I have a Beelink n100 device running linux. These lil beelinks are great devices. They can be picked up for ~$140. Then i just keep a look out for cheap 10+tb datacenter drives. For example, I snagged a 12tb one for $75 the other day. Toss those into my raid array.

I self host plex, web servers, samba, etc. Right now I have ~100tb of space. I even self-host a great google images alternative called Immich.

I use a private torrent tracker and usenet to acquire most of my media. I do those because they're just so easy. It's pretty rare I can't find something within a minute or two.

If there is a legal way of obtaining a real copy of media I'll usually do that. Most of my music library is legal, purchased directly from artists, bandcamp or soundcloud.

I also have 2gb fiber internet which is helpful in all this. I wouldn't be able to get away with some of the stuff without the upload bandwidth of fiber.