Would you consider making the LLM/GPU monster server as a gaming desktop? Depends on how you plan to use it, you could have a beast gaming PC than can do LLM/stable diffusion stuff when not gaming. You can install loads of AI stuff on windows, arguably easier.
I’ve been using pcloud. They do one time upfront payments for ‘lifetime’ cloud storage. Catch a sale and it’s ~$160/TB. For something long term like backups it seems unbeatable. To the point I sort of don’t expect them to actually last forever, but if they last 2-3 years it’s a decent deal still.
Use rclone to upload my files, honestly not ideal though since it’s meant for file synchronisation not backups. Also they are dog slow. Downloading my 4TBs takes ~10 days.
My 10 year old ITX NAS build with 4 HDDs used 40W at idle. Just upgraded to an Aoostart WTR Pro with the same 4 HDDs, uses 28W at idle. My power bill currently averages around US$0.13/kWh.
I once had a coworker that used a mini PC instead of a laptop for work. Being lighter, and more powerful worked well for him.
My understanding is that each brand will contract out the design and manufacturing, with potentially totally different factories and people involved. So the same brand will have models that are built totally differently, in terms of quality and ethics. This happens from the cheapest no name products to big western brands. Make sure to check reviews for the specific model, and not blanket trust one brand to be ‘good’. Notebook check and robtech on youtube do mini PC reviews.
I feel you on the ethics side, and unfortunately it’s pretty difficult to ever avoid. You can try buying second hand, at least save something from landfill and get a bargain.
Consider something like the aoostar R1 with Intel N100. Small and low power like a commercial consumer NAS but cheaper and you can chuck whatever OS you want.