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Good alternative is getting used Chromeboxes or Intel NUCs on eBay for $30-ish each.

Yeah and even an outdated atom box with a decent SSD way outperforms a pi when running something like Home Assistant. While using about the same power (5W or so).

It's a much better option if you don't need the GPIOs that the pi offers (I do so I do use one, but with an SSD over USB)

What are good models to search for? I think my rpi or SD card just bit the dust, so looking for a new mini home server.

Take a look at https://mrchromebox.tech, particularly the "Supported Devices" page for models that can be upgraded to a firmware allowing the install of other OSes. Chromeboxes and Chromebooks by default prevent the user from installing and running anything except ChromeOS, which is a lot less powerful than Linux and others, but thankfully that limitation can be worked around. I've repurposed a good number of them, mainly Asus and HP ones, by following the instructions at that site, and never encountered any problems.

I also have all my Raspberries collecting dust after I swapped the last working one running Kodi with a Asus CN62 Chromebox: the performance difference is huge.

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