I use a few used Dell Optiplex 7050 Micros, they’re great for the price (and have a small footprint too!)

Asrock Deskmini x300. Great little home server :)

You can also use hosts like linode with $100 credits to try out self hosting with no investment at all. If you need a coupon code, let me know.

Maybe stating the obvious, but don’t skip over older laptops if you can get your hands on them. Especially because the CPUs are already optimised to be power efficient. They also come with a built in UPS that even in bad cases will still be good enough for 15 minutes or so, which is good enough for 99% of the power cuts. Only down-side: lack of SATA ports, but that is more or less the same with mini-PCs.

I have a big enough house to be able to put this machine somewhere out of the way but there are plenty of cheap server gear on classifieds. I paid ish 300 euros for a 32 core machine with 40gb ram. I can host all the things without it even breaking a sweat.

Probably uses a lot more electricity, but I haven't really noticed it on my power bill

Another vote for Asrock Deskmini. I’ve had an A300 going for a while now. It started off just doing a few things on Docker, it’s now been repurposed as a Proxmox host. The nvme plus 2x 2.5” sata is very useful for storage options, and you can put some reasonable desktop CPUs in - subject to cooling, of which you can get a very low profile replacement if you need to. As there’s no video on the motherboard and no space to fit a PCIe (let alone the video card) you are restricted to CPUs with onboard video, which I think is more of a restraint for the AMD version than the intel, but even so there are enough options in the AMD lineup if you need firepower.

Originally I had planned to do what you’re doing and use a mini PC to upgrade from my pi4 eventually what I did was get a Mac Mini and keep the pi for pihole and dhcp.

Not saying you should get a Mac mini m2 but the power consumption was the main push for me to go down that route cause remember you’re running the thjng 24/7 for years and depending where you live electricity isn’t cheap. (I pay 32.5p per kWh)

Considering the cost the same as a decently mid range mini pc (i got mine for £500 new) it makes sense.

If you’re looking at a cheaper budget try finding something at least 8th gen intel and up for better power savings

I got myself a used/refurbished Lenovo ThinkCentre M910q Tiny, which works pretty well. Put in more ram and bigger storage and it is pretty beefy now as well as silent.

Intel NUC is probably the best choice - silent, possible to have two SSDs, pretty low powered.

Personally, I did settle with 13 Dell optiplexes 9020 SFF

I am running openmediavault on a HP workstation I bought off ebay. I paid less than $100 dollars for it I think 10 years ago. I have jellyfin set up for media. I should probably upgrade as it is an old Core 2 Quad.