There is IMHO no reason any more to take Ubuntu over regular Debian. It used to be more user-friendly, but Debian has caught up in that regard and Ubuntu just added the questionable benefit of snaps in the mean-time.

If you want something NAS like with minimal configuration hassle you could try: https://www.openmediavault.org/ (Debian based).

You seem on top of everything. No red flags when I look at what you are considering. Any will do great.

The Topnton i3-n305 Mini PC is a good choice. Intel NUC is another solid option, especially when used with a RAID enclosure for storage. Remember cooling is crucial for these devices, particularly if they’ll be housed in a small space. The importance of a good cooling solution cannot be overemphasized.

As for the operating system, Ubuntu is user-friendly and well-supported. You can run your desired applications like Plex or Jellyfin for media serving, qBittorrent, Sonarr, Radarr for torrenting, Wireguard for VPN, AdGuard or PiHole for ad-blocking, and Home Assistant for home automation, all on Linux. For managing these services, consider using Docker. It can help keep your system organized and simplify the process of updating. If you’re currently using them in a nas, you’re probably doing so already. But take the opportunity to clean things up, and if you’re not doing so already, use docker compose.

Foe backups, rsync can be used for local backups and Rclone for backing up to the cloud.

I’m doing basically all the things you’ve just listed using a Dell Precision Tower 3620 you don’t necessarily need new hardware for it and could save quite a lot if there are used workstations in your area.

For software I’m using esxi with truenas core virtualized and photonos as my docker host with everything managed through portainer. I would not suggest using esxi unless you want to learn about it, I wish I’d gone with Proxmox at the start.

Im running all of that and even more on DIY PC (intel g3930, 8GB ram and no gpu). Quick sync makes it perfect for media server, but other than that its overkill. Raspberry pi 4 can run all of that as well, but it cant transcode, so only direct play. I don’t recommend rpi, just wanted to point out how powerful components you need. Keep in mind I’m still new in selfhosting, but I went for Debian, running OMV and pihole bare metal, then everything else in docker containers. I’m managing containers with portainer (also docker container). Spent loads of time learning and building it, but its deffo worth it.

Proxmox for the OS. I would look at used hardware if you want the most bang for buck

A little late, but saw this and thought I’d chime in… be interested to know if you made a choice

You have a couple of opposing points here… For anything “media”, and “photos”, I suspect you’ll want long-term, slow, bulk storage - so consider what you’re going to need.

The n305 mini PCs looks great for a small, cool, firewall or small VM host (I’m considering getting one, hence searched and found this thread) - but you’re not going to have lots of bulk storage connected to it.

I have the Node304 case with an ASRockRack Mini-ITX mobo for a NAS and it’s a great case, nice mobo, plus plenty of space for drives and space for cooling (I like the large fan mod on that video!) - so - IMHO - I’d recommend this route…

The Node304 also fits into Ikea Kallax shelving BTW 😉

As for OS… stability… you don’t want something that’s going to break every week. So, I would go with Debian… if you want a better all-in-one solution, I can recommend OpenMediaVault… I used it for years before creating my own from scratch. The reason I did that was that some OMV plugins were getting too complicated for my own personal use.