Creating my new Home Server

Back in March of 2025, I cobbled together a makeshift home server using a very old laptop. Despite its age, I managed to configure it to handle media streaming via Jellyfin, provide file storage, and allow shared network access. It worked — briefly. But the laptop quickly became unreliable. The battery was in terrible shape, and it overheated often enough to feel like it might melt through my desk.

Since then, I’ve been on the hunt for a better piece of hardware to serve as the backbone of my home lab. I explored everything from used laptops to old desktops — even toyed with the idea of using a Raspberry Pi.

Fast forward to this past week: I scored two great deals. For just $130, I picked up an old PC with 2TB of storage. Then, for $110, I added a Raspberry Pi 4 to my toolkit — in excellent condition, no less. Honestly, both were solid steals.

I started experimenting with the Raspberry Pi first — not as a home server, but as a retro gaming emulator. Meanwhile, the old PC is slated for heavier duties: media streaming, file hosting, shared access, virtual machines, and whatever else I dream up along the way. I can’t help but get excited thinking about the possibilities. The fleet is expanding.