Rolling Potatoe

Is that a single 8gb stick?(cant quite tell from the pictures). If so you should probably get a cheap second one for dual channel, that can really cause some stuttering nowadays. Otherwise the system is quite balanced actually, what should be upgraded depends on what res/refresh rate you play at. This should probably be ok for 1080p/60fps on high in most games. For starters Id probably get a 1 tb ssd for around 100$ and put everything on there, waiting for stuff to load is really annoying and its gonna make the pc feel so much snappier. If you are really sensitive to frame drops or need a high refresh rate id probably upgrade the cpu first to an 8600k (or a 8700k if you plan to stick with that for a long time). Upgrading the GPU to something that is alot better is going to get expensive atm, something like a 5700xt or a 2070 is about twice as fast. Anyways, if youre gonna make some serious upgrades then youll have to replace that PSU, you might get away with upgrading the cpu, but it doesnt even have enough connectors for a mid high range gpu.

GPU manufacturers usually keep it safe, after all they have no idea what other components are in your system, how good your xxx watt power supply is and really dont want GPU rmas. Most gaming systems probably only draw around 300w, that said its probably a good idea to get a bit extra headroom for future upgrades, overclocking and not making the psu fan go crazy when stressing the system.

There isnt much point in you upgrading your CPU at all if you are just gaming. A stock 6700k can pretty much push all games to 60+ fps, you might get an extra 10-20% fps if you go for 144hz 1080p with a high end GPU and a 9900k, in almost all cases you wont feel a difference though.

Whell, depends on what you can do....but coding is already quite marketable. You could could look into getting started on Fiverr if you want to try out a bunch of freelance work. You can do stuff like video editing, text editing, 3d modelling, web design, programming, translations, photo editing etc. Pretty much everything that takes time/effort/skill to learn will have plenty of people trying to outsource it.

Improve cooling or upp voltage and power. TBH its not wort trying to get the last few MHZ when you have to deal with random crashes or artifacts. I usually even back down a little from what seems stable so I dont randomly run into issues.

LM will give you around -20 °C even on a laptop, if you apply it properly and only wet both surfaces lightly it should also be quite safe. It is only dangerous if you apply so much that it can bead easily despite the high surface tension... you really just need a teeny tiny amount. More importantly though just cleaning your laptop heatsink and applying decent aftermarket paste will probably be enough. I got the same laptop and just cleaning it, changing the paste for mx-2 and downvolting it a bit dropped the temps by alot.

Nah, the 6600k has the same IPC as a 8700k and even new games are not very multithreaded. A 6600k at 4.5 can still push 144 hz in most games, at most id upgrade to a 6700k from ebay since some games like the extra threads. Even if you use game at 720p with a 1080 ti there is next to no difference in fps if you compare a 6700k or 7700k to a 8700k at the same clockspeed. That said most games that struggle to be pushed to 144 hz on a modern intel cpu will probably also be hard to push to 144 fps 1440p with "only" a 1080 ti without lowering settings.

Seller is an ebay account from 2010 with 2 reviews in the last year, it was probably hacked / phished.

If you want more stable 100 fps you can just grab an i7 4790k off ebay, 5 minutes work and maybe 80$ cost if you sell your i5. There are next to no games where a 8700k will be needed to get to 100 fps if your gpu is up to snuff for your resolution.

Its technically 2-3 °C better when applied properly, but since it is harder to apply and very expensive so it is not worth it in my opinion. MX 2 costs a few bucks for an 8 gramm syringe, just put a drop down and everything will be fine for 5-10 years.

It doesnt have hyperthreading, temps wont be much of an issue. Hyperthreading increases max temps by around 20°C, delidding reduces them by ~20°C.

Depends on what you are doing, playing Ashes of the singularity in 1080p a 1080 would be bottlenecked by any CPU. Your I7 can easily push games to 60+ fps, so if you are playing at a high resolution and 60-100 hz there will be little bottleneck. If you are trying to get 1080p 144hz your 1080 might be held back.

The high end cards usually release first with lower end models taking a while, it could be half a year or so before you can get a entry level volta card for 200$.

Nothing clicky like blue switches (if you are worried about noise), you could go with brown switches + rubber O rings for example.

It shouldnt limit you for 60 hz gaming, If you are aiming for 120 or 144 hz youll lose some fps in some games. If you are buying new stuff, dont go with a 7600k though lol. Even an i3 8350k would be better as youd have an upgrade path.