I have a Dell Optiplex 170L I'm using now running Xubuntu. It's okay but it's getting a little sluggish. I'm attaching the RAM printout.

Somebody gave me an LG computer that's much newer. But it's been cloned from another Dell Optiplex 170L so that's what the spec says. Anyway, here's what it says:
Dell Optiplex 170L
AMD A6-3500 APU with Radeon (tm) HD Graphics
2.09 GHz, 3.25 GB RAM

Hardrive is 74GB. Which is more than double my 36GB now.

But I noticed (see 009 attachment) my old computer has a faster processor (2.80 Ghz).

This new one has XP on it. So I'd probably single boot Xubuntu to it. (Or could it handle a bigger distro?)

I have another identical computer (to my old one) that I added a half GB RAM to and it helped. I could do the same to this one.

Or use the new one.

I am a true newbie and not up for the switch, but if it would be worth it I would. Think I should?

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Use them both and compare the results.

You can then pick one for day-to-day use and use the other for distro-hopping or maybe add a nice USB external drive to it and use it as a simple file server for storage or back up.

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If you haven't already. Set one of them up as a server with samba. Possibly buy another HDD (or 2) to allow a little extra storage.

[EDIT] sorry, I read the rest of frankbell's post and realise I was simply duplicating that

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The AMD A6-3500 is a fairly new CPU with 3 CPU cores. Even with its lower clockspeed, due to its more efficient architecture, faster RAM, ..., the new system is by far more powerful than that old Dell Optiplex.
In fact, with your new system you can run any distribution with any DE you want, it is powerfull enough for all of them.

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Your video card will take some of that main memory - but you can try any of the various light-weight distros (as live CD-type boots).
Dual boot (keeping XP) could almost certainly be done - if you really need it.

On the hardware improvement front, adding a cheapish video card will release memory and allow you to use a widescreen monitor.

I have a netbook with a similar spec (but only dual core), but a 500GB disk which dual boots Windows 7 and Mint 17 (Cinnamon).
It has a long boot time, it works like Ubuntu (but improved).

Why install Samba - unless you are networking with Windows machines?

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Gregg Bell,

The old Intel Pentium 4 (2.80GHz) CPU is benchmarked at 328, whereas the newer AMD A6-3500 is 2022.

It is just no contest.

Install Xubuntu, or whatever Linux you like, on the AMD machine, preferably without Windows.

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Maybe try the new machine in a live session before actually installing. This will also help to find out if the hardware is working as expected. E.g. you'll see if the graphics card plays nice with Linux etc...

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Thanks Frank. Wow, am I glad I asked this. Good suggestion about using them both. And I thought about using the old one for storage but it's only 36 GB. Maybe I could use it for backup but that's going to be another thread if I do it.

Thanks timl. Don't think I'll need Samba (not that I know that much about it. I don't) because I'm going to be getting rid of the XP.

Wow! How exciting to think I could get any distro! I thought maybe the new one was going to be a touch better than the old. So exciting. Thanks.

Thanks Jeremy. I'm getting rid of XP and single booting. But someone said I could use any distro. Are you saying I'll have to go with one of the light-weight ones?

And I don't need a widescreen monitor right now, but it's good to know I have the option.

Thanks beachboy. Yeah, no Windows. It's XP anyway. And there's nothing I need on it.

Thanks joe. Not absolutely sure what you mean by trying the new machine in a live session 'before actually installing'? Installing the distro? The way I see it I'm going to install the distro no matter what. The new computer as is has no value to me. But I suppose it will be wise to hang on to the old one and make sure the new one works effectively before altering the old one.

You can boot most distros to run direct from CD or DVD or USB.
They won't touch your disk (unless you ask them to).

Obviously it will run much slower than a proper install to disk.

If you like it, then there is an install to disk icon.

I'd suggest trying a mixture of large and small distros to see whether you prefer speed to eye candy.
My suggestion would be one of Mint, Debian or one of the `Buntu's.

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Thanks!