, in late 2024, this is the best investment (future proof?).
My idea is to run a Linux distribution on this (raspbian, Ubuntu, ...). But maybe there are other options.
I currently use Raspberry Pi OS Lite and connect to it with my Macbook by using ssh.

So far, I have never used Docker. But if I do start with new hardware, it seems like a smart idea to run all software via Docker images.

Do you have any advice? Thanks you very much in advance!

[gizmocuz]

It depends on what you want to do more than home automation on the box...
From the list of services you mentioned, a RPI5 is perfect, even with a 64/256GB SD card
If you have a NAS you can even backup your docker compose folders (I install mine in /opt, and use a rsync cron job)

If you want to do more, like hosting your private movie collection or photos and you need storage, and you currently do not own a NAS,
you could also have a look at an oDroid (HC4 for example)

There is one thing I don't like from the new RPI5, and that is they dropped hardware decoding for H.264, and there is no encoding support
(And no default m.2 socket, you need an addon board for that)

Another fast alternative is an Intel NUC (like an i5), indeed use a m.2 1TB drive and you're find for quite some time

Get something with at least 8GB memory, and pref. a m.2 slot of an SSD

Have a look at the power usage, and decide what's the best option is

[Lightning707]

Thanks for your advice. I suspect that an RPI5 is indeed pretty okay for my usage.

However I did see the HP EliteDesk mini G3 800 being sold refurbished for 100 to 120 euros, which might also be good. I read that the idle power consumption is about 4W: https://louwrentius.com/the-raspberry-p ... ro-pc.html
If I were to buy a refurbished device like this, I'm probably going to install the SSD myself though, because I do want a reliable SSD.