I think everybody has different requirements they are looking to satisfy so hard to answer without more knowledge.

Me personally, my next is a 'Meerkat' from system76.com with max out memory and storage capacity. All solid state hardware components.

With this setup one can now, have any number of Virtual Machines for whatever your compute pleasures are all on linux.

Also with this setup, you'll want to spin up a Nix/Nixos VM and start the pain of adapting. It's the future.

I'm surprised there isn't already a Nix/Nixos setup available now that mirrors some of the node in a box solutions.

I'm basically running this setup now but on an Intel Nuc without Nix/Nixos.