Finally got around to ordering! I went with Newegg and an Acer setup with the i7, plenty of SSD space, 1 TB HDD and the 970 graphics card.
Added a monitor and a new joystick with some couponing kept the price around $1600, 12 months same as cash. Sold.
Should be knocking airplanes out of the sky and lawn darting by the end of the week