If I were to build a work system today, I would take the following road. I would go with a laptop with an SSD, at least an i5, an upgraded video card like nvidia instead of the video built in the CPU, and I would go with something that had decent resolution. A laptop like this one : http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebooks/vostro-15-5000/spd/vostro-15-5568-laptop/cav155w10p18s038 I'd add an external backup drive, an external keyboard, an external mouse, and I'd add 2 external flat screen monitors of around 21 inches each. Two of the reasons I moved back to Windows after running Linux Mint for 4 or 5 years was I was not able to take advantage of the screen share utilities such as Go-To-Meetings and I wanted my printer to be plug and play so I can use all it's features. At one point I was running a laptop with one external flat screen. Makes a lot of sense, since you are doing everything on one box that is also mobile. And I think moving as much as you can to the cloud is a good thing. Now this configuration is what fits my needs. What are your needs? Are you editing images or videos? Are you a developer? Or are you researching Linux, or is your research about external things? For a simple configuration I'd go with a cheap used laptop with an i3 and bottom of the line resolution, add and SSD, add Mint, add an external backup drive. I have 3 or 4 of these SSDs and they are on sale : https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820147676 I have two cheap used laptop running these. Great performance and as I recall they have a 5 year warrantee. I use one as a Linux web server for testing. The other I might use for an experiment. I'd like to load Mint on it and see how far I can push the cloud. I'd like to do everything external, using mostly free stuff. I do some video editing so I may need a little more power. On 2018-05-21 19:30, mike enriquez wrote: > I am planing to build a Linux computer.  I have Ubuntu 16.0 on an old > Dell XPS. I will be using it as my research computer.   So "I will be > going where where others do not dare to go."  I want a VPN on it > because I have not been able to install a VPN on the computer I now > have. I want a 64bit OS. > > I know that most people say to use and old computer to run Linux.  I > need ideas on Hardware to avoid and use.  What would you do if you had > to build your own Linux computer from scratch? > > Thanks for your input. > > Mike Enriquez > > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss