My current gaming rig, 6700k (4/8) @ 4000Mhz with an GTX 980, is starting to feel it's age and it's about time for a rebuild. I max out at 5 clients, I'm not as crazy as some of you 10, 20, and even 30 boxers In BFA on my current rig I'm hitting 90%+ on both my CPU and GPU pretty much full time, so it's time for both to go. I'm on the fence between the new i9-9900K on Z390 or the i9-9920X on X299, either way I'm likely going to a 1080Ti as I can't see the real benefit vs. $$$ for the 2080Ti.

My original thought was being able to dedicate 2 physical cores + 2 virtual cores per game instance, effectively giving each WoW client it's recommended dual core setup + some virtual core headroom. That lead me down the path of the i9-9920X, with 10 physical cores assigned to the game that leaves 2 physical + virtual left over for OS overhead, sounds simple, right?

However, after checking out MiRai's X99 vs. X299 vs. X399 video, he makes a pretty strong case for WoW really only taking advantage of a single primary thread/physical core.

So for those running >4 core Intel procs, is the 8/16 i9-9900K the better choice (economically and general performance) or is it really the i9-9920X which comes at a price premium at 2x more $$$ but provides a clean 2 full physical cores to each game client?

I'm also planning to with a 1Tb Samsung Evo 7 1Tb M.2 for OS/System and a 250Gb Evo 7 M.2 for a dedicated gaming drive. Anyone see any issue with that or run into any problems running an M.2 as the OS/System drive?