You can get a USB IR receiver and use software like LIRC to map the inputs of basically any remote you have. Setting it up takes a little effort, but it works great when it’s done.

For a NAS, you’re usually concerned with capacity first. And you can’t buy a 20TB m2.

A Zero would probably be way underpowered for the job. I’ve used a Pi 4 in the past and it worked ok, but choked occasionally.

My actual recommendation would be a small x86 box, something like a Lenovo Thinkcentre Tiny. You can get them used for about the price of a Pi, and they’ll be much more reliable.

I’ve had a lot more luck running it in Docker with gluetun, along with qbittorrent in Docker. That way you can bind the whole qbit container to the VPN, which is basically bulletproof. All config options are available as Docker commands, you just need to use Proton’s website to check the server list and pick your favorite p2p-enabled server.

It does take a little fiddling, but it’s solid once you get it running. Port forwarding works too, once you figure out how to enable it.

These Win10 EoLs are going to flood eBay at dirt cheap prices, and they make great server/project boxes. They’re going to be new toys for the hobbyist crowd, not primary machines.

On the bright side, 20TB of hard drives is relatively cheap these days if you buy used. They’ll pay for themselves in a year if you kill the streaming services.

Happy sailing