1. Really depends whether you're talking specifically gaming, or all around. The 8700k beats the 2700X in gaming, but by a lesser margin than it did the 1800X. In things like encoding and synthetic benches though, the 2700X wins. What I still don't like about Ryzen though, is even the 2700X still demonstrates wild frame rate fluctuation in many games, with a few peaks higher than the 8700k, but many drops much lower. Plus it's Infinity Fabric is still tied to RAM speed, so you must use high speed RAM for them to perform well.
2. I prefer Intel for gaming and got an 8700k myself, and am thoroughly pleased with it even after seeing 2700X benches. I only use it on Balanced power setting in W10 too. It idles at only 30c, and stays at around 55-60c while gaming, even on a $35 air cooler (Cryorig H7). When I launch a game it immediately ramps up to 4.4 GHz from 800MHz at idle, and stays there.
3. IMO, the only need for custom loop water cooling is extreme overclocking, which quite frankly ins't necessary with a 8700k. With just my H7 air cooler, most games use my 1080 GPU way more than my CPU. The 8700k doesn't break a sweat. AIO water cooling can be slightly more effective than a good air cooler, but IMO is not worth the extra price and bulk. Plus the rad fins are very delicate. AIOs overall are harder to clean.
I got the Cryorig H7 because it's rated the best performance per dollar air cooler. It is also not very tall, and I was concerned about taller ones interfering with my side 120mm intake fan. Taller coolers are also usually heavier and put more weight stress on the MB, which can over time warp it. It also has very good RAM clearance, but my RAM is low profile too (Corsair Vengeance LPX).
The only trick of installing the H7 was keeping it in place while flipping the MB over to tighten the screws. My first try I did it with MB loose in hand, and the cooler HS stack spun back and forth a lot. Maybe I was too worried, but I took it back apart, cleaned off and reapplied the thermal paste, and did it differently.
My second try I mounted the MB in the case, and laid some folded up foam rubber I had on top of the cooler and held it in place as I put the side panel on. Note this only works if your side panel swings down, vs slides on. This held it in place firmly so I could just take the other side panel off and tighten the screws, but that requires your MB tray CPU cutout to be big enough to reach all the screws.
I suppose an alternative to this method could be using duct or packaging tape to hold the cooler from spinning by running strips of tape from the top of it to the edge of the MB, then removing them after it's tightened, but as I said I may have just worried too much about it spinning back and forth while it was loose.
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