how do i set up the partions manually on a fresh install of 10.04

Tim,

Somethings to keep in mind:
   1) you are limited to a maximum of 4 primary partitions (or 3 primary and 1 extended)
   2) you can only create Logical partitions inside of the extended partition (no "real" limit as to how many)
   3) ext4 is probably best for formatting these days
   4) be careful!

Good luck,
George

How much space do you have to work with?

setting up partition manually is for advanced users. seeing that you don't know how to do it, indicates you're not an advanced user.

if you want to keep the dell utility partition, it's best to make a backup of everything on your hard drive before you install ubuntu. it's always a good idea to back everything up anyways, because often there will be problems that occur and you need to restore you computer. i had to restore my system 3 times before i got ubuntu working.

in any case, the utilites are useless in a linux system like ubuntu.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowtoPartition
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DiskSpace
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DrivesAndPartitions

I use following rules.
1-Never make four simple primary partitions. The fourth one should always be an extended one.
2-Make a swap partition of size minimum of 2GB and RAM size
3-Make an ext4 partition of 10GB or 20GB for system (mainly software) folder "/".
4-Make an ext4 partition with remaining space for user "/home" folder.
5-If you dual boot (which is not your case), make all Linux partition inside extended partition.

If you see more complex partition scheme with /var, /tmp, and so on with Google. Those partition schemes are for professional managing dozens of computers. Don't follow it.