When did you last try QT/Core? They've made some fantastic improvements over the past few releases that have drastically improved syncing time and reduced resource requirements. My node/wallet synced in several hours last time around, rather than over a day a couple years ago. With pruning, you can also lower your storage requirements. You can also throttle upload bandwidth if that's an issue. I suggest trying it out again! Electrum is cool, but there's nothing like the security of running your own full node.