A couple of weeks ago I spat the dummy with windows and shifted to Linux. I think I am now ready to drink the coolaid.

What I have available currently is an ISP router and a decade-old gaming PC with a failing hdd that used to host games. I also have some budget to spare so that I can set things up nicely or in a way that I can add on it in the future.

Here are my goals are in order:

1. Proper onsite and maybe offsite backups - my migration to Linux illustrated gaps and I expect in the future I will run VMs that should be backed up
2. Home security cameras (Which I don’t own yet)
3. Replacing something like onedrive. I expect this will be NextCloud
4. Yarr. Sonarr/radarr/jellyfin
5. Hosting game servers
6. Block adverts and maintaining privacy
7. Improve the latency of my steam link to my TV via chromecast
8. Hosting webscraping and analysis of data off some local websites
9. Maybe set up some some smart home automation things
10. I’d like to get solar power and monitor how the whole setup is doing.
11. Self host my bit warden
12. I dunno, backup Wikipedia or something. Give me ideas

So where would you recommend I start off with hardware? Simply replace the old pc hdd or look to having a NAS? A better router to handle VLAN? Go all in with Ubiquiti products which I have heard mixed things about? About the only thing I know is that a UPS would be a waste for an aspiring enthusiast like myself.

Any advice or pointing me at wikis or other resources would be greatly appreciated.