Servers are just really big computers. I started off with a Chinese Raspberry Pi clone, then upgraded to an old mac mini + mini pc + a cheap cloud server (VPS). As you can see, you can turn any old computer into a server.

The cloud is expensive but reliable. Having your own server is cheap but it will go offline with every network fault or brownout. If you’re serious about self hosting I suggest buying a UPS.

Whatever computer you decide to use as a server, make sure it is quiet. When I first started, I tried to use an old 2010 aah workstation as a server, but the fans were so loud I couldn’t sleep, it was driving me crazy.

It did you dirty with this one lol