It also depends on the game too. I'm one of those people who hate horror tag to the guts but there are a couple games I was able to play and DDLC was one of them (The other was Neverending Nightmares).
Currently evaluating to play Needy Streamer Overload but my friends say don't. :)
Of course they don't but it would be funny to see if Windows users spend their time with compatibility layers just this once. You know, for the sake of chaotic good.
I see, it's less likely if there is a surge protector (unless surge protector is faulty or older than 5 years). Worth a shot since that happens here a lot.
I saw the FFmpeg test as someone suggesting. That's a good advice. Addition to that run powertop to see how is the power consumption. There is also Phoronix Test Suite that you can use for different benchmarks, might be helpful.
I'm using Linux for more than a decade (including Mint) and never had a hardware failure because of it, had 2 GPUs died on me because of power shortages though.
Anyway, I believe those are more likely a coincidence because older they get it's more likely they die because of age, especially for PSUs. And PSUs die almost without any indications. However 3 PC is a lot, but I would suspect unstable electricity before that.
It's also possible that motherboard is dead instead of PSU. And if they're laptops, I think this is a better possibility. It's easier to check if they are not laptops.
I have a similar machine from 2011, though it's x64 >> Samsung N150P. I used it as a typewriter for a couple years and I can suggest the same for you if you have such interests. However later I turned it into a homeserver and currently it serves as Pi-hole, Jellyfin, syncthing etc. Without x64, server might be tough but typewriter wouldn't mind. For general daily stuff, it's not really useful.
It also depends on the game too. I'm one of those people who hate horror tag to the guts but there are a couple games I was able to play and DDLC was one of them (The other was Neverending Nightmares).
Currently evaluating to play Needy Streamer Overload but my friends say don't. :)