Need buying advice for 386 and Unix

[Crocker H. Liu]

Alas!  My 3b1 (long abandoned by ATT) is too puny to run X-windows.
But the wealth of choice in 386's is overwhelming!

I also have an AT clone, which is basically used by my wife as a
word-processor.  It only has Hercules graphics and a 44MB harddisk.
Does it make sense to swap in a 386 motherboard?

What about the Unix?  Does the new Dell4.0 sound good to you?  The
accompanying software seems to be everything anyone would ever desire.
Well, it has X-windows anyway, which is what I'm worried about now.
(I'm also hooked on emacs and TeX, but I presume they will build on
just about any hardware I might pick up.)

The system will be used for program development, so it can't be too
non-standard.  Software portability is an issue.

Help!

---
Crocker Liu    cliu at rnd.gba.nyu.edu