5 port unmanaged switch for $9.99

https://www.amazon.com/Tenda-Gigabit-Ethernet-Desktop-SG105/dp/B01K1JUE1E/ref=mp_s_a_1_15?

I only lost $100 last weekend. I realized recently that the NVMe that I thought was in my server was actually a 2.5” SSD. Not sure how I forgot about that…. Then I upped my Ram from 16 to 32 (maxed out) to allow room for additional VMs.

Your server build lacks storage or power supply.

Your general use lacks storage. I would also recommend adjusting to i5/16GB for general use. If you end up gaming then you could have an excuse to bump it to 32GB along with of course a video card.

Use Proxmox as your hypervisor then you can run as many and how many different types operating system you want on top of it all at the same time.

UDM-PRO, USW-Aggregation, USW-Enterprise-24-POE, U6-LR… build a server with i5/32GB NVMe boot drive, then some RAID drives… I took out a loan in this scenario as $1,000 wouldn’t cover my entire rack getting blown up.

What a blast from the past! I still have my 74GB floating around somewhere.

I doubt you would notice much a performance hit if any. What you’re losing out on is reliability. You playing games and downloading/executing stuff causes extra processes to run that normally wouldn’t on a server. The more processes running the more chances for a glitch in the matrix to crash the machine. You could also do an update that breaks compatibility with other programs (not so much an issue with Docker). The biggest point of a dedicated sever at home is the fact that you set it then don’t fuck with it - This leads to higher reliability.

My services all serve a purpose.

I host a portfolio website. It gets me exposure even though I’m not actively seeking other employment.

My wife runs her own travel agency so her website is also required.

Pihole is used daily to block ads on our network.

Wireguard is on our mobile devices (phones, laptops) so we always have a secure connection on untrusted wifi, ad blocking, access to our documents that live on our file server. I’m at MCO right now waiting for a flight with full confidence that my connection is secure.

Nginx proxy manager to route the website traffic.

Rclone is used to regularly backup the file server that holds our documents.

Minecraft server because happy toddler = happy life.

I used to selfhost bitwarden (vaultwarden) but changed to paying $10/yr to relieve myself of the added stress that it brought for security/backups.