Hardware Advice Wanted: Replacing Main Sim Computer

[RayS]

I was originally going to just upgrade the Avionics computer but I figure if I'm spending the money, may as well go a bit bigger and replace the sim computer instead, and relegate the existing sim computer to the Avionics duties.

Requirements: (Will be running X-Plane)

1. SLI *not* required. (I've heard it really only adds marginal FPS gains.)
2. M.2 Slot(s) (Now referred to as U.2)
3. I-7 CPU or AMD equivalent 
4. Will only need to support Windows 8.1 (I'm avoiding w10 like the plague)
5. I don't overclock
6. Budget around $1200(US)
7. Already have a GTX 1080 Video card

These are just baseline requirements. 

I am hoping to go with an ASUS motherboard.
Asus Z170-DELUXE ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
http://pcpartpicker.com/product/3XvZxr/asus-motherboard-z170deluxe

Comments, feedback, suggestions are welcome!

[Trevor Hale]

Ray...  Just a tidbit...

Beware of 7th Gen CPU's as they do not support Windows 7 or 8 or 8.1  (WINDOWS 10 ONLY)

Therefore I summarize Stick with the 6700K i7 or similar..

I Just bought a i5 6600K and H170MB (Should have gone Z170) But didn't and thats all another story for another thread..  I am very happy with my purchase though.

Also, You don't need to OC, but Buy an Unlocked Chip (K) anyway just in case you ever do.

Trev

[iwik]

I'll second what Trev said. Have just built a Z170(sabertooth mk1),6700k,16gb ram and ssd(M2).
One thing to remember Win 7 doesnt have drivers for M2. So if your
os is installed here you will have to load drivers at os install time.
Les

[RayS]

Thanks for the input everyone... Keep it coming!

The reason I'd like to stick with 8.1 is because I did at one point try to upgrade the main sim box to w10 and it was a total disaster. It wouldn't recognize any of my overhead projectors so I had to back it out... with a 4-hour tech support call to Microsoft.