Welcome to the community @joeisnotmyname
You’ll be fine on either desktop. XFCE has xfce4-sensors-plugin and xfce4-systemload-plugin that you can add straight to the panel for temps, CPU, and memory.
LXQt has similar built-in panel widgets for system stats and sensors once you have lm-sensors installed.
Not as all-in-one like Vitals but they cover the same info.
If you want something that works on any desktop, Conky is worth a look too. It’s super customizable! Andthere are tons of premade configs out there.
What distro are you planning to try?