SQL people: can you recommend a SQL server for personal (amateur) use?

MSSQL and even MSSQL Express are way too heavy and complicated for my needs.

I’m looking for a database manager that is reasonably simple to use – not a huge learning curve.

Database is about 400,000 records as of June 1, 12 fields per row.

Currently stored in Excel, which is fine, but i can do better.

Any suggestions for a reasonably simple SQL setup?