+1 from me.
The Shield is a couple years old, but it handles everything you throw at it perfectly.
- get SmartTubeNext to watch YouTube without ads, and it comes with SponsorBlock
- use Flauncher for a home screen / launcher without any ads
- Jellyfin, obviously
- Steamlink also works perfectly
- plus, the remote is amazing (though I would recommend to either disable or rebind the Netflix button)
I'm slightly younger than that even, currently finishing up my master's but have been working as a backend dev for a couple of years.
I've learned an order of magnitude more about networking from just being in the vicinity of my girlfriend (who is a network technician) than from uni, and it's definitely already paying off.