Self-hosting is an operations problem
In 2024 I set up a home server around a refurbished Dell OptiPlex 7050 Micro. The machine cost about $140; the SSD it came with had bad sectors, so I replaced it for roughly $35. I already had a Synology NAS with two 4 TB drives in RAID for my photo storage and backups, and a UPS to ride through the short power interruptions common where I live. I wanted more control over my files, media, passwords, and reading list. Docker made getting those services running straightforward. Deciding how much of my daily life should depend on that machine was the harder engineering question. ...