As much as I would have liked to be patient, hold out for availability, and build up my savings so I can continue my trend of going all out on parts... I've hit my limits with my i9-7700x. I initially planned on going with a mid-range $449 8-core Ryzen7-5800x, but found I could work a $549 12-core Ryzen9-5900x into my "now" budget. However, with the lack of "now" availability, I went ahead a grabbed a $515 10-core i9-10900k. I know, I know; TWICE I've said my next PC would be AMD, and twice now I've gone Intel again... but it's the same core-count I am currently using, and it steps my core-clock speed by a full 1.0 GHz! Either way, I would have needed to buy a new MoBo (x299 was all the disaster it promised to be), so I hope the $25 savings I'll get sticking with Intel (now THAT'S an ironic statement), and the immediate performance gain, will out-weigh the little performance benefits of waiting.
For the MoBo, I'd like to be simple and stick with what I already have, a $299 Asus ROG STRIX Z490 E - Gaming, but there seems to be a vague Asus Network hardware/firmware issue going around the Asus reviews and forums. I only see it cropping up specifically in A-Gaming and F-Gaming models. I haven't been able to find any posts with the E-Gaming board, or any other model of ASUS MoBo, but are they really using different chips on those two boards? I've had so many random network issues that I kind of want to try something different. My first MoBo was an Asus MAXIMUS HERO VII, but the Z490 version of that board (MAXIMUS XII Hero), is over $400, and a lot of the "recommended" Z490 boards are $700+. I 'm not really sure I'd get the benefit out of spending more money on my MoBo than CPU? ~$300 is pretty much all the budget I have left right now, anyways.
Finally, I've ordered a $115 Noctua NH-D15 and a $35 Kraken G12 GPU Bracket. It'll take about a month for it to arrive, but it's not a need right now and Newegg is price-gouging the hell out of them ($190 for the NH-D15 and $77 for the G12). Pretty nervous about touching my precious Titan, but it's so loud, I run it at full speed so much, it's so tough to clean out, and I already have the X63 AIO, so I think it will be a fun project.... assuming it still works when I'm done...
For the MoBo, I'd like to be simple and stick with what I already have, a $299 Asus ROG STRIX Z490 E - Gaming, but there seems to be a vague Asus Network hardware/firmware issue going around the Asus reviews and forums. I only see it cropping up specifically in A-Gaming and F-Gaming models. I haven't been able to find any posts with the E-Gaming board, or any other model of ASUS MoBo, but are they really using different chips on those two boards? I've had so many random network issues that I kind of want to try something different. My first MoBo was an Asus MAXIMUS HERO VII, but the Z490 version of that board (MAXIMUS XII Hero), is over $400, and a lot of the "recommended" Z490 boards are $700+. I 'm not really sure I'd get the benefit out of spending more money on my MoBo than CPU? ~$300 is pretty much all the budget I have left right now, anyways.
Finally, I've ordered a $115 Noctua NH-D15 and a $35 Kraken G12 GPU Bracket. It'll take about a month for it to arrive, but it's not a need right now and Newegg is price-gouging the hell out of them ($190 for the NH-D15 and $77 for the G12). Pretty nervous about touching my precious Titan, but it's so loud, I run it at full speed so much, it's so tough to clean out, and I already have the X63 AIO, so I think it will be a fun project.... assuming it still works when I'm done...