Latest idea of a build

Looks great. Your building a beast!

nice build. The MOBO is a little overkill, IMHO. I'd also recommend stepping up to 16GB of RAM instead of just 8gb.

It all works, but you could save a bunch of cash and get basically identical performance.

1) Get a cheaper 16GB RAM kit. 8GB is generally enough RAM for gaming, but you're building a high end gaming rig so the 16GB is warranted. For a gaming build, you also do NOT need ultra fast RAM like the kit you picked. That is so overpriced and will offer very, very little outside of memory throughput benchmarks. You can pick up a quality 2666mhz or 2800mhz 16GB kit for LESS money than the 8GB 4000mhz kit in your build
2) Motherboard is really expensive. There's a plethora of nice features on that board, but $400 for a Z270 is ridiculous (IMHO). You can get boards with really solid overclocking features from $150. All you're getting for the $250 you're paying is extra features... performance will be basically identical. So, put the feature set of those boards side-by-side and make sure you're really getting your money's worth out of that $400 board (you're almost certainly NOT).
3) That a really nice PSU, but there's loads in the $60-90 range that are fantastic. Platinum units are still overpriced IMHO.

One final point. Ryzen launces on March 2. It'd be crazy to build a high end rig right now when 8 core 16 thread CPUs at similar prices look like they're coming soon. Even if the hype turns out to be totally overblown and the 7700K retains the gaming champion crown... you should at least wait and see!

1) 8GB of RAM is not enough these days- you will gain ~5-10% average game performance by going 16GB
2) 2TB Hard drives are not just bigger and better at capacity per $, but also faster, while price difference 1TB->2TB is minimal.
3) Ryzen CPUs will be released in a week, and PC community is very excited about them. At 1440p, Ryzen 1800X 8-core should be very competitive against i7 7700K.

I'll post an improved build below, heaps of unnecessary costs, and not enough RAM.

I got a PM requesting suggestions on the mobo...

My first answer is: wait for Ryzen! (2 March). Spending 2.5K right now in an Intel quad core rig would be really, really silly.

If you're really determined to build right now, which I don't recommend, you need to ask what features you want in a motherboard.
Boards like the MSI Z270-A Pro, Gigabyte GA-Z270-HD3 and ASRock Z270 Pro4 offer everything most gamers will ever need. They have decent overclocking (though if you're chasing the highest possible OC's they won't be the best), at least one M.2 slot for NVMe storage, plenty of SATA and USB 3, LAN, etc.
They start at the $110-120 mark. That's where I'd be shopping myself, probably.

So then you need to ask yourself what features are actually worth more money to you?
- Multi GPU support? (MSI have a cheap SLI board for $114 at the moment, but SLI support can generally be found in boards from $140+). I might consider this were I in your shoes. Having SLI as a possibility for the future could well be worth $20-30.
- USB 3.1 Gen2? Higher end audio? LAN? Better power delivery, additional overclocking features (the sky's the limit here, with some boards providing all sorts of features useful for competitive OCers running exotic cooling solutions, but basically useless for 99% of even hardcore gamers and enthusiasts)

Remember with motherboards it's about features, not performance. So look at side-by-side comparsions between boards you're interested in, figure out how much extra those features are costing you, and then decide whether those features are actually worth the extra cost **to you**. I use a USB headset, so I couldn't care less about the onboard audio - I never use it. But an audiophile who listens to high quality music all the time on a premium set of analogue headphones would very likely pay a bit extra for a better shielded and higher end audio solution. Maybe they just get an external DAC... whatever. The point is, different features are worth different amounts to different people. You decide what you care about and how much it's worth to you.

Just because it says "GAMING" and the motherboard has a bunch of disco lights, doesn't mean it'll give you tons of performance. It won't boost your performance at all. You're spending too much on it.
The RAM says "4000Mhz" on it, yes, but how does that help. Gaming? NO. Workstation?Maybe. Anyway 8GB is not enough.
And I suggest Seasonic PRIME, if you want the best PSU in the world.

Yeah - that's a much better balanced build.

Out of curiosity @chugalug: would you recommend this right now with Ryzen launching on 2nd March? I'm firmly in the wait-and-see with Ryzen camp.

Nope, Ryzen is more focused on rendering performance as opposed to mid ranged consumer CPUs like i5s, although it does offer a few in this area, the IPC, clocks and overall performance won't touch Intel's k i7s.

Wow. That's a bold statement: "IPC, clocks and overall performance won't touch Intel's K i7s"... we'll see I guess!

You may well be right, AMD have disappointed us many times before. But at this point it is looking like Ryzen could very well give the CPU market a much, much needed shake up. The signs are certainly good enough to make me wait 2 weeks. Worst case OP buys your (very solid) build in two weeks time. But hey, each to their own.

That seems a bit more biased than I intended, but what I meant is that their equivalent offering, their 4 core HT CPU will feature both lower clock speeds and lower IPC due to the fact they haven't made CPUs in 5 years, and their R&D budget is nowhere near intel.
Power efficiency will be good with the 10nm socket though, so we'll see where that leads.

Well it's 14nm (not that processes from different fabs can really be compared anyway). And Intel has managed maybe 25% IPC (being generous) over the last 5 years.

Widespread leaks have a 4 core 8 thread CPU with a 3.9Ghz boost clock for $199, or sacrifice 200mhz on base and boost clocks and add $60 and you get a 6 core 12 thread CPU (for $259!). For a similar price to an 7700K it looks like you can get a 3.7Ghz Boost 8 core (16 thread) CPU. Even if IPC is 20% behind, I still think that'll be enough performance for any game, and additional cores for any workloads that can use it... or you just save some cash on a cheaper 6 or 4 core CPU.

Absolutely we need to wait and see because IPC could be significantly down on Intel parts which will impact on gaming. But it's worth waiting 2 weeks for IMO.

Anyways, I'm out now. I've banged on about this enough. OP can make up their own mind.

Here's what I think:
As chugalug said, to expect them to beat intel is too much, they haven't made CPU's in a long time, their budget is smaller.
What I expect is for AMD to beat intel in pricing, as rumours go now, the 4C HT will sell for $130, and that is the cost of an intel i3.
Their 8C HT, I expect to cost as much as or a bit more than an intel i7(4C), which will be justified, because it has double the cores.
Intel's 6900K(8C), costs $1000+ which makes AMD's 8C very affordable compared to intels.
AMD will be good on price and if you don't like it, at least you'll buy a lower priced Intel chip.