Power consumption is the main issue. If it’s an old, power hungry desktop and you live somewhere with expensive electricity, it can be quite costly to run. If you have an energy efficient desktop or have cheap power then it will be fine. Just make sure it has a good quality power supply if it’s going to run 24/7.
I always shoot in raw+jpeg with the jpeg quality set to 100%. The raw files have a higher dynamic range and there is little or no processing done to them. The files are large, but storage space is cheap these days. The jpeg files are for convenience and if I don’t like the way they come out, I can process the raw file however I want and export it to whatever format is most suitable for what I’m using it for.
You can get small project enclosures to put them in. Some PVC pipe and end caps could also work.
I would probably just use some good quality, adhesive heat shrink if they are out of the way though.
I got a used 8 port card from ebay for about $20 a few years ago. I had to flash different firmware to it using a DOS boot disk to disable raid though. It’s an obsolete card, but it’s been working fine in my NAS.
The temperature is set too low. The solder should melt almost instantly when applied to the tip if the iron is set to 350°C.
Those fine point conical tips that typically come with soldering irons are terrible. Get a 2-3mm chisel tip, that will be suitable for most soldering jobs.
A dedicated GPU will mean reduced battery life. If you are only going to edit video at your desk, I would suggest getting a laptop with a thunderbolt 3 or USB 4 port and an external GPU. Make sure the port provides 4 PCIe lanes, not all of them do.
I’ve gotten both of my thinkpads used, so none of that money went to Lenovo or Microsoft. The laptops that come with Linux are expensive and are rarely available used.
I have a T480 and the battery will last me 2 days on a charge for my typical use. Since it has two batteries, I can swap the external one without having to plug in or shut down. There are lots of parts available and you can find used or refurbished laptops at a reasonable price.
The downside with the T480 is a lack of PCIe lanes. The thunderbolt only has 2 lanes, which is not so good for an external GPU. The NVMe SSD is also only 2 lanes, but I still get around 1.5GB/s, which is plenty fast for me.
Since the remote control signals are short and low duty cycle, you could use a capacitor to provide the peak current for the LED without going over the maximum current of the power supply.
I would just use a MOSFET and resistor to drive the LED if you are only using it in short bursts.
If you want to drive the MOSFET directly from the microcontroller pin, it will need a series resistor to limit the current since the gate has quite a bit of capacitance. If your microcontroller pins can handle 15-20mA, it will be able to switch an AO3400A fast enough without needing a gate driver.