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#... More documentation can be found here: https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/inspiron-388... 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-...
Dell Inspiron 3000 Desktop Intel Core i5-10400 8GB Memory 1TB HDD Ethernet WiFi Bluetooth keyboard and mouse Black i3880-5920BLK-PUS - Best Buy
Shop Dell Inspiron 3000 Desktop Intel Core i5-10400 8GB Memory 1TB HDD Ethernet WiFi Bluetooth keyboard and mouse Black at Best Buy. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or in-store pick-up. Price Match Guarantee.
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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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