On 27 Nov 2017, Paul wrote in
alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt:

i5-6600k 1151 Skylake

This is what I decided on. I don't necessarily want or need the ability
to overclock, but I might want to play around with it in the future.
The difference in cost between the locked and unlocked version is
minimal.

ASUS PRIME Z270-K
LGA 1151 Intel Z270
HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 USB 3.0 Two PCI slot
ATX Motherboards

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...82E16813132938

I liked the look of this one, so that'w what I'm going for. It has the
features I want and gets decent reviews.

For audio support, you want to do a DPC latency check on those.
Which means tracking down a forum with the info.

Not sure what that means. I will only use the built-in audio for system
sounds and casual music listening. For my serious-er audio work (I
record my own music) I rely on a serious-er 3rd-party audio adapter. I
will have to take a chance that my old reliable M-Audio PCI card, but
if for some reason it doesn't, I'm prepared to (reluctantly) replace
it.

Thanks very much for the suggestions. The field is very cluttered and
overwhelming. I mainly needed to see some options laid out to help get
a handle on the task. This is the third time in the past couple of
years that I set out to choose hardware - the other two time I got
bogged down and put it off till later.