If you really need to use windows, but don’t like 11, you can use the LTSC version, which also has less bloat and (IIRC) is supposed to keep getting updates until 2035. It can be downloaded and activated here.

To add, ProtonDB usually has the user’s specs next to their reports, so you can try to find reports with similar specs to your computer.

but that will use up a lot of your disk space

About how much? I’ve got 128gb ssd in my “server” (ThinkPad X260).

Any other helpful Lemmy self hosting tips are also welcome.