Right on, that makes sense!

If you’re not planning on storing absolutely tons of data at first, you can also squeeze a lot into so-called “1 liter PCs”. Traditional platform, a little more power and room than a Pi, and you can neatly tuck them away!

I hear they float around eBay quite readily these days.

Sadly haven’t been hearing the very best things about the Pi 5, but earlier ones can do well as little servers.

I’ve been learning a lot from the self hosted podcast lately haha. Also one of the hosts runs this site (which I happened to find first) that can be pretty helpful!

https://perfectmediaserver.com/

I remember some folks on reddit saying USB isn’t the most reliable connection for long-term drives, but I’m not 100% sure what that was about. Maybe the connectors wear out?

Perhaps someone who knows more can enlighten me.

Best of luck! I hope you have a lot of fun. 😁