I'm upgrading my computer and I'd like it optimized for Houdini. This is what I'll be upgrading and what I've picked out. Should do the trick or is there other brands, particularly in the Ram and motherboard I should consider? Maybe a different processor? It's been a long time since I've been in the hardware scene so not sure of what all is out there. I'll be overclocking the system a bit as well.

Processor: intel i7-7700K

Motherboard: ASUS Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Skylake DDR4 3PCI-E16 3PCI-E1 1PCI CrossFireX/SLI USB3.1 Motherboard [ncix.com]

Ram: Corsair Vengeance Lpx 16GB 2x8GB DDR4 3200MHz C16 1.35V Memory Kit [ncix.com] or should I go with 32gigs? Will Houdini benifit from it? I have a scene with flip fluid and pyro in together I'm currently working with.

Video card: EVGA Gtx 1070

Given the fact that AMD just released (or is about to?) their Ryzen platform, going for that CPU doesn't make much sense from a performance and price standpoint.

Video card is good, RAM however, even 32 Gb is treading on a very thin line. Go with 64 at least. DDR4 is still expensive, so if 64 is out of the question, get at least 32, 16 is plain suicidal.
Also, for now just ignore DRAM frequency, just get 2133, it's not much of a difference between 3200 and 2133 in terms of performance, only in price.

Awesome! This is exactly why I asked and I had no idea about AMD releasing their new platforms. Definitely will check that out. Performance is supposed to be that much better/$? And wow, really glad I asked about ram. I'll see if I can pull off 64gigs with my budget then. Didn't realize Houdini could gobble up so much.

Any recommendations for a motherboard for the new AMD chips?