I had also previously seen some articles about people repurposing IKEA “LACK” end tables into makeshift server racks, since they happen to be the exact right size for holding rackmount equipment. Synology DiskStation devices listing on Amazon

However, I balked at the prices of these, which runs upwards of $500 on Amazon, and that’s before you purchase hard drives to put in the thing, and they would be useless without them. I had seen quite a few people who I follow on Twitter talking about getting Synology DiskStation devices, which can be used as Plex servers. It's like your own personal Netflix, but of media you actually own. I was also just storing all my video files on my main PC, which I use for work and software development, which required that my PC was always-on, not rebooting or installing a Windows Insider build, not joined to a VPN or anything like that, or else anyone in my house watching a video via Plex would suddenly lose their stream. The Roku Media Player app, whose UI leaves a lot to be desired. Previously, I had been relying on my Roku player’s built-in Media Player app to play video files stored on a network share on my PC, which it was a pain to navigate.

Last year, I invested in a Plex Premium lifetime subscription, and I really like it.

Building a plex media server