![](https://lemdit.com/pictrs/image/e4523ea1-27fa-4c69-a8f5-6cf043e75ed6.png)
![](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/8286e071-7449-4413-a084-1eb5242e2cf4.png)
Have you thought of self-hosting mailcow? https://github.com/mailcow/mailcow-dockerized
It’s very easy to set up and fairly straightforward to maintain, if you have a static IP and it’s not impossible to get a PTR record then I highly recommend it. Yes you’re self hosting your own mail server but mailcow vastly simplifies this.
Alternatively plonking it on the right VPS can also work.
I have a Lenovo ThinkPad T430 that is by now almost 10 years old, it runs perfectly on Linux and is a fantastic choice even today. It’s built like a tank and that Intel i5 powering it is immortal. DDR3 RAM is dirt cheap now and it takes up to 16Gb, you can swap its HDD to a SATA SSD (if not done already) and batteries for it are still cheap and plentiful.
If you’re looking for something affordable for software dev, I can’t think of a better choice for $200-$300
https://www.lenovo.com/lt/lt/laptops/thinkpad/t-series/t430/
They really built this one right, they don’t make them like this anymore.