This is where I go. It’s ridiculously expensive right now, though. I just paid nearly 2k USD for three large capacity drives for our local UnRaid box.

Oooof, yeah that would suck.

It’s just another attack surface. Threat tolerance is up to each person.

Oh, 100%. I was just trying to sum up the feelings in here.

Yes, and if that falls within your risk tolerance it’s rather easy to set up.

Most of the people in the discussion here don’t want to open a port to the internet.

Have fun! It’s a great hobby.

Idk if you ever wander over to Reddit, but there’s a poster in /r/homelabsales selling 7 Dell mini PC systems right now.

I love it. The savings are real and can be immense.

Dude same. Back in the day I was dead set on getting older blades and a couple Dell 710 in a rack and “that’s what a real homelab is.”

Now, I still got the rack because I think they look cool, but it’s all decommissioned workstations, a white box unRaid server, and micro/mini PCs; there’s not a single traditional server box in place.

Used micro PC is often the best deal. Companies offload old SFF i5 and lower machines all the time. They’re all over eBay.

Usenet access and domain registration are my only costs. Under $150 all in annually.