THe 6600K works with both DDR3 and DDR4 RAM, so for those upgrading an older generation system, their RAM will still be usable while still retaining the option to upgrade to a newer generation of RAM (DDR4, if their motherboard supports it).
The performance of the i5 6660K is similar to a more expensive i7 processor in gaming situations. While the i7 does use more threading (twice as much), there are very few PC games that can actually take advantage of this making the i5 a good choice when building a gaming specific PC.
THe 6600K works with both DDR3 and DDR4 RAM, so for those upgrading an older generation system, their RAM will still be usable while still retaining the option to upgrade to a newer generation of RAM (DDR4, if their motherboard supports it).
The chip itself allows for 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes. This translates into how many PCIe devices can be used at the same time and how fast they can be controlled which makes for a scenario where multiple PCIe GPUs can be used at their top transfer speed of 16x for one and 8x for two.
The K series of processors from Intel allow for overclocking. This means the user can choose to use after market cooling systems to then overclock their chips to see better performance than stock.
No longer does Intel include a heatsink with their new CPUs, so the user will have to purchase their own. While they are not too expensive, that basically means out of the box this can not be used unless a purchase was made for a heatsink along with this item.
This processor uses the LGA 1151 CPU socket. For those upgrading from an older generation chip this means the will need to purchase a new motherboard and possibly RAM in order to use this chip. This can be expensive to replace so many components all for a single new pin in the chips connection. While the performance will be better than the last generation, it may not be worth the price of all new gear to see this performance.
Being a quad-core CPU means that hyperthreading is available, more so than an i5 thanks to the higher clock speeds and available cache. This means that games that take advantage of hyperthreading will perform better than with a CPU that does not have many cores or is just at a lower clock speed and has less cache available. While the jump in performance is not much for games that can only utilize a single core of the CPU, it still is a jump of about 2-3 frames over an i5 of the same generation.
Being that this is a Haswell chip that uses the LGA 1150 socket, it is quite easy to find cheap motherboards and cheap RAM (DDR3) to use in those motherboards. This makes a good option as it is still a powerful chip comparable to even newer ones but allows for a wide selection of compatible parts. It also is a good choice for those that are already using a LGA 1150 compatible motherboard and would just like to upgrade from a less powerful CPU.
More and more stores are not carrying this chip as newer generation chips are seeing their prices drop. This means it can be difficult to obtain, though there are a few places that it can still be picked up easily.
Based on the fourth generation of Intel's core architecture (Haswell) there are newer chips out there two generations ahead (6th gen Skylake). While comparing one to the next there are only slight improvements in the newer generations, but improvements all the same for close to the same price.
Being a Skylake 6th generation CPU this chip is able to be used with DDR4 RAM as this is what the new LGA 1151 based motherboards are able to use. DDR4 is available in faster speeds over DDR3 RAM (what was used with previous generation CPUs) meaning an overall speed bump in RAM when using this newer technological chip.
The chip itself allows for 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes (which was not available in such high numbers in the previous generation chips). This translates into how many PCIe devices can be used at the same time and how fast they can communicate, which makes for a scenario where multiple PCIe GPUs can be used at their top transfer speed of 16x for one and 8x for two.
No longer does Intel include a heatsink with their new CPUs, so the user will have to purchase their own. While they are not too expensive, that basically means out of the box this can not be used unless a purchase was made for a heatsink along with this item.
This processor uses the LGA 1151 CPU socket. For those upgrading from an older generation chip this means the will need to purchase a new motherboard and possibly RAM in order to use this chip. This can be expensive to replace so many components all for a single new pin in the chips connection. While the performance will be better than the last generation, it may not be worth the price of all new gear to see this performance.
Being that this is a Haswell chip that uses the LGA 1150 socket, it is quite easy to find cheap motherboards and cheap RAM (DDR3) to use in those motherboards. This makes a good option as it is still a powerful chip comparable to even newer ones but allows for a wide selection of compatible parts. It also is a good choice for those that are already using a LGA 1150 compatible motherboard and would just like to upgrade from a less powerful CPU.
When comparing to CPUs in a similar price range such as the AMD 8350, this Intel chip is more efficient for power use. That means less heat and a lower power bill. While newer generation Intel chips may have a slight advantage here, they will be more expensive as well, so this makes a good choice if heat, power and efficiency are a concern in this price range.
At under $200 the 4460 makes a for a good mid range build. It will handle any casual game or even most AAA games without issue, though some that are really CPU intensive (such as Civ 5) may see some bottleneck.
Even though this is a quad-core device, there is no hypethreading built into the chip meaning any apps or games that can take advantage of the multiple cores through hyperthreading will be unable to see that performance using this chip.
For those interested, this CPU is easily overclockable, which allows for more performance. A third party cooler is recommended, but can be worth it in order to squeeze a bit more out of this chip.
This is good for games that can utilize multithreading using more than 4 cores in a CPU, meaning better performance. While there are very few games that take advantage of this, the few that do should work quite well.
This chip uses quite a bit of power when compared to a similar performing chip from Intel, which could mean a higher power bill in the long run. The high power consumption also leads to a lot of heat generated from this chip. While a third party cooler can help with this (and is recommended as the stock cooler is loud and does a poor job of cooling), it is an extra cost to using this chip efficiently.
Considering most games are single threaded using a CPU that does not work as well with them as Intle may be a detriment to ones experience. While this CPU can handle plenty of games it may come down to price for performance whether it is worth it in a hardcore gaming rig.
Being that this chip requires liquid cooling in order to not burn itself into oblivion it is quite easy to overclock the chip in order to get a better performance than the stock speeds. The chip is not locked, meaning it can be overclocked as high as one can get it to go without locking up.
Coming in at under $250, this chip performs quite admirably when compared to Intel's offerings. While not quite as good as an i7 4770k, the price for this AMD chip is about $100 lower.
Due to how much power this chips need to perform there is only a small selection of compatible motherboards. This means that anyone with an older AMD compatible board will not be able to use this chip. It also means there will be less variety in good boards to purchase.
Using a lot of power also has the downside of a higher electric bill if using the PC a lot as well as more opportunity for the chip to wear itself out early (of which there have been quite a few reports of.
Being that this has a high rate of power consumption there is quite a lot of heat produced by this chip. It runs really hot. Running hot is such an issue that it is highly recommended to use this with liquid cooling, which adds to the overall price of using this chip.