You know that OptiPlex and Latitude are business/ corporate lines from Dell. So they are built better than Inspiron. OptiPlex has always favored DisplayPort while HP lags on this. Buy both Dells from eBay that corporations have traded in for newer models. Most of them are still in Dell warranty.
For many reasons DisplayPort is superior to HDMI. OptiPlex have 2-3 of them. Modern Latitudes will have USB-C ports that can be used as DisplayPorts with the right adapter or monitor cable. They also have an HDMI port.
For 17.3 inch laptops HP is where you go. There are trusted sellers on eBay for these 17.3” used.
Linux Mint looks great these days. But I still need windows 11 for certain programs. And Windows 11 low blue light “app” is vastly superior to Linux. At night I shift away from blue and into the red or reddish.
I intended to purchase a couple Optiplex desktops to use as media servers, but I ended up with a couple HP mini desktops instead which have worked out surprisingly well for us. Both of them came with DisplyPorts instead of HDMI, but the adapters are about $10 a piece.
The little HP mini-computers easily fit in the same space as a DVD Player. They were actually business computers to start with as well. One thing that I like about them is that they came with external power supplies. When I added GPUs all I had to do was purchase larger power supplies for about $20 a piece.
The problem with HP 17.3” laptops is that the hinges are absolute crap and they fall apart long before the computer develops some other type of issue. I typically use ground up charcoal bricket powder and superglue to patch up the broken plastic around the hinges. It looks pretty ugly but usually holds them together if you do a little planning on the repair.