Pros & Cons of Pre-built or DIY purchase in the present or foreseeable future?

[MrDunes]

Hello,
I could really use some enthusiastic advice.  Hopefully a quick intro: I'm running for City Council in my home town. I finally moved in to a home for good with my new wife.  We were living in seven different homes after Hurricane Sandy.  She has a 2008 iMac, and I have a 2010 Macbook Pro.  
I updated the RAM on both three years ago, but these are showing their ages (especially the iMac). I can tolerate using my MacBook pro for about 8-10 more months.
We do multi media editing, word processing, autoCAD, web browsing, (No Streaming)... and I have a passion for  playing Sid Meiers's Civilization Games, and I'm interested in exploring/experimenting mining bitcoins, and possibly something with VR.
I have a HDTV with two HDMI cables running behind the wall into a closet. (Excited to say I cut my cable a year ago), I just have a roku player next to the router (Hooked up via an ethernet cable).  
(Sorry if that intro was long)
My desire is to replace my computers.  (And the budget is $5,000 Total) As a candidate for local office on a third party line I campaign myself, so I was thinking of purchasing something where I can gather information from people as I'm on the streets, like maybe a Lenovo Yoga 720, (Though I hear Lenovo is possibly announcing new products this month). .(However, I like that the Aero 15 has an Nvidia GTX 1060, and most notably: 4 lanes of PCI as a pro (And I'll get more into that below), but it's not a 2 in 1... 

I also was thinking of utilizing the space on my closet shelf ( 12.5" tall, and 20" deep, and 3' wide) as a place to house an efficient desktop to hook up to my HDTV, and add an external optical drive so I can finally play blu-rays and dvds. The NFC S4 Mini would be cool, except I've never built a pc before.. Though I have an acquaintance who builds pcs I would try to ask because I would definitely need assistance.  Only thing, is if the desktop is in the closet, and I wanted to ever try a VR it would be irritating to take it out, and rebook it all up, which is why I am asking if you would agree having a laptop or 2 in 1 that is VR ready to provide for that potential capability.

I understand Thunderbolt 3 is used for fast speed transfers, and the faster speed transfers require 4 Lanes of PCI.  My intention is to have something that is able to hook up a VR sometime in the future for a future child and not have to purchase anything else other than an external GPU.

I am not well versed on the tech, but I value my investment as much as you do, and from what I observe watching Linus with respect to ThreadRipper, and Intel's i9 Core,  the Processor's are about to be overhauled in a near revolutionary way.  Would anyone make the case to wait for pre built systems & laptops that not only include i9 with all of its cores, to not only be released, but also have all of the interoperability with Motherboard, RAM, GPU, and other components refined? 
Long Story short, your responses, constructive criticism, any input will be extremely valuable.
I look forward to finally having a strategy for when would be an acceptable time to purchase, and what I should be looking at.  

Edited June 9, 2017 by MrDunes
I forgot to include the bitcoin factor.

[King_of_Oz]

i9 and Threadripper are SERVER grade: they are made for use on supercomputers, and are a bit overkill for what you seem to want to do.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, King_of_Oz said:

i9 and Threadripper are SERVER grade: they are made for use on supercomputers, and are a bit overkill for what you seem to want to do.

not server grade, high end desktop. No ecc support, no multisocket, limited ram support, missing features like vpro and trusted ex and some avx

[King_of_Oz]

Here is an EXCELLENT tool for making PC:

 

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/

 

Helps ALOT. That is the Canadian version. For America, go to pcpartpicker.com  .

[MrDunes]

Thanks @King_of_Oz.  Was also considering getting something that had the capabilities of efficiently mining bitcoins.  
Would an i9 be better for that process?

[System Error Message]

at $5000 you can always get another macbook

 

You're understanding is a bit off, there are many different IOs, all with their different costs, speed and design. Thunderbolt while offers up to 4 lanes of PCIe however can be chained so that one port can be used for multiple devices, display or even PCIe devices via an adapter. USB-c is not thunderbolt though.

 

i9 and threadripper arent server grade, you're looking at xeon for that matter as you cant use ecc ram with threadripper or i9.

 

For your usage, it really depends on how much cpu the programs you use require. If you need a lot of cores threadripper would be good otherwise go with ryzen. GPU wise look at the best you can get price/performance wise for the game you play or even software that you use. CAD can take up a lot of vram or ram so you would need to be aware of buying lots of ram or a gpu with more vram. Currently AMD GPUs are running out because of miners with a lot of inflation so that may not be the best.

[King_of_Oz]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

not server grade, high end desktop. No ecc support, no multisocket, limited ram support, missing features like vpro and trusted ex and some avx

I must have been mistaken. Sorry

[King_of_Oz]

1 minute ago, MrDunes said:

Thanks @King_of_Oz.  Was also considering getting something that had the capabilities of efficiently mining bitcoins.  
Would an i9 be better for that process?

I'm not really experienced in bitcoin minening, but (and don't quote me on this) from what I understand, you need a redicuaslly powerful computer for bitcoin mining, and I'm not totally sure if the i9 would be sufficient. Consider making another thread/topic asking this question.

[Mooshi]

7 minutes ago, MrDunes said:

Thanks @King_of_Oz.  Was also considering getting something that had the capabilities of efficiently mining bitcoins.  
Would an i9 be better for that process?

Bitcoin mining with a home computer has been dead for several years and not worth trying. For alt coin mining, horders have caused AMD cards to become laughable in the cost inflation vs what their actual retail is. CPU choice is irrelevant for coin mining. It's primarily GPU based and for Bitcoin, it requires a dedicated machine and the power needed for all this is not worth it.

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 minutes ago, King_of_Oz said:

I'm not really experienced in bitcoin minening, but (and don't quote me on this) from what I understand, you need a redicuaslly powerful computer for bitcoin mining, and I'm not totally sure if the i9 would be sufficient. Consider making another thread/topic asking this question.

for bitcoin mining you want a asic.

 

For other currencys like monero, zcash, and eurthrum(idk to spell). You want gpu power, not gpu. Its more efficent, can put more in a small formfactor, and much cheaper(a r7 270 is about the same speed as a top of the line i9 in mining.).

 

You don't need a fast computer, you need a efficent computer, and the more the better.

[MrDunes]

@System Error Message I don't want to purchase another mac, at least not now, because my opinion is that they are over priced, and not upgradable. 
Would you agree?
For $5000 I was thinking of having a desktop to hook up to my HDTV for me, and a 2 in 1 for my wife.

[MrDunes]

Thanks @Mooshi .  I did Roof assessments for two years with a solar power company, and one day I went a dude's house that was all about off setting his electric cost to mine bit coins.  He had a bunch of old components in his basement tied up to milk crates, and he was making money.  
I won't look into that anymore based off of your feedback. I appreciate your help Mooshi.

[System Error Message]

well $5000 really gives you a lot more than you need if all you want is to drive a hdtv and a GPU for VR .

 

I know macs arent upgradeable, aside from joking because the new macbook is $5000, it also depends on the software you use on it, whether it is compatible with the OS you will run on it.

 

As far as pre built vs your own, a lot of non mac prebuilt systems can be upgraded. However it usually is suggested to find the components you need if you can get it cheaper than the whole and just put it together yourself. You could reuse your mac case, PSU and so on.

 

For using with tv and vr, just get yourself a gtx 1080ti, ryzen/intel (if igp and power efficiency is what you want get intel, otherwise ryzen is cheaper), some ddr4 ram (for $5000 you can grab 4x16GB ddr4 even if you dont need the ram, though you only need 16GB to 32GB of ram so just get 2 sticks). AMD GPUs are currently being bought for mining and its already filled, with mining you gotta start before it gets big. Once it gets big and famous its already too late. Get yourself a 512GB/1TB SSD with some hard drives for storing video.

 

If you want to do 4K gaming/VR Than consider 2 1080TI in SLI.

[Mooshi]

Just now, MrDunes said:

Thanks @Mooshi .  I did Roof assessments for two years with a solar power company, and one day I went a dude's house that was all about off setting his electric cost to mine bit coins.  He had a bunch of old components in his basement tied up to milk crates, and he was making money.  
I won't look into that anymore based off of your feedback. I appreciate your help Mooshi.

If you're able to offset the electricity cost and able to find some AMD RX 480/580's at a good price, you can still get into it. Most people these days are mining alt coins to exchange for Bitcoin since mining Bitcoin directly is like trying to dig with a plastic spoon if done with typical computer hardware.

[TheDankKoosh]

You have many use cases, but I think I have a decent enough way that you could do this, firstly, purchasing a 17" gaming laptop with VR ready requirements would probably be best for your gaming experience (if you think a desktop would be the better idea for you just let me know). Then picking up a decent and premium feeling all-in-one for your wife would be a good replacement for your wife, and lastly picking up an old thinkpad x230 from ebay would work great as a travel laptop for work purposes. I will give you links to everything and try to give me some feedback, I'm on most of the day and could probably help out.

 

For your wife: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883795912&cm_re=all_in_one_computer-_-83-795-912-_-Product 

a ssd will make this even better https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820250079&cm_re=500gb_ssd-_-20-250-079-_-Product

 

For gaming: http://www.hidevolution.com/evoc-p670hp6-g-custom-built-gaming-laptop-w-nvidia-gtx-1060-w-g-sync.html 

(this company is known well in the laptop enthusiast market and will do a great job, keep in mind that battery life is worse on this than the aero 15 though)

Get it with these addons 

1. 256gb ssd

2. no logo

3. Windows 10 pro (30$ oem version)

and then enjoy the sleek and sexy laptop

 

For work: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X230-Tablet-IPS-2-90GHz-Core-i7-4GB-RAM-128GB-SSD-WIN10-/162547652737?hash=item25d8985881:g:AxQAAOSw-3FZCKti

Try to grab a larger ssd for this, such as https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820250080&cm_re=1tb_ssd-_-20-250-080-_-Product 

so you won't run out of space for important files, and add another 4gb stick of ram

 

Total cost for everything will be around 3000$ and will provide a good experience for you and your wife, if you have any questions feel free to ask.