New computer or build one?

[Staccs]

So I'm stepping up my illustration game with money I made from selling my graphics. I went from using my iPad Air 2 to my iPad Pro, to using a (not mine sadly) MacBook Pro. I'm considering spending $3,000 on the 27-inch Mac. I know that's an insane amount and I know you guys can tell me if I can build a computer with the same specs for less or a better computer at the same price.

Specs:
4.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, boost up to 4.2GHz.
32GB 1867MHz DDR3 SDRAM
1TB fusion drive
AMD Radeon R9 M390 with 2GB video memory

I love the MacBook so I figured I should go with Apple, but I'd love to see some builds/hear what you guys have to say. Will mostly use it to design. Photoshop/AI/C4D, maybe in the future some DAWs. Maybe games. Probably not though. Don't play too much except for on the PS4. Anyways, thanks in advance if you post a build.

[Chunky Monkey]

Here's an idea of what you can expect to get for under $2k (I figured you'd want about $1k left above the PC itself to get a sweet multi-monitor setup)

Thoughts on what I picked:

CPU: This is just about the top end CPU you can get from Intel at the moment. It's quite good. The "K" is for an overclocking enabled CPU, if you're into that sort of thing. On a side note, if you wanted to go cheaper you could downgrade to the i5-6500K, and all you're really sacrificing is HyperThreading.

Cooler: I have one of these, its quiet and seems to work well on my i5-6500K

Motherboard: Just went with something compatible here, anything that fits the CPU and RAM is probably good. i7 Mobo's aren't going to be cheap garbage for the most part.

RAM: Really any 4 sticks of RAM will do. I went with DDR4 for a little future proofing, you probably don't want to get DDR3 unless you need to for some weird compatibility reason.

Storage: 500GB SSD should be plenty for OS+apps, and the 2TB drives can be put into a RAID if you want redundancy, or left separate for the extra space. Just a note here, if you need the space, they have bigger, I just went with 4TB total because that seemed like plenty.

GPU: The 1070 is really REALLY good for the price. You can bump it up to a 1080 but I don't know that it's worth the $200 increase. You can also swap in an R9 Fury or a 390X if you have a thing for AMD, but the 1070 is better for the money. Or you can go nuts and buy the new Titan X but it's $1200 sooooo yeah.

PSU/Case: I have these, they seem to work well. Any PSU from a reputable manufacturer will do though.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/qMkDxY
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/qMkDxY/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($344.88 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($144.88 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($82.88 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($82.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($159.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($119.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($119.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card ($449.95 @ B&H)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($117.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1753.28
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-26 18:59 EDT-0400


I left OS up to you really, but you can't really install OSX on a custom build (unless you want to get in the realm of a Hackintosh) so it's either Linux or Windows. I don't know how good Photoshop support is for Linux so I'd stick to Windows. Windows 10 is like $120 or something so it's not super expensive.

As far as a direct comparison between building/buying a PC and buying a Mac, I'll say this. OSX is a decent OS, but you're definitely playing quite a premium for that fruit on the back. Unless you REALLY can't deal with change or you have some reason you can't leave the OSX ecosystem (as an example, thousands of dollars in software you'd have to rebuy), it's not really worth it. Windows can do almost everything OSX can do, plus a bunch of stuff it can't.

[Immerael]

It might be because the guy I know who gave me a quote and knows folks, works in the area, I'm friends with his sister etc etc but I got a very respectable gaming computer spec at around 850$. Granted this was without a monitor or any other accessories and I'm not going 4K etc etc. My guess is multi monitor set up would run the price up very quickly. Though if you have the space I highly recommend it. I unfortunately do not.

[Mister Mister]

Happy Birthday Staccs

[Watcher]

I'd probably build but Apple is fantastic for graphic editing so either way you can't go wrong. You can find deals on parts and monitors all the time. Check out slickdeals.net for that sort of thing. They almost always have a monitor deal. I don't think I've ever bought a monitor or laptop for retail.