Intel NUC is the standard option for something powerful enough to run as a proper home server long-term.

Personally after owning many (I still run two) I've moved to the Asus Mini PC because there's a config with an AMD Ryzen. Much better performance than Intel and cheaper too.

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I’ve seen the NUC a lot when looking, but have seen the Asus mini. I got my hands on refurbed Lenovo ThinkCenter mini that might do the trick, but it only had 256g SSD so I’d have to buy a 1-2TB external for it.

The Lenovo should do it for sure. I looked at those myself but wanted something smaller. You should be able to upgrade the internal SSD and RAM in those machines, much cheaper (and faster, and just a cleaner setup) vs external.

Priceless

Got a used NUC i3 off of eBay ($65), transitioned my PI to it, and working like a charm

$65 is an absolute steal mate can't argue with that!

I used to run a little side hustle buying cheap NUCs, fitting 250GB SSD and 8GB RAM, installing Windows with one of those $5 license keys off eBay, and flipping for an easy $100-150 profit per unit.