Near the end of 2019, a decision was made to build a custom machine. Below is a summary of the current system configuration:

Item	Name	Price ($)
power supply	EVGA 700 BR	65.21
motherboard	MSI MPG Z390M Gaming Edge AC	191.98
case	Corsair Carbide Series 175R RGB	75.66
CPU cooler	Noctua NH-L9i 92mm SSO2 CPU Cooler	39.95
main storage	Crucial MX500 2.5” 1TB SATA III 3D NAND Internal SSD	109.99
secondary storage	Seagate BarraCuda 2TB 7200 RPM	54.89
system memory	Crucial 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4 2666MHz DRAM CL19 1.2V DR DIMM (288-pin)	130.00
cable	StarTech.com 18-inch SATA Serial ATA Cable	3.90
processor	Inter Core i7-8700k Coffee Lake 6-Core 3.7GHz (4.7GHz Turbo) LGA 1151 (300 series) 95W	354.99
system fan	Corsair ML120 PRO 120mm Premium Magnetic Levitation PWM Fan	23.99
keyboard	Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000	4.00
mouse	HP C2600 (keyboard and mouse combination)	25.00
speakers	Philips	5.00
monitor	LG 27UK650-W 27 Inch 4K UHD IPS LED Monitor with HDR 10 and Adjustable Stand	0
USB expansion card	Allegro Pro Type A 4-port USB 3.2 PCIe card with four 10Gbps ports, dual controllers & USB charging × 1	139.99
	total cost	1224.55

The monitor is one I already owned long before building the machine. The system runs Linux Mint 19.3 Long-Term Support (LTS). The entire system costs less than than my late-2016 MacBook Pro laptop with TouchBar (Built-to-Order) which cost $2450 when new. This machine has been my daily driver. In fact, this machine got me to look into purchasing an Android phone and moving from my iPhone 7, since iOS does not support MTP.