Arch on desktop and personal server. However, I recommend that you get Ubuntu up and running on your hardware first. Hardware support out of the box should be

Arch on desktop and personal server. However, I recommend that you get Ubuntu up and running on your hardware first. Hardware support out of the box should be good enough to identify that things are mostly working (or not). Then put Arch on it. Arch is a great distro to learn on. Set aside a weekend. You'll learn a LOT and can always roll back to Ubuntu (or Fedora, though that has it's own out-of-box limitations) if you don't enjoy the Arch process. I dabble in Fedora from time to time, and deploy a LOT of Ubuntu boxes, but I stick with Arch personally due to familiarity and the AUR. Edit: I also stick with Arch because, no matter what distro you use, if you search for the solution to an issue you are having, you are likely to find the Arch Wiki is one of the top results. The wiki is a generally outstanding resource.