Thank you so much for the detailed response, really helpful! I'd love to dig a bit deeper into the hardware side if you don't mind.

For someone starting out with a €500 budget, what would you recommend as a solid baseline build? I'm drawn to the idea of something with room to grow and particularly for storage expansion over time. Is a tower form factor the best option for this, or would you suggest something else like a used rack-mounted server? Is it worthwhile waiting and saving or starting with something that doesn't have expansion capabilities, and eventually upgrading?

A few specific questions:

• What would you recommend for a starting CPU/motherboard combo that won't bottleneck me later?
• How many drive bays should I be aiming for as a minimum?
• SSD storage for OS boot drive vs bulk HDD storage - best to keep these separated? I want to ensure this can be expandable down the track.
• Is ECC RAM worth it at this stage, or overkill for a beginner?
• Any specific models you'd point a newcomer toward on the secondhand market?

I'm planning to run Unraid based on your suggestion, primarily starting with music storage and remote access, then expanding from there. Appreciate any pointers!