If i was to go with a "fresh release" specially in the X299 chipset the 9900X would be the best bet as the IHS isn't glued on anymore as its soldered on in the new series, so no more having to delid the processor and replace the crappy thermal compound.
The year is 2018: Ryzen & Ryzen 2 are released which are obviously the better choice, for a CPU budget upto ~$300, but this matter is widely discussed, so I'll just bring up the main factors, why AMD is the better choice:
1. All Ryzen & Ryzen 2 processors are overclockable.
2. The performance of Ryzen processors are better than Intels counter parts,
3. while being available at a lower price point!
4. AMD's said that the current AM4 socket will be held upon to 2020/22, all while having backwards compatibility for their Ryzen Chipsets. Meaning you won't have to upgrade you mobo every generation.
Cheaper, yes. Better, no. Ryzen 2700x has 2 more cores than the comparable 8700k but each core is a lower clock speed and since most games can't use more than 4 cores at the maximum. While I would agree that ryzen is a better price to performance CPU than intel, it is not better period, given infinite money intel still comes out on top for gaming my a non-insignificant amount
ive had a pc since my first comadore 64, yes its nice ot have teh top of the crap, in all realilty there is no ground breaking programing requiring me to not drive my 2nd gen i7 into the dirt, all games have been using same engines just with newer 'textures' and higher resolutions, for how many years now? the biggest thing that hits my processor on anything is the damn copy protect on dumb games like AOS origins that had a double layer of anti piracy bunk spiking my cores. i just want to go back to the hole punch days of copy protection.. these 'work around' so called 'cracks' are a waste of time an money tbh
This isn't really much of a competition though... the K series are 1. overclockable, 2. usually a bit more powerful to begin with, and 3. not much more expensive than the normal i series.