Josh,

Thanks for the info. I did not realize that the costs were so low for an SSD.  I think I will get settled first and then pick one up!

...I don't know if windows 10 is pre installed on this, or if it comes with an installation cd as I have not opened it yet (won't be home till tonight).  I hope that I can just install Ubuntu with having to "register" or install windows on the computer.  I'll try to launch the usb flash drive as a live os first to see how it runs, etc



From: joshua.gage.stone@gmail.com <joshua.gage.stone@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, September 18, 2020 11:11 AM
To: Worcester Linux Users' Group General Discussion <wlug@lists.wlug.org>; wlug@mail.wlug.org <wlug@mail.wlug.org>
Cc: THE HAMMER <hammerron@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [WLUG] desktop advice update
 
Hey Ron,

That machine looks like a great starting point -- the 6C/12T i5-10400 should be excellent for productivity workloads, and having all of the parts already assembled into a pre-built system saves a lot of hassle.

You're unlikely to ever have to worry about UEFI (Secure Boot specifically) on this particular machine since you picked a configuration without Nvidia graphics, and most of the popular distributions have their own signed kernel modules for full UEFI support. This machine is even certified to run Ubuntu 18.04:

https://topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/inspiron-3880-desktop_users-guide_en-us.pdf#_OPENTOPIC_TOC_PROCESSING_d106e2637

More documentation can be found here:

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/inspiron-3880-desktop/docs

I think the one recommendation I would make is to install an SSD, because I guarantee that it'll make this machine *fly*. Almost everything will be accelerated, even common applications like file browsers and web browsers will load faster. A CPU and GPU will spend more time waiting than actually executing tasks if copying data into memory take seconds to complete instead of milliseconds.

An M.2 SSD should be an excellent investment and will be very easy to install:

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/internal-hard-drive/#i=85&sort=-rating&page=1

I hope that helps!

Josh




On Fri, 2020-09-18 at 14:18 +0000, THE HAMMER via WLUG wrote:
First off, thanks to everyone for the great advice.  It's rather a long story for another day, but I wound up picking up this model:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/dell-inspiron-3000-desktop-intel-core-i5-10400-8gb-memory-1tb-hdd-ethernet-wifi-bluetooth-keyboard-and-mouse-black/6416004.p?skuId=6416004


There are way bigger and badder machines out there, this one should still has way more to offer that what is replacing.

I have experience distro hopping and before had no worries about installing a linux distro on a pc, but they have always been older machines.  I presume that the one will have uefi which is something I have never worked with.  I am a bit apprehensive and hope I can figure it all out without major problems.  I hope to get this all up and running tonight or over the weekend.

Ron
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