Raspberry Pi prices have gone a bit mad lately, so I started asking the obvious question: why am I spending Pi 5 money to run Home Assistant when I could buy a used thin client for £27 and get a more “proper little server” experience? In this video I break down what these thin clients actually are (think old-school Wyse/Fujitsu office boxes that institutions are dumping in bulk), why they’re suddenly everywhere on the used market, and why they can be a genuinely better buy than a Pi for smart home and self-hosting. I’m using a Dell Wyse 7020 with an AMD GX-420CA, 4GB RAM and 32GB solid-state storage, and the big win here isn’t raw CPU performance—it’s the I/O and expandability. You get gigabit Ethernet, USB 3, proper display outputs, upgradeable RAM, spare SATA, and even hidden expansion options like an mPCIe slot on certain models. That means Home Assistant, Plex, Pi-hole, WireGuard/Tailscale, Vaultwarden, and even a small NAS are all on the table, often for less than the cost of a Pi once you’ve added an SD card and PSU. I also walk through the basic Home Assistant setup using the generic x86 HAOS image and Rufus, BIOS tips (including the default Wyse password), and how to boot from USB. If you want an off-grid smart home that a random company can’t switch off—plus fewer chances of Daddy Bezos watching you when you sleep—this is a cracking route.