Very cool. White + wood would have been a nice option I'd have had a hard time to choose between if it had been available when I ordered - guess it's a good thing, no endless hesitation
I'd expect the i7-8700 to perform similarly to the 7700 (considering stock clocks on both), after all it runs more cores but at slower speeds to keep the same TDP.
That's one of the reasons (+ price considerations) I went with the 7700K, I already have an 8-core machine and it will likely stay the single-thread king for quite a while since they abandoned the low core count/high freq config on the 8 series.
In the end it all boils down to the noise you're OK with. Personally I want a PC that's quiet at light/moderate loads, BUT I'll absolutely prefer a CPU that's got oomph when needed and saves me time even if that means a temporary noise increase while it's doing so, hence the OC'd 7700K. Getting a lower TDP CPU makes no sense to me as I just see it as a limitation. Yeah it's always quiet, but making you wait because of that. I can do that by limiting my 7700K if I REALLY want it, the opposite less so.
