The only way I see myself ever giving it another go is if I manage to get into my NixOS setup for easy replication or something, too much manual tweaking otherwise.
The compromise I arrived at after I migrated to Linux was booting windows off a VHD file on a USB SSD when I really need it. That way I get a portable, fully performant install without it wasting any disk space or messing with my partitions.
I'm no expert but I see no obvious red flags there, should be good to go!
My first idea was to buy one PC with two GPUs with passthrough of GPU and USB input (sitting anyway close), but I got the impression, that is at this moment more something to tinker, then to run "in production".
I'm under the same impression, I check it every few months but it looks clunky and not worth the trouble. Not something I'd like to rely on right now, that's for sure.
Said drive is a new one for media and regular everyday usage, not the existing backup drive according to the OP. Btrfs is more than stable enough barring specific RAID configurations, at any rate.
I second borg, been using it for years and it's never let me down. Granted, I haven't actually had to do disaster recovery so far, but my tests have been positive lol
Since space is a major concern, maybe have a look at borg and possibly something like borgmatic on top for easier configuration. Borg does deduplicated backups, so you could do even hourly ones if you wanted without too much extra space depending on how many you want to keep. You'd need to run a borg server wherever you want to store your backups so it's not a simple rsync over ssh situation but that's the price you pay for the extra niceties.
As a Brazilian who grew up in a not too remote area, modchipped PS2s were everywhere growing up, as it was the only realistic option to game for the vast majority. Things have shifted a bit these days, but it did use to be like that.
As a result, I don't think I've ever seen a legit PS2 game or an og Xbox/GameCube for that matter lol.
I don't suppose you're thinking of the system BlendOS uses, right? It's the closest I can think of based on your description but it doesn't seem to fit the timeframe.
Wow, I legit just ordered a used pixel yesterday to give graphene a try lol. Uncanny timing!
Anyhow, that's great news! I can really see the EU sinking its teeth into this if nothing else.