OK, let me shoot a couple of builds by you folks.
Common to both will be:
EVGA RTX3070 FTW3
WD 2TB SN770 NVMe
HP 1TB EX950 NVMe
WD 240GB Green SSD (to be replaced at a later date)
Seagate 2TB HDD for storage (to be replaced with another NVMe at a later date)
Seasonic Focus+ Gold 750 watt PSU
CPU cooler (depending on what new case I get) will probably be an Arctic Cooling Liquid Freezer II in 280mm, 360mm or 420mm. (if the 280 version would do the job, that would save quite a few $$$.)
Build 1
I5-13600K
(optional i7-12700K)
ASUS ROG Strix Z690-A Gaming Wifi D4
Total for the 15-13600K $628/96 (amazon)
Build 2
i5-113600K
(optional i7-12700K)
Gigabyte Z690 AORUS Elite AX DDR4
Total for the i5-13600K $528.97 (amazon)
A couple of combo offers I'm also looking at are:
Micro Center combo i9-12900K with ASUS ROG Z690-A Wifi D4 (same board as above) $739.99 (amazon)
Micro Center combo i7-12700K with ASUS TUG Gaming Z690-Plus Wifi D4 $549.99 (amazon)
Newegg has a couple of combos using the ASRock Z690 Extreme WiFi 6E DDR4
With an i7-12700K $450.87
With an i9-12900K $541.93
I'm skeptical about the ASRock board. I currently have an ASR Phantom Gaming 4 Z390. It's been kind of buggy right from the start, and has been getting worse...thus leading to all this research. While going that way would save a few $$$, I'm just not sure the savings is worth it.
The i5-13600K is supposed to be (slightly) better than the i7-12700K, and comparable to the i9-12900K. (better in some tests, worse in others)
Thanks.