When I still had a static IP I used my oldest laptop as a home server. While its battery life was abysmal and it needed to stay plugged in, it was a sort of poor man’s surge protection, and also a micro blackout (which we have several times a year usually during storms) protection.

I stuck a 1TB hard drive in it, but RAM and CPU were as good as you’d expect from a 2008 model.

I think people vastly overestimate the resources needed to serve a website, even when it serves media.

PS: I once borrowed a Watt meter to measure consumption, and it was almost the same as a raspberry pi with a spinning hd attached. Not much.