That little Orbit table looks pretty neat. I'd buy one, or similar. Easy to sell again, when you upgrade. ALWAYS a market for nice looking relatively new turntables.
That said, one can spend stupid money on vinyl and still not get "there"!
As for static, tics and pops, take care of your vinyl (once you get some). You are not far from York, PA (~45 minutes from 83/695). On Market Street, there is a really nice record shop, Iko's, with very affordable vinyl in good/great condition. He also has new vinyl on the shelf. Certainly thousands of records in view.
A record cleaning machine and good cleaners are essential for maintenance. Prices vary. Speak to Dave Pogue about the solvents. I bought what he suggested and they work great. Sound like a lot of trouble? Well, it keeps away those tics and pops, as well as revealing information deeper in the groove.
Don't buy with an integral phono stage, you need flexibility. When you upgrade, it will be nice to do one piece at a time: phono stage, cartridge, arm, turntable.
What you put the table on affects it's sound. Some tables have advanced suspensions that really do work. The affordable tables have crappy suspensions, best defeated. Affordable tables therefore will not have much attenuation of noise from the platform it's on. SO, the resonances of the stand, excited by sound in the room, will go right through the stylus into your system. Dave McGown built an outstanding isolation base, granite (which, by itself, rings) slab in a sandbox. Works like a charm.
It's cute that the site in the first link you sent suggests that the most expensive phono stages cost over $500. While that's true, you can add a zero to that number if you want to buy a REALLY good one! Or, being DIY'ers, we can build an amazing one for a fraction of that cost. But not $500!
Do you want to go MM, MI, MC, LOMC???? or other in your cartridge? I'd suggest a good quality MM or HOMC to start (they can always be your fallback cartridge when you upgrade and the "good" cartridge needs to be retipped). A low output cartridge WILL need a step-up device, a head amp or SUT, step-up-transformer, because the output level is too low for a conventional phono stage. This is a complication best left for "down-the-road". Although, once you go there (to a LOMC) you'll reach a whole new world of amazing sound. There are many EXCELLENT HOMC, MM and MI cartridges available, however.
There is just a mountain of information to consider: cables, mats, spikes, stands, carts, arms, tables, treatments, arm cables, SUT, preamps, cable lifters, power cords (DO NOT DISCOUNT THIS ONE!), power line filtering, record clamps, vinyl storage, cleaners, cleaning solutions, brushes, alignment tools, etc. This is a real journey!
Are you SURE you want to do this? I can easily see the advantages in going pure digital!
But for me, there is no substitute for vinyl!!!!! Okay, except for reel-to-reel, but let's NOT go there!
Good luck, and welcome to the BRIGHT side of The Force! your Jedi training has just begun!
Stuart