- Aug 25, 2001
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Well, my friend still hasn't been willing to swap in a fresh (refurb) mobo into the rig that I built him a week or so ago (that he got to use for approx. 12 hours, before it "mysteriously" started to fail).
I have been building pretty-much only Ryzen rigs, the last year or two. I was an early-adopter of the R5 1600 CPUs, and they proved (to me, at least, though not a heavy gamer) that they "had the chops", and thus, was scooping them up when they hit $120 or less recently, for future builds to get friends and family on AM4 platform.
But I'm wondering, my friend has been on an Athlon II X4 for like 8 years now or so. He was impressed with the Ryzen R3 1200 CPU, even though it was only 4C/4T like his current CPU. But the IPC increase of Ryzen 1st-Gen over Athlon II, along with a nice little OC to 3.80Ghz, yielded a PC that scored like 3X faster in CPU-Z benchmark than his old (non-overclocked) rig. His internet speedtests were even higher.
But I thought, if we're going to re-build, what about moving to an Intel platform? I haven't investigated them that much lately. I was thinking along the lines of a 9400F, but unlike the Ryzen R5 1600, which is overclockable, the 9400F is NOT, which really puts kind of a damper on things. Plus, my friend and I are budget-sensitive, and the Ryzen R5 1600 CPUs that I have been getting, are quite a bit cheaper. (I've seen the 9400F for $170 new, and the 9600KF (overclockable), is like $270.)
So, looking at Intel for ease of integration and compatibility, potentially, but how much more is it going to cost?
Here's Newegg's cheapest i5-9600K Entry Level Bundle, $374.99.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.3878865
Ouch.
My Ryzen R5 1600 CPU ($120) + X370 ATX mobo ($54 refurb / open-box), is WAAAAY cheaper. You could even add a DDR4-3600 16GB RGB RAM kit for the difference in price between the Intel and AMD combos.
Guess that settles it, Intel rigs are a bust, financially-speaking.
Edit: I went to "All Super Combos", searched for "9400F", and "i5-9400F", and there were no matches. But going to CPUs, and drilling down to the i5-9400F, and then looking at "Combos", I found this reasonable combo:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.3894361
i5-9400F
ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 4 (unfortunately, this board is the odd man out, and does NOT have the 2.5Gbit/sec LAN, it just has Intel LAN)
Corsair 16GB DDR4-3000
$360
Still a bit more expensive than AMD, and not overclockable, but max turbo for the 9400F is like 4.1Ghz, so if you're using an Z390, and can set MCT/ACT to 4.0Ghz all-core, you should be able to probably match performance (or exceed slightly) the R5 1600 in 1080P gaming.
I have been building pretty-much only Ryzen rigs, the last year or two. I was an early-adopter of the R5 1600 CPUs, and they proved (to me, at least, though not a heavy gamer) that they "had the chops", and thus, was scooping them up when they hit $120 or less recently, for future builds to get friends and family on AM4 platform.
But I'm wondering, my friend has been on an Athlon II X4 for like 8 years now or so. He was impressed with the Ryzen R3 1200 CPU, even though it was only 4C/4T like his current CPU. But the IPC increase of Ryzen 1st-Gen over Athlon II, along with a nice little OC to 3.80Ghz, yielded a PC that scored like 3X faster in CPU-Z benchmark than his old (non-overclocked) rig. His internet speedtests were even higher.
But I thought, if we're going to re-build, what about moving to an Intel platform? I haven't investigated them that much lately. I was thinking along the lines of a 9400F, but unlike the Ryzen R5 1600, which is overclockable, the 9400F is NOT, which really puts kind of a damper on things. Plus, my friend and I are budget-sensitive, and the Ryzen R5 1600 CPUs that I have been getting, are quite a bit cheaper. (I've seen the 9400F for $170 new, and the 9600KF (overclockable), is like $270.)
So, looking at Intel for ease of integration and compatibility, potentially, but how much more is it going to cost?
Here's Newegg's cheapest i5-9600K Entry Level Bundle, $374.99.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.3878865
Ouch.
My Ryzen R5 1600 CPU ($120) + X370 ATX mobo ($54 refurb / open-box), is WAAAAY cheaper. You could even add a DDR4-3600 16GB RGB RAM kit for the difference in price between the Intel and AMD combos.
Guess that settles it, Intel rigs are a bust, financially-speaking.
Edit: I went to "All Super Combos", searched for "9400F", and "i5-9400F", and there were no matches. But going to CPUs, and drilling down to the i5-9400F, and then looking at "Combos", I found this reasonable combo:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.3894361
i5-9400F
ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 4 (unfortunately, this board is the odd man out, and does NOT have the 2.5Gbit/sec LAN, it just has Intel LAN)
Corsair 16GB DDR4-3000
$360
Still a bit more expensive than AMD, and not overclockable, but max turbo for the 9400F is like 4.1Ghz, so if you're using an Z390, and can set MCT/ACT to 4.0Ghz all-core, you should be able to probably match performance (or exceed slightly) the R5 1600 in 1080P gaming.
Last edited:
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