Old think pads can be had for dirt cheap on eBay, you’ve essentially got a little server you can hide anywhere, you don’t have the keep the lid open (disable sleep on lid close, you can hide it wherever you want now) , ANDmost importantly it has it’s own little integrated UPS :)
For the love of god and all that is holy just use mint cinnamon it’s the easies most stable with little learning curve ever. High performance great for work gaming browsing whatever lol. If you can use windows 7/10 you can use mint cinnamon