Just saying "I've got this many CPUs and this much RAM" means nothing if the processor just doesn't support some feature deemed important.
I've got multi-socket, multi-core, many-gig-of-RAM boxes that can't run modern Linux kernels (and thus most modern Linux distros) due to lacking CPU features required these days.
Could be worse. They actually gave us plenty of info. 8 core first gen Ryzen is very specific. Windows 11 probably doesn't like it because no TPM (most likely the motherboard has a port for one, but parts may not be available). There's a small list of processors that could be: Ryzen 1700, Ryzen 1800, with or without X/Pro, or maybe a Threadripper 1900X.
Much better than "I've got an i7 why is this slow" "I don't know, it works great on my Pentium", where the first person has an i7-620UE, a 2.13 Ghz 2 core Arrandale (Westmere?) from 2010, and the second person has a Pentium Gold G7400, a 3.7Ghz 2 core Alder Lake from 2022. Turns out 12 years of improvements and moving from mobile to desktop makes a huge difference. Of course, someone with a pentium could also have a processor from 1993-2022, so that's a much worse name without qualifiers.
The sibling comment had it right, it's a Ryzen 7 1700X. The BIOS has been since updated to support fTPM, and that seems to enable upgrading other machines I have.
That Ryzen CPU launched in 2017, which means it existed 4 years before the newest Windows wasn't supported. Really, it's this time frame that surprised me.
What do we consider a modern kernel? Debian is still shipping a i386 port that should run on a Pentium II. It's old enough to order a beer at a restaurant.
"Nearly all x86-based (IA-32) processors still in use in personal computers are supported. This also includes 32-bit AMD and VIA (former Cyrix) processors, and processors like the Athlon XP and Intel P4 Xeon. However, Debian GNU/Linux bookworm will not run on 586 (Pentium) or earlier processors."
It is a dual socket Pentium III machine. I forget if I tried to run Debian on it or not but trying several other distros with a i386 version a few years ago only ever lead to boot issues complaining about some CPU feature missing and it wouldn't boot even after hours of me searching and trying to reconfigure grub settings.
I've got multi-socket, multi-core, many-gig-of-RAM boxes that can't run modern Linux kernels (and thus most modern Linux distros) due to lacking CPU features required these days.