If that’s the case, my advice is to spend some time to understand the finer point of kernel configuration and compiling, and to compile a kernel as stripped down as possible. Hint : ‘dmesg’ and ‘make menuconfig’ are your friends.

Include only the drivers you know you need, and especially network, graphical card, and sound card, and make sure you target your CPU architecture. Then, and only then, can you start including fancy configurations like the ones you mentioned.

Finally, consider adding as much memory and SSDs in your configuration as possible, as these usually have a huge impact on performance.