To preface: I'm not a pro, i'm a hobbyist who 'learns as i go' but not so daft to not do some research beforehand. It's been 6 years or so since my last build, and I'm a little rusty, although not much has changed, but a lot has changed. I know to primarily make sure things are compatible. So, I'm now in the market for a new PC as I've been watching some benchmarks and my I5-2500k is always at the bottom of the pack. Sure, it still works and does what's needed of it but interfaces have changed and things are faster in general and the thing is 6 years old. I've already bought a few parts: a full case, a PSU, Windows 10, and a couple of Optane SSD's (please let's not focus on those). I'm waiting for the SSD's to arrive, the other 3 things have. Having bought the SSD's I'll of course need to make sure my motherboard (possibly the CPU too) can support them and that I get the right connection to the mobo. There are TONS of new CPU's out now. Threadripper, the 8th gens, and the I9's. I personally prefer intel & nvidia, but have looked into the threadripper. While the cores on that thing are monsterous and the 1000 price tag puts it in line with the i9 10 core cpu, the i8 still seems to outperform it in some instances...although there are some where the threadripper does indeed beat it due to the # of cores it has. So, I guess I have a few questions (i'm still researching but of course input is appreciated): 1- does anyone know if the 8th gens will be getting more cores (8/10) or are they going to only be 6? 2- the 10 core i9, looks pretty decent for the price tag...is that a decent chip 3- the threadripper and the # of cores it has, I know SC will supposedly be optimized for the multicore chips...does anyone know if these chips / boards will support the optane drives? Again, I'm still looking into it, so #3 I can easily find just by looking at newegg...but any input is appreciated! Thank SC peeps. -Scruffy