You can set this stuff up on cheap hardware. I know there is mixed opinions on using raspberry pi and I’m not a fan.

I bought a cheap mini desktop that runs Bitcoin core. I messed around with it to also set up vanilla LND as well. The hardware was under $150 + larger hard drive. Threw on Linux and I am good to go.

I use my pi for interesting projects and while my use case is on the higher end of the technical scale it’s probably worth it for some of these other out of the box nodes (umbrel, start9, etc).