using my backup computer

till i fix my main computer i'm using my experimental, sacrificial, linux distro test box. in some ways it works better than my main machine. i bought it used for the purpose of testing linux distros but i put mandriva 2007.1 on it and it runs so well i didn't have the desire to wipe it and test any more distros. it just didn't make sense. so now i need to buy another test box. this is a dell optiplex gx260 w/ 512 ram, 80 gb hdd, ati video.
i do prefer using my hp pavilion. it has 1gb ram, 2 x 500 gb hdd, nvidia fx5200 video. i have spent a little money on the ram and hard drive upgrades so it's worth fixing, imho.
good used machines are a dime a dozen and they run linux very well. since i can't buy a new machine that isn't infected with a microsoft operating system i'll just keep using old machines that i have wiped all traces of microsoft from. linux rocks, microsoft sucks.