Intel NUC mini PC

[Auchtermuchty Weather]

I'm thinking of getting a refurbished one on Ebay (5th generation) to replace the mid-tower PC I'm currently using, which has an  AMD A8-5600K.

The NUC has 4GB RAM, the PC 8GB. Enough RAM? I could get one with an  Intel Core i3 7th Gen. and 8GB RAM for not a vast amount of ££ more.

My plan is to use Debian 12 and VirtualBox plus a couple of VMs each running WeeWx - my weather station has a GW1000 so is a network device, not a USB one.

Has anyone used one of these? 

[michael.k...@gmx.at]

Are you planning to run this as your 24/7/365 device for running WeeWX? I'd estimate the NUC with the Core i3 7th Gen will draw at least 30-50W. Consider the energy consumption, the kWh is not that cheap in the UK. A system that consumes 10W at average (e.g. an intel n100) will save you ~£100-£200 energy costs in a single year!

[gary....@gmail.com]

I have not used that particular device.

I do run two WeeWX instances on a similar machine using Proxmox. Zero issues.

Unless you need VirtualBox, take a look at Proxmox.

[vince]

I'd skip the 5th generation NUC with 4GB that you mentioned.  That's ancient by now.

I have 4th generation i5 (mid-2014) and 8th generation i3 (early-2019) NUCs and they are both fine boxes.  The i3 runs all my docker containers and is available for vagrant/VirtualBox VMs when I need that, and is actually faster than the older i5.  Excellent little boxes that 'far' exceed my compute needs.

I would agree however that one of those little Beelink n100 boxes for a little more money is what I'd do today if I needed a small x86_64 system.

But.....

One 4 GB raspberry pi4 with a good micro-SD card is 'easily' fast enough to run two instances of weewx with a variety of skins and extensions.  Mine's been working fine for multiple years. The pi4 to me is the weewx sweet spot if you need a very low power system at a low cost without worrying about needing a fan.

I would also highly recommend running any weewx instances natively as pip installs rather than using VMs.  No need to dockerize.  No need to build and support VMs.  Just run raspios 'lite' and do a couple pip installations.  Super easy and reliable.  Works perfectly on a pi4 without any fan.

[Auchtermuchty Weather]

" running any weewx instances natively as pip installs" Que?

[vince]

Install raspi os lite. Follow the pip installation quickstart instructions. Try it.

[michael.k...@gmx.at]

Yes, definitely! Installing WeeWX the pip way is so easy and smooth, just do it. Without any USB connected devices, this is even more true (although it's not hard with USB device either).

For the hardware: I am really, really happy with my zotac zbox n100 https://www.zotac.com/product/mini_pcs/zbox-ci337-nano-barebone a fanless beauty, absolutely silent, drawing barely 10W in average, having about 10x the computing power compared to a rPi4.

[paul bennett]

I've been using an Intel NUC 5i5RYK running Ubuntu for many years to host WeeWx.   Absolutely problem free.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "weewx-user" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to weewx-user+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/ec15a371-57af-4f33-ae86-c1560bf397c6n%40googlegroups.com.

[Dan Hinckley]

Agreed on the NUC units. Mine is bombproof.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/02de6390-33d9-4bb4-ab8f-e0cc01696c69%40gmail.com.

[Auchtermuchty Weather]

Had no idea Python could do that! As it happens I had no problems with VirtualBox with bridging turned on - Gnome Boxes was another matter - and I like it being presented as two separate PCs with separate IP addresses.  At some point there will be at least one more VM for work on websites.

[Auchtermuchty Weather]

OK thanks all. Have decided to have a play with Docker & PIP on what was a Pi running WeeWx - it supports a 64-bit OS.

[vince]

I have a github repo (link) with a script to automate pip+nginx installations. There are switches in the bash script to enable running as a vagrant VM over virtual box, installing the belchertown skin, and adding the pi user to the typical groups needed for hardware access etc.  All those switches are 'off' by default.  See the repo and bash script for details.  Should be obvious.

[Auchtermuchty Weather]

Thanks for that. I need to have a play around once I have both systems working properly in a VM,

 but your script will help give me some guidance.