Just about anything is OK for a server, I use whatever hardware I get from work thats being decommissioned.

The biggest limit I see is the ram. Depending on what you spin up and how, it’ll be the tightest budget per service.

Then tag with [CBH] as required.

No, but maybe its an experience thing - have to be burned enough times by not having something to want to have something?

I think a lot of projects start off just someone goofing around with an idea so no hard requirements to start. I do that when I’m learning something new but they aren’t ambitious or worth sharing.

I always start with defining requirements, and then I follow with a bunch of pseudo code. Its how I do things at work too. I like getting the ideas and structure out before I write any actual code or I get stupidly distracted.