Fredfinks,
(having weird issue with quoting so just doing it this way)
First, your "i7-8700K" comment is only partly true. Every game is different in how much CPU it needs, and a 4C/4T CPU like the i5-4690 is going to have difficulties in some games in terms of game SMOOTHNESS or just becoming a bottleneck.
Is the i5-4690 + GTX1070 the best bang-for-buck right NOW. For the next YEAR?
Arguably YES but even then it depends on the games played. Some MMO games, or specific strategy games similar to AotS are very demanding on the CPU.
The game devs tell me they intend to utilize CPU's more as time goes on for tasks like AI etc, and the main thing holding them back is the game engines being better threaded but that's now starting to change with DX12 and Vulkan.
One game dev said to expect even an 8C/16T CPU might be totally utilized for some games.
This will NOT happen over night of course, but I think spending a little MORE for something like a 6C/12T R5-1600 to get 5+ years out of the core system (with later DDR4 and Graphics Card updates).
The GTX1070 can increase the FPS by roughly 30% over a GTX1060 6GB assuming minimal to no CPU bottlenecking. What ties into that is the fact that most games don't look much different on both cards really, assuming you've tweaked the settings to say 60FPS or so.
The visual fidelity rapidly diminishes because the core game is tweaked for weaker systems, and increasing settings can be relatively taxing with arguably minimal gain graphically.
Here's a good video on that:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnluU-pV6cU
So there really is NOT a wrong answer, just a difference in strategy. Mine is to concentrate on a CPU that will last longer, with a motherboard socket that will hang around longer. I feel that he would likely want to upgrade the CPU later anyway so my advice is spend a little more NOW and get a long life out of the core system.
DDR4 memory will also be cheaper than DDR3 memory too, especially later as DDR3 phases out more.
Other:
As for the last part I can't comment about AM4 motherboard returns though I suspect much of that is returning working motherboards because the DDR4 memory isn't achieving the rated frequency as well as some issues that have been since fixed with BIOS updates.
So probably mostly a fixable FIRMWARE issue rather than a manufacturing issue.
Finally, as I may have said I think replacing his HASWELL socket motherboard will be very difficult in a year or two. Heck, the CPU may be hard to sell too if there ends up a surplus of them once motherboards are unattainable even on EBay.
So that's part of the reason I suggest switching to AM4.
(You can also get an M.2 SSD for most or all AM4 motherboards as well which may be a good purchase later on, but certainly not now due to budget)
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