@OP... Let's start from the beginning...
You know that, to connect electrum to your own node, you need 3 things:
- A running bitcoin node (for example, bitcoin core... Requiring about 0.5 Tb of diskspace and a hell of a lot of computing power to sync)
- A running electrum server as a sort of "bridge" between your running node and the electrum client
- An electrum client
Whilst everybody else has been focused on the electrum server, i don't see any evidence you're actually running a full node to begin with.
Could you verify this first step: "are you running a full node"?
If you are unable or unwilling to run your own node (which is certainly possible), and you still want privacy, it's best to just connect your electrum client to trusted electrum nodes over tor (just my opinion)...
Agree except for it's not a hell of a lot of computing power a 4th gen i5 with 8gb RAM and a 1TB spinning drive is more then enough.
If it's not a public node, and only 1 person or a few people are hitting it a configuration like that will let you do core & electrum server & LN with no issues.
Biggest bottleneck would be the drive or bandwidth depending on your internet connection. Could probably still go from bare to fully synced in under 5 days.
And depending on where you live refurbished machines with those or better specifications are under $150
-Dave