Desktop, Laptop, Peripherals, & TV Setup Budget $5K

[vanwazltoff]

Have to replace my whole setup because of smoke damage from a house fire. Should be getting about $5K USD for my old setup from insurance. Preferred retailers are Amazon, Newegg, and if need be eBay. I have another budget for tools, but I have already replaced most those already, so what ever is left after I buy new welding equipment may also go into my setup...or an office chair that doesn't suck, not sure yet. I'll be giving rough budgets per category for what I am realistically looking to pay 

 

Monitor, Peripherals, TV, Etc: Budget $1400

 

Theme: My color scheme for this setup is monochrome, metal and minimalistic. I'm not really into the whole RGB craze 

Monitors: I plan on running dual 32 inch monitors, I am not sure whether to go 4K or 1440p yet. I've been looking around local stores and 32 inches seems to be size I'm heavily leaning towards. I have a few requirements: must be VESA mountable, must be relatively color accurate, cannot be curved (skews lines when drawing and doing 3D work), cannot be ultra wide (pains me to say it, I loved the ultra wide I had before but it wasn't ideal for drawing and 3D modeling, maybe a third ultra wide monitor above someday?), graphics card must be able to run 1 monitor at its native resolution on at least high settings in modern games, cannot be made by Samsung (almost every Samsung product in the entire house has died within 2 years, I want to avoid Samsung as much as humanly possible). I know thats a tall order, but when you stare at your screens all day long, I'd rather be picky about this more than anything else. Have any suggestions? Budget $750

I'm leaning towards 2 HP Pavilion QHD 32 inch monitors: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FGCJBGK/?coliid=I1A9K41E4J7PDG&colid=27P292J2DR7JI&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

TV: I was happy with the TCL 40 inch 1080p Roku TV I had, so I think I'll get a TCL 55S405 4K 55 inch. $400

Peripherals: I need a DAC/AMP for headphones and a microphone setup (probably boom). I need a better handheld mini keyboard/trackpad for when I am not at my desk. I already bought/have several peripheral including an MX Master 2S, MX Sound 2.0 speakers, a custom 60% keyboard, and a Wacom Intuos medium 2018, Grado SR80i headphones. $200

Type C Dongle/Hub: Its unfortunate, but dongles are here to stay and all of my laptop choices are missing one port...if not all of them, so I need one with 2x USB 3.0, SD and Micro SD, HDMI, ethernet, and type C power delivery. $50

 

Tower: Budget $1600

PCPartPicker: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2QKnNQ

Current uses: drawing with my Wacom Intuos tablet in Clip Studio Paint and Abode Illustrator, 3D modeling with Sketchup and Solidworks, computer repair, storing my anime collection and anything else that takes up a considerable amount of space, streaming video/watching anime on my TV, a little bit of gaming (not a high priority). 

Potential future uses: I want to take my drawing skills to the next level and try some animation, going along with that is video editing and compositing, screen capturing for drawing speed paints. 

Theme...Again: My color scheme for this setup is monochrome, metal and minimalistic. I'm not really into the whole RGB craze

CPU: So this is one thing I not quite sure of, last time a built a PC the only real option at the time was Intel, but now there is options. So based on my use case, should I go with an i7-8700K or a Rysen 7 2700X? Or is there something else? Skylake X and Threadriper seam cost prohibitive unless I adjust my priorities. 

Case: Currently leaning towards the NZXT H400i. mATX is the sweet spot for me, I love ITX but being able to upgrade RAM and add in an expansion card are appealing. ATX is just too big and unnecessary. I want to get the blackout version and change the colors for the cable management piece and the front air intakes to a lighter gun metal gray.

GPU: I am think about getting a used GTX 1080 Ti on eBay, they are going for about the same price used as a new 1080. I plan on running 2x 1440p/4k monitors and a 4k TV, but I only plan to do single monitor gaming ~$500

CPU Cooler: I'm thinking about a Corsair H100i V2, it goes with my color scheme.

RAM: G.Skill Trident Z black and silver

SSD: MyDigitalSSD BPX NVMe 512gb (I've had good luck with this brand)

HDD: I already have a WD Red 8tb so that won't be part of the budget

PSU: EVGA 650W 80+ Gold 210-GQ-0650-V1 

Mobo: Depends on which platform I go with, but I want USB 3.1 gen 2, at least 1 NVMe M.2 slot preferably 2

 

Laptop: Budget up to $2000

Current uses: My laptop gets the most use out of all of my electronics, so it gets the largest budget. I use it for day to day things like web browsing, content consumption, email, note taking, maintaining and running my business (computer repair and graphics design), an accessory computer at my day job, 3D modeling, general productivity. 

Previous Laptop: MacBook Pro Retina 13 2015, i5 dual core, 8gb RAM, 128gb SSD, 128gb Jetdrive

Requirements: I want this to be a significant upgrade, quad core processor, 16gb RAM, 256gb SSD, thin and light, 13 inches screen max, at least 6 hours of battery life, backlit keyboard, a trackpad that doesn't suck (my 2015 MacBook Retina has forever spoiled me, I can't go back to a crap-tastic trackpad). Since I use it heavily I would prefer to enjoy the experience, so good screen and sound quality are a must. As many ports as I can get in 2018, I'll probably have to get a dongle for one thing or another no matter what I choose. I dislike touch screens and 2-in-1s, I don't find them all that useful plus I hate getting finger prints all over the screen

Operating System: I know you will probably all hate me for saying it, but I HIGHLY prefer macOS over Windows 10, so much so it worth it to have MacBook over other higher performance options. I can deal with Windows on my desktop since it gives me the flexibility to build it as a see fit and its not used as much comparatively, but for my main system it'll be hard to peel me away from macOS

Options:

Razer Blade Stealth 13: I can get an open box with an i7-8550u quad core processor, 16gb RAM, and a 512gb SSD at Best Buy for about $1450

Dell XPS 13: i5-8250u quad core, 16gb RAM, 265gb SSD for $1400

MacBook Pro 13 2018 with TouchBar: i5 processor, 16gb RAM, 265gb SSD, after education discount $1880 (pains me, but I'd pay the Apple tax for macOS alone)

 

Network: $150

Router: Unfortunately I also have to get a new router, got a new one from Xfinity, but the house usually needs 2 routers. So I'd like to get one thats good enough for 4k streaming. The Asus I had was rock solid, but they don't make that model anymore, so any suggestions?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[piemadd]

49 minutes ago, vanwazltoff said:

-snip- cuz like its a very thought out post

This is a long, but i'll get some lists together, ill be back in a few minutes

[piemadd]

@vanwazltoff Here is the pcpartpicker:

 

It has an R7-2700X in it with 16gb of RAM, but youc ould easily have an R7-2700 with 32GB of RAM. The 2700X is just the 2700 with a factory OC.

Spoiler

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/9hP76s
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/9hP76s/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7GHz 8-Core Processor  ($318.89 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair - H100i v2 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($90.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI - B450M MORTAR Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($94.99 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: MyDigitalSSD - BPX 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  ($149.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital - Red 8TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $0.00)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB SC Black Edition Video Card  ($500.00)
Case: NZXT - H400i MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($115.46 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA - 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($69.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit  ($40.00)
Total: $1530.20
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-09-20 15:08 EDT-0400