There weren’t many good Black Friday CPU deals this year, but today’s Cyber Monday sale has luckily brought us a few more, including a sizeable discount on Intel’s entry-level 10th Gen Core i3 processor. To help you get the best price on your new Intel or AMD CPU, we’ve rounded up all the best Cyber Monday CPU deals happening in the UK and the US. Most of this year’s Cyber Monday CPU deals are limited to the premium end of the price spectrum, unfortunately, but if you’re looking to pick up one of Intel’s new 10th Gen Comet Lake CPUs this is still a good time to do so.
To help make things nice and easy, you can also click the links to the right to go straight to your CPU deal category of choice, or just carry on reading to get the full spread – whatever you prefer. You’ll find all the best UK and US CPU deals here, as well as brief explanations of what they can do and how much they’ve fallen in price.
It’s not just CPUs that are going cheap over Cyber Monday, of course. For more Cyber Monday deals, check out our regularly updated hub pages below:
Cyber Monday graphics card deals | Cyber Monday gaming monitor deals | Cyber Monday SSD deals | Cyber Monday gaming headset deals | Cyber Monday mouse and keyboard deals | Cyber Monday gaming laptop deals | Cyber Monday RAM deals
Best Intel CPU deals:
Intel Core i7-9700K deals:
The Core i7-9700K remains a great processor for high-speed gaming, even if its performance is pretty much on par with Intel’s newer Core i5-10600K. It’s got a sizeable discount on it for Black Friday, but bear in mind that the not-discounted 10600K is only a fraction more at $275.
Intel Core i9-9900K deals:
The Core i9-9900K has since been replaced by the Core i9-10900K, but it’s a good alternative to the Core i7-10700K below if you want similar kinds of speed for a little bit less.
Intel Core i3-10100 deals:
There’s a discount of $20 to be had on Intel’s entry-level new Core i3 processor – although make sure the one you pop in your basket is sold by Newegg and not a third party such as Platinum Micro, as that’s the only way you’ll get this deal price. The Core i3-10100 can’t be overclocked, but this quad-core CPU is still a fine foundation for a budget gaming PC.
Intel Core i5-10600K deals:
Only a very small discount of $5 here, but it’s still the best price we’ve seen for Intel’s super powerful Core i5-10600K chip all week. In the absence of any of AMD’s more powerful Ryzen 5000 CPUs to buy instead, this is a next best CPU we’d recommend buying right now.
Intel Core i7-10700K deals:
The fastest member of Intel’s current 10th Gen Core i7 family, the Core i7-10700K is a powerful 8-core processor that’s great for gaming and streaming. It’s not as fast as AMD’s new Ryzen 5000 family, but it does offer considerable gains over their older Ryzen 3000 chips. It’s a decent bit cheaper than what it cost at the beginning of October, too, with UK and US prices down by around £20 / $20.
Best AMD CPU deals:
Ryzen 7 3800X deals:
While not as energy efficient as the 3700X, the 3800X is also one of the few AMD Ryzen CPUs being discounted for Black Friday this year. The UK deal is actually the slightly faster XT model of the 3800X, while the US deal is the regular, non-XT model. They’re both decent discounts, but the 3700X is probably the better buy overall if you’re looking for a good value gaming CPU.
Upgrading to one of today’s best gaming CPUs can make a surprising difference to your PC’s overall gaming performance, particularly if you tend to play games at a resolution of 1920×1080. The difference becomes a lot less marked at 1440p and 4K, though, so if you regularly play games at these resolutions, then you can save yourself a lot of money by opting for a mid-range CPU instead of an expensive high-end one.
The question, of course, is what type of gaming CPU you should go for? Intel or AMD? A lot of your decision making will be determined by what kind of motherboard you have, although if your PC is more than a few years old, chances are you’ll need to buy a new motherboard anyway. If you’re building a new PC from scratch, then it’s a bit easier, as you can simply pick the best gaming CPU you like the sound of and buy the appropriate motherboard to match.
There are pros and cons to both Intel and AMD. Intel CPUs generally offer better gaming performance overall, but they tend to be more expensive than their AMD equivalents. AMD CPUs also come with their own coolers, and all of them are unlocked for overclocking, which isn’t necessarily the case with every Intel CPU. Only Intel CPUs with a K on the end of their name can be overclocked, which is what you’ll find listed above.
The AMD Ryzen 3 3300X is the RPS CPU of choice in our £1000 RPS Rig build at the moment, if only because its gaming performance is almost as fast as its more expensive Ryzen 5 siblings. If you’re determined to go the Intel route, though, then we’d recommend the Core i5-9600K as an absolute minimum these days, but you should probably find the budget for their absurdly fast Core i5-10600K instead – especially if you want to minimise your risk of having to buy a new motherboard next time you come to upgrade.
If you regularly stream games online, though, then you’ll want a CPU with lots of cores, as your PC needs to be very good at multi-tasking to stream smoothly. This means you’ll probably have to find a bit more budget for something like one of Intel’s Core i7 CPUs or AMD’s Ryzen 7 chips, but you’ll thank yourself later for finding the extra cash.
If you need help installing your CPU, then you’ll find everything you need to know about how to build a PC in our dedicated guide, including how to install your CPU, and I’ve also put together a list of everything you need to know about upgrading your PC in 2020 if you need a bit of a refresher on all things CPU-related.
For more Cyber Monday PC gaming deals, be sure to keep an eye on our hardware deals homepage, as well as our Cyber Monday deals hubs for all the latest prices and discounts:
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