It's not normal for a computer to be using 99% CPU with background tasks only. I'd format and reisntall windows. If that doesn't work, there's a chance there's a rootkit infection. In that case, the laptop is a no-go for anything.
In any case, as others have pointed out, I don't see a lot of benefit of hanging with this laptop if you already have other computers. Unless you want to retire those devices and use the laptop only?
DO have more managed services, though. So it's a balance between convenience and raw price. I'd say that for somebody starting solo, DO (and other PaaS) might be worth the premium
Sometimes it’s better to pay somebody to solve a problem for you. It’s a bit expensive, but your main DB failing is way more expensive. Once you have 5k daily users, hopefully you will have some revenue to make you worry about other problems.
In general, infra costs are the least of your concerns while growing revenue.
Wouldn’t we all be very pleased with 5k daily users? Lol
You will be fine. Any VPS/cloud will work for the database don’t forget your backups. In fact, this is where you should invest a bit more and have a managed database solution, so you can scale up if needed, unless you are very savvy with db administration
Airtable, notion, or any of the open source clones. Personally I don’t like any of the popular clones, but I’m picky.
I suppose wildcard DNS would not work for you?
I have a *.svr.domain.tld on Google Domains (need to transfer somewhere else), and then on Caddyfile I can register individual foo.svr.domain.tld without touching DNS
I have vscode but on my os and then connect via the remote extension. Works well.
For docker, I’d rather go with VM if you want isolation from one project to another. They are easier to snapshot and easier to reason around for development in my opinion
If you don’t feel slowed down, I wouldn’t change a thing honestly. At most consider cabling your media devices instead of streaming over Wi-Fi.
2.5g works on cat5e for reasonable distance. I’d be surprised if anybody today would have something slower.
It's fine to have high CPU usage when something is actually running. I meant that it's not normal to have background tasks (open programs that aren't actively being used) consistently consuming too much CPU. 0~5% would be healthy. Maybe even 10%. Most definitely not 75%+.