If you don't need TH3, HDMI 2.0 or 10 GbE and have plenty of free time to build and tinker, then yes, your approach is the better deal. Is your SSD Sata based or NVME ? Using the new Mac Mini system def. should work well for your new build. Especially the UHD 630 graphics.I can buy these same parts from Microcenter for $388.00. Actually they are better, it has a 240 gb ssd instead of a 128. That's i3 coffee lake, Gigabyte board with 4 slots, 8gb stick, good power supply, wifi, and a nice case. When I use the almost $500 I saved to help pay for an iPhone Xr, I will remember to grab an Apple logo from the box to slap on the pc case. Then I can say how pretty it is.
Yep, the 6 year old Ivy Bridge systems can still be quite good, even with Mojave. None of us really knew how good they were when they first came out. Their longevity is impressive.I don't really need a new hack, my old system is fine. I was looking for a used mini or maybe a new mini, but the prices are still a joke. This community has allowed me to sail along on this Ivy bridge system for quite a while now with minimal effort. Thanks to all!!
You know, it just occurred to me to wonder what Windows 10's driver system makes of the T2 chipset? That should offer a clue as to its use going forward. I take it some new version of the BootCamp drivers takes account of it?
So far from googling https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2018-macbook-pro-bootcamp-q-a.2127531/ , bootcamp drivers are problematic on T2 systems. I'm seeing some reddits or forum posts of outright bricking the MBP. I'm not feeling adventurous enough to try do Bootcamp on my MBP, kinda need it for work. A good preview might be the more mature iMac Pro in bootcamp (or at least give us an idea how Mac Pro will be like). With the exception of FCP, most of my tool chain is available on Windows. Some will likely perform even better on it(Mocha, Premiere, but I don't use Premiere to begin with). So push comes to shove about future Macs, T2 and multi-booting, I'm likely to just abandon keeping Windows for anything in particular. Plus it's not like my hacks can't be used for the odd Windows-boot. Still years away from this being an issue for me, but I'm now less inclined to dump any more money into them (more SSD storage, more RAM, newer GPUs).