Best Intel CPU for under £300 / $350?

[Adam360]

Currently looking at the i7 6700k 4ghz for £285.
Must be a 1151 socket, otherwise I'll have to buy another motherboard.

Seems like a good price, but does anyone have any recommendations before I pull the trigger?
It will be mainly used for gaming with a GTX 970 gpu, graphic design and video rendering.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Barty1884]

Assuming you've updated the BIOS to support KabyLAke chips too, the i7-7700K is 301GBP

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£301.00 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £301.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-06-21 16:52 BST+0100

Boosts to 4.5GHz opposed to the 4.2GHz of the 6700K

 

[Adam360]

Assuming you've updated the BIOS to support KabyLAke chips too, the i7-7700K is 301GBP

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£301.00 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £301.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-06-21 16:52 BST+0100

Boosts to 4.5GHz opposed to the 4.2GHz of the 6700K

Thanks for the suggestion, might go out and get a new motherboard anyway. Any suggestions in that area which would be compatible with the 7700k for around £60-70? would be really appreciated, thanks!

 

[Barty1884]

Honestly, if you're prepared to spend ~370quid across a new CPU and board..... for your intended uses, Ryzen may well be the way to go.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor (£202.45 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M-HDV Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£70.50 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £272.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-06-21 17:14 BST+0100

6core / 12thread

OR

8 core / 16 thread

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor (£273.63 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M-HDV Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£70.50 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £344.13
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-06-21 17:14 BST+0100

Both come with a solid cooler for some overclocking too.

 

[ayushde]

Currently looking at the i7 6700k 4ghz for £285.
Must be a 1151 socket, otherwise I'll have to buy another motherboard.

Seems like a good price, but does anyone have any recommendations before I pull the trigger?
It will be mainly used for gaming with a GTX 970 gpu, graphic design and video rendering.

Thanks in advance.

Assuming you've updated the BIOS to support KabyLAke chips too, the i7-7700K is 301GBP

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£301.00 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £301.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-06-21 16:52 BST+0100

Boosts to 4.5GHz opposed to the 4.2GHz of the 6700K

Thanks for the suggestion, might go out and get a new motherboard anyway. Any suggestions in that area which would be compatible with the 7700k for around £60-70? would be really appreciated, thanks!

If you do plan on changing the motherboard, I highly recommend getting a Ryzen 1700 setup with a decent cooler and OCing it to 3.8-4 Ghz. With a gtx 970, you'll get similar gaming performance to the 7700k but it will a lot faster for stuff like video rendering.