Best Audiophile desktop for under $2500?

OP

that HP Slimtop I linked was just to see one, not a good choice: it does not have USB-3.0 or USB-C, features I would want. USB 3.0 is like lightning, makes USB 2.0 seem like a turtle.

btw, they can be used horizontally or vertically.

Some have card readers, I didn’t pay enough attention, thus I have a small external USB-3 card reader.

Some versions like mine come with DVD drives, and I have a slim external CD drive to make faster copies of Music CDs for the car or friends. That version has small SS drive and larger spinning (noise) HD, not SS. Mine has 2tb SS drive which I only use for programs. I have slim external 2tb usb-3 drive, fast, silent ALL my data is on it (an identical back-up one in my car). So fast you have no idea you are writing/reading from an external drive.

I don't stream hi rez music, just pc sourced content, usb out to dac,

There must be separate sound cards (no fan noise) that are very good, better than motherboard's usb out, right???

just a quickie find, must be even better than it I suppose.

And, what if you want wireless to self powered speakers????

@jhnnrrs

I play hi-rez music directly from a local SSD as well. The significant change I made was shifting from using a laptop/PC/Mac to the ifi Zen Streamer. One of the primary reasons for this switch was to eliminate the audible fan noise that was present when playing music through the laptop. To address this, I opted to use the fanless MacBook Air, but unfortunately, the sound quality did not meet my expectations. Ultimately, I transitioned to the streamer platform and couldn’t be happier.

My question to you is, setting aside any electric noise and non-fortified usb port that might not be audible to you but could potentially degrade sound quality, were you bothered by the fan noise at all?

I use graphic intensive programs for work and hobby stuff so I have an MSI gaming laptop that I run JRiver on. I outboard the sound to my Schitt Hel 2 when using my headphones. My laptop is not my primary listening setup. It's my travel and work setup when I'm not at the office. The Hel is a great portable headphone amp so I can take it with me if I like. Rarely am I distracted by the laptop's "internal interference" with my listening. I also use the laptop to manage my digital music collection via JRiver and as a secondary backup. I game on occasion and only then does the fan kick on but I rarely notice this w/ my headphones on. 

Desktops these days are really for brick-and-mortar business use unless you have a legacy box you just can't seem to give up. If you find yourself wanting something you can take with you on vacation, then a decent laptop w/ an SSD and graphics card will serve you well.

@lanx0003 The miniPC I'm using has a very quiet fan and it's placed towards the back of a semi-enclosed cabinet.  I can only hear the fan when I'm 1 or 2 feet away, when I'm at my listening position I can't hear it at all.

I was thinking about the Zen streamer as well, but I was concerned with 2 things.  First, my SSD contains over 10,000 songs and albums and I heard the Zen was sluggish in indexing, and, more importantly, second, I own the Zen DAC Signature V2 and the Zen One Signature DACs and am very unimpressed by either.  To me they sound bloated and tubby.