Luckily I already have a Plex/Jellyfin server, so having a device running 24/7 isn’t an issue. But my experience is primarily on the HTPC side of things, so I’d appreciate any tips! I’m probably going to run it headless for now, but may eventually install a dashboard once the dust has settled on getting this running.
Welcome to the club!
I have 3 computer monitors, and one is effectively dedicated to displaying Home Assistant. I started running HA on a Raspberry Pi 2 (not recommend, but possible), and upgraded to an old ThinkPad when adding a few more demanding tasks.
I’ve recently got into self hosting, ad found that HA runs equally well in docker as OS. The output on the laptop is not particularly useful considering you can do just about everything remotely.
Advice: Make backups, save any configuration files you make/change, then just go nuts and tinker with everything.
Almost everything can be done using the GUI (and it’s fairly user friendly), but it’s worth at least knowing how to access the YAML. Copying other people’s code (with permission) is a great way to learn and find new features.
Read the documentation before installing the community store (HACS). Is easy to install, but has a few steps that will keep you troubleshooting for hours if you don’t follow them the first time.
My favourite HACS integration is apexcharts-card. It takes a little learning to get right, but the graphs look really good. I’d be happy to share some tips and examples if you’re interested.