So, your Plex server is starting to feel a little… cramped.

I get it. Maybe you started with a spare PC you had lying around, like an old office machine or a tiny, low-power box. At first, it was perfect. It streamed your shows, played your music, and didn’t make a fuss. But now? Now you’re running out of space. You’re tired of juggling a bunch of external USB drives, and you’re starting to dream of something a bit more robust.

If that sounds familiar, you’re in the right place. Let’s talk about leveling up your home media server without breaking the bank.

The Appeal of the Used Workstation

You’ve probably noticed that your old setup, while power-efficient, doesn’t leave much room to grow. A small Celeron-powered PC is great for getting started, but it hits a wall pretty fast. You can’t add more hard drives internally, and you’re stuck with a mess of cables from all those external drives.

This is where used enterprise gear comes in. Specifically, workstations like the HP Z420 or similar models from Dell or Lenovo. These machines were absolute powerhouses in their day, built for serious professional work like CAD or video editing. Now, you can often find them on the second-hand market for a surprisingly low price—sometimes just over 100 bucks.

Why are they such a good deal?

• Room to Grow: Unlike a tiny PC, these towers have space. Lots of it. They come with multiple hard drive bays, meaning you can finally bring all your storage inside one neat case.
• Serious Power (for the Price): They often pack powerful Intel Xeon processors. While a bit older, these CPUs can handle multiple Plex streams, and even transcoding, far better than a low-power Celeron.
• Upgradability: They have proper PCIe slots. This means you can add things like a faster network card, a GPU for hardware transcoding if you need it, or a dedicated RAID controller card to manage your drives.

It’s the perfect middle-ground. You get way more power and flexibility than a Raspberry Pi or a basic desktop, but for a fraction of the cost of a brand-new, dedicated NAS (Network Attached Storage).

But What About Power Consumption?

This is the big question, and it’s a smart one to ask. Your tiny server barely sips electricity, and it’s easy to get spoiled by that. A big, powerful workstation will, without a doubt, use more power.

There’s no getting around it. A Xeon processor and multiple spinning hard drives will draw more watts than a Celeron and a single USB drive. But you have to weigh the trade-offs. You’re not just paying for electricity; you’re paying for capability. The ability to store all your media in one place, to stream to multiple devices at once, and to have a system that can grow with your library.

Think of it this way: the extra cost in power is what buys you the upgrade. For many, having a reliable, all-in-one server that just works is worth a few extra dollars on the monthly energy bill.

Thinking Ahead: TrueNAS and the All-in-One Server

The real beauty of moving to a bigger machine is the software possibilities it unlocks. With multiple drive bays, you can start thinking about running something like TrueNAS.

TrueNAS is an operating system built specifically for turning a computer into a NAS. It lets you pool your hard drives together into a single, massive storage volume with built-in protection against drive failure. You can run Plex directly on TrueNAS, creating a truly integrated media server and storage solution.

This is the end goal for many home server enthusiasts. One box that handles everything:

• Storing all your files safely.
• Running your Plex Media Server.
• Potentially even hosting other services, like a backup server for your family’s computers.

A used workstation like the Z420 is a fantastic starting point for this journey. You can start with a couple of drives and add more as your budget and library grow. You get the space, the power, and the flexibility to build something truly your own.

So, is it the right move? If you’re tired of the limitations of your current setup and want a clear upgrade path, then yes. A budget-friendly used workstation is one of the best bangs for your buck in the home server world. It’s the perfect way to build a serious Plex setup without a serious price tag.