I looked into the same question a while ago and concluded that instead of buying a new computer I would just hire a cloud VM whenever I need it. A 32 GB 8 core machine can be obtained for a day’s work (8 hours) at the cost of $2 [1].
The unit economics on this are interesting. It’s not obviously the right solution for everybody. It’s worth bearing the following in mind:
- $2k can buy your proposed System76, or more than 4 years of working day VM usage (at current rates).
- Buying your own machine is a fixed upfront cost which you can’t change if your plans change later.
- Cloud costs are likely to decrease with time.
- To make best use of a VM you will need familiarity with remote access technologies such as X forwarding.
- For the cloud solution to be cost effective you will need to develop some way of persisting state so that you can release the VM when you’re not using it.
[1] For example https://www.linode.com/pricing/. I don’t have any affiliation with Linode but I am a happy customer.