Get a Mac & Ableton, or e.g. Dell with Linux & Bitwig. Windows is a pain. Bye.
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Laughs in Trash2, Decapitator and Ohmicide.
(he says, also having a Filterbank 2, Jomox T-Resonator and guitar pedals)
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there are definitely good vst distortions but recently I’ve discovered you can route audio to AR with Overbridge, like run stems or full recording through the filters + overdrive, you can have it recorded as parallel distortion or full wet, glorious!
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…when it comes to the old computer brand battle…
i know nothing about computers, because of using an atari at first and soon after mac’s only, never touched a windows machine, i can clearly state…sooner than later, i gonna set up a final system and it will be linux…
after all these years, i’ve learned the hard/expensive way, what it really needs on the itb planet to survive, to stay in charge and independant…
bitwig running on a clean and nothing else distracting linux system with a metric halo interface…
we’ve came a long way…and i will be finally done with further updates and next new thingies, market keeps telling me, i need them…
100% creator…zero % consumer…
Yeah I’ve got a FB2 and a shitload of pedals. VST’s are probably good if you want tame, predictable distortion for mood. Not great if you want in your face, full blown distortion or feedback storms.
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Yeah this is the way. There’s just no proper modeling for distortion yet, with all it’s unpredictability.
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I’m in the mac camp too, only use pc for gaming now. But if you need to get a laptop, I’d pay over 1000 and get a mid range thinkpad. You will also need an audio interface as asio4all sucks and midi is a pain. I recommend motu m2. Possibly best sounding (in the price range) solid interface with good windows drivers and a decent headphone amp. Usb-c, stereo input monitoring and bus powered too.
Also, if coming from hardware, take a look at renoise iso live.
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@Fin25 I can’t see anyone having asked you… but what’s your reasoning for going to Ableton? What do you want to do with it?
I’m guessing music and Ableton is the standard.
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…and no matter what computer u got in use for ur sonic works…best tip remains…connect it to the net ONLY for rare updating duties…once done, cut that connection right away again…never work for real with ur computer, while u got an actual open online backend…
then u get shit done, even on a windows machine… 
Hmm, I have my laptop connected to Wifi at all times and I only use it for troubleshooting or uploading projects, demos or whatever on Dropbox.
rumor has it that he’s switching to psytrance
(don’t kill me)
but he mentioned that he’s familiar with Live and wants to go for Max
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Yeah, I’m mostly looking at it as a way to lighten the load really. I get fuck all time
I’ll definitely be getting either an M2 or M4.
A few reasons, mostly portability. I’d rather have a laptop I can actually use than a studio full of gear I can’t
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Also this
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Some people say that working ITB doesn’t really save you time because it brings so many options to the table. So you might just fiddle with shit endlessly and have a hard time finalizing tracks I guess.
Yeah, but that’s still better than having a revolving door of gear I barely use
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you can also go hybrid with whatever you have lying around. I have had tons of fun with connecting my (impulse bought) Torso T1 to the Fors M4L instruments in Ableton, and some drums. Easy to set up, and rout through effects. I also seem to remember people on here also shared Digitakt/ableton templates
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I say follow your heart - but I’m not sure this is a great reason to go in the box, IMO.
It has its advantages, mostly workflow and personal choices about approach - but I tend to work faster and more efficiently on hardware - it’s the outcome that changes.
If shutting yourself away is an issue I sort of get that, although I suspect you’ll be sat with headphones on in your own world on the laptop anyway so does that really change?
Think I mentioned this in another thread recently too but all my VST’s have limitations, as does Ableton. I’ve never really bought into the ‘ultimate choice’ of the DAW - you mostly have access to the same tools and instruments in the hardware world, sometimes even more limited. Anything that presents you with limitless options will likely choke up your CPU 5 minutes after you started using it anyway - which is another issue, you now have a shared pool of resources you have to manage. And don’t get me started on license management - every time I try and do anything ITB I have to update 6 things and log into a website I can’t remember ever seeing. None of this facilitates frictionless music making. What it does is afford a high level of control, which is useful if you want to sit down for a week and craft an Album, but I gather that’s the opposite of your intention.
I guess I read this as a bit of a cry for help 
A laptop is just another piece of hardware, except it’s a general purpose one not specifically made for music.
My vote is stick with the Polivoks and Digitakt.
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I guess, hah! Well, unless you sell the laptop after 3 months for something else.