I have a z800 that is now thoroughly obsolete, but really like the form factor (feels very sturdy, built in handles, drive trays are nice and solid, form factor stacks with other stuff nicely, built to handle hauling around without falling apart).

I want a system that I will have a good number of cores to split across VMs, but it's hard to justify a z840 right now when even the fastest CPUs I can throw into it won't significantly beat the perf I get from my m1 pro MacBook.

What workstation alternatives have y'all found that would give me significantly better perf than I already get from my MacBook, with the kind of build and ergonomics of something like the z8x0 platform?