If you don’t want to change motherboards then 9900k is the best you’re going to get. Or perhaps a Xeon e-2288g. I would check ebay for both.

I don’t think hard drives are going away anytime soon. Seagate just releases their dual actuator drives to market recently so not only are hdds not going away but they’re still actively being innovated and improved upon.

Well I mean there’s a reason why these skills are in such high demand.