Honestly, I would say either of those are good options to start with. I sincerely doubt fully breaking the PC. Maybe research Linux for your GPU, you may have multiple options. It may be worth a second hard drive so you can easily swap back and forth until you are fully comfortable. Dual booting on the same HDD is also possible, but more annoying.

Personal issue I ran into: motherboard customization on my big gamer doesn't work without Windows... Not a huge deal, but my Rainbow LED runs its animation in reverse. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯