The only thing to be careful with about building a brand new computer is sometimes the linux kernel takes a little while to catch up and support the latest hardware for some things. So maybe if any components you’re planning to use are very new, look them up and see if they are supported yet.
As for a distro I always recommend Mint. Your plan to try out a bunch of them on a VM is a great idea.
Sorry to ask this here, but I can’t get a response in the kbin “help” magazine:
Can anyone on kbin.social answer: Why can’t I access this or subscribe to this from within kbin.social? Is it blocked? I can get to other lemmy.world communities. This happens with many communities. kbin.social can’t see them or retrieve even if I put in the direct url.