Let’s Talk Air Compressors/set Ups.

I've got a husky 60 gallon in the basement with 1/2" copper hardline to the garage with a (too small) dessicant dryer. I need to rig up a better cooler/dryer for it, but capacity seem to be fine for everything, but my cheapo da pushes it.

Good function and quality is not that cheap. I purchased a Husky 60 gln 4hp single stage 240v electric compressor. Works awesome. There is one other guy on here that bought the same exact compressor as I did, I think it's @Chuckman . I can run a grinder or cut off wheel all I want with my compressor. I ran black iron pipe with a lot of rise/drops which allows the water to settle at the bottom of the risers with a ball valve to drain to water. After nearly 50' of pipe I have a final trap with a regulator. I have zero moisture in my paint gun or any other air tools. A desiccant filter is highly recommended too which I plan on adding in the future.

I run an inexpensive 60 gal compressor. I have it hard piped to my basement workshop also, where I spray water based woodworking finishes. The downsides: FIxed location. 220V. It's not quite powerful enough for things like sandblasters and heavy usage of metal grinding tools. Even with impact guns, you have to wait for it to refill sometimes. It's loud.
For spraying HVLP, it works great. I have a simple filter/regulator setup with an inline filter and regulator at the gun. I built drains into my system and definitely drain everything prior to shooting. I have a hose that I only use for the sprayer to ensure it doesn't get any tool oil or water in it. All my hoses are larger than 1/4", my hard pipes are 3/4". To keep noise down, the compressor sits on a wooden base that sits on the pads used for HVAC units. There is a hose I had custom made by a hydraulic shop that connects the hard pipes to the compressor to keep the vibrations out of the pipes. That helped quiet it down, but it's still loud.
Overall, I think this is the cheapest way for me to get close to the kind of CFM I wanted. I used one of those new house 10% off anything from the big box hardware stores to buy the compressor. I've had it about 10 years and have had some issues with the cheapness of the compressor, but it was all fixable. All the problems so far were fairly straight forward and inexpensive, but still screws up your weekend.
I think any other compressor I bought that has equal or more flow capacity would more than double the cost. I think the cheap 60 gal are the CFM/$ winners. My compressor is a CH brand similar to the Husky above. It's what Lowes used to sell before they changed the brand names they sell. Whatever brand name they changed to (Kobalt? I think) is the exact same compressor with a different name on it.