I'm thinking of a 5-10 mini-PC cluster at home with fiber internet.
- email server together with ad-block DNS server
- NAS with up to 10T storage with RAID5, and media server(movies, music, ebooks, etc.) and NextCloud
- LN+BTC node
- LN+BTC backup and vault(replica)
- SmartHome monitor and defense system(security, etc.)
- Game desktop and/or SteamDeck
Since each of them won't exceed $200, the total is under $2000 with erecting up a full-fledged lab. Anything else to suggest?
NAS could be the email server too. Is a good plan.
It depends on the amount of BTC you plan to lock up to your lightning node. Specifically, for non-trivial amounts, you want / need an off-site backup for your node's database.
The setup you described here is still vulnerable to things such as fire, theft and seizure.
just use a normal PC and a NAS