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Have you looked into a TrueNAS Scale? It is designed to be treated more like an appliance than a tinkering file system. Besides NAS capabilities, it also allows running Kubernetes as "apps" on it, including the *arr ones.
P.S.: If you take a shot at it, stay out of Truecharts. They might be tempting and look amazing but their update stability and communications are not that great.
This is the perfect machine to play around with linux on. If you’re going to toss the computer anyway, you have zero stakes to learn a new OS.
I’d use Windows’ Media Creation Tool to make Windows installation media. If your linux journey doesn’t work out or you get bored, you can slap a factory Windows image on it and sell it on eBay or Facebook Marketplace. You can probably get $100-120 for it, maybe more.
I think what you're looking for is YunoHost. Install linux on your computer, then install yunohost and you'll get a web interface to install all the services you like: nextcloud, invidious, matrix, cryptpad, airsonic, etc.
IMO, it's the easiest way to get started with hosting stuff without knowing anything about docker, apache/nginx, php, or whatever. Their guide is quite readable and you seem technically affine, so you should be OK 👍
I still have my i7-6700k. Play around with multibooting, for sure. I can't upgrade hackintosh past wherever but it's still fun to have. I use clover bootloader. Usually end up in win10 most of the time but whenever I power on, i always have the option of win10, osx, and Ubuntu. Fun shit.
Go for it!
I set up a home server for my family so long ago the first version still had a SCSI drive(!) and I've never regretted it.
Our server does a little bit of everything now, from hosting media to ad-blocking DNS (PiHole ftw!).
These days, setting up Linux is easier than ever. There are lots of newb-friendly Linux versions (distros) out there. Everything from Mac/Windows Desktop clones to purpose-built, CLI-only server images.
It's a seemingly vast landscape, but most distros are based on one of three common parents:
Debian - Possibly the most popular base distro. Ubuntu (and many more distros) are based on it. Pure Debian tends to upgrade slowly, making it stable, but often semi out of date. Most of its descendants are some version of "Debian, but with newer stuff".
RedHat - Feels a little less popular than it used to, but still not uncommon. RedHat seems to be most popular with "enterprise-y" / security focused distros.
Arch - a semi-newcomer, Arch embodies the DIY ethos of Linux, by providing almost nothing by default... Besides an amazingly helpful manual that will teach you how to configure your personal system to your needs. Start from scratch and build a system tuned for gaming, web hosting, file serving, or whatever else you might desire. If computers were cars, this is the distro the "Hot-rod guys" would be using. Children of Arch are wildly divergent. Some are still very DIY-focused, while others have already been preconfigured by the distro maintainer. Notably, the Steam Deck is running a preconfigured Arch variant.
Downstream distros from these three can often be managed using the same tools as their parent, so if you know you're using, say, a Debian-based distro, instructions for most any other Debian-based distro should work for you too. (Though not always! Distros can and do choose different install paths, or library versions or other variances that can cause headaches. This is a Rule of Thumb.)
Anyway, once you know the parentage of a distro, it becomes easier to evaluate (and to debug should the need arise).
Personally, I lean toward Debian distros, because I've been running various Debian-children since the early 2000s. But it all depends on what works for you and what you're looking for!
Good luck, and have fun!