cr157y

Sounds like overheating problems, also check the cpu temps. Im guessing you tried  things like changing the power plan, disabling the intel speedstep in bios and other power saving settings. I had a problem with speedstep that would keep my cpu at .91gHz

Msi Afterburner with rivatunner installed as well.. you set in msi afterburner which things to show up like fps / monitor temps / usage whatever you like and in rivatunner you set the color .

Did you try alternative software like 7--zip, it's free and might do the trick.

I'd say stay with w7 if nothing is wrong, you won't be missing many features, and you probably will get a new laptop by the time windows ends the support on w7. Or if you can afford right now it will be a better investment to just sell your laptop and buy a new one with a skylake platform, they perform really well and are pretty future proof.

By my personal opinion i think it's not worth keeping a laptop / desktop more than 2-3 years especially when new platforms arrive. 

Yes it will only fail when stressed by some games. Had same problem some games won't have any problems while others within minute. Try a 3dmark test or something similar and see if you get artifacts or other errors. 

The problem is with gpu, it.s starting to fail... Had same problem with a desktop 5870... It.s because of overclock... The card wont last too long after this... Soon you will get artfacts and then dead...

What you guys think, it's better to get the i3 with a z170 board and overclock it like crazy or go with a cheaper mobo and a better cpu like i5.

I'm planing only on gaming on a pretty tight budget, video card probably wont be something better than r9 270x.

I'm not planing on sli / crossfire in the future either.