What's "hot" now for Intel builds, that's also affordable? Anything?

[VirtualLarry]

Just putting out feelers, a little bit out of touch, although not unfamiliar with recent Intel builds. Last Intel build I did was an i3-8100 and ASRock Z370 ITX board, a couple of years ago.. (Board died in storage, or at least, sparked on power-up after being mothballed for some time. Probably the cobwebs inside did it.)

The only affordable "gaming class" CPU, it seems these days, is the i5-9400F, which is "only" $170 at Newegg right now, on sale. The other alternative, is another i3-8100, but that's only a quad-core, and quad-cores are even a bit limiting these days on AAA games it seems, so I want a 6-core at a minimum.

It's really hard for me to choose Intel these days, due to the fire-sale pricing on 1st-Gen and now even 2nd-Gen Ryzen CPUs. (I'm a Ryzen R5 1600 early adopter.)

 

[Shivansps]

The I5-9400F -or the I5-8400- plus the cheapest H310 board you can find is very common here. You are going to get the same result, petty much the same as putting a 2600 on a A320, its the same thing if you are not going to OC.

The problem with H310 is that the M2 slot is not common as it is on A320(to me it has far better I/O). You can try with a ASRock H310CM-HDV/M.2. Personally we are not using Asrock anymore, tons of issues.

 

[Christopher Bohling]

The I5-9400F -or the I5-8400- plus the cheapest H310 board you can find is very common here. You are going to get the same result, petty much the same as putting a 2600 on a A320, its the same thing if you are not going to OC.

The problem with H310 is that the M2 slot is not common as it is on A320(to me it has far better I/O). You can try with a ASRock H310CM-HDV/M.2. Personally we are not using Asrock anymore, tons of issues.

Aren't most H310 boards going to require a BIOS update to run the 9400F, though?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Aren't most H310 boards going to require a BIOS update to run the 9400F, though?

Good point. And someone was saying, that even these days, the lowest-end Intel chipsets only have PCI-E 2.0 on them? Is that true? What about the CPU lanes to the primary PCI-E x16 slot? Are those down-graded to PCI-E 2.0 when using an H310 board?

 

[Christopher Bohling]

Good point. And someone was saying, that even these days, the lowest-end Intel chipsets only have PCI-E 2.0 on them? Is that true? What about the CPU lanes to the primary PCI-E x16 slot? Are those down-graded to PCI-E 2.0 when using an H310 board?

Surprisingly this seems to be correct, at least according to Intel's own spec

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/133348/intel-h310-chipset.html

Personally if I were going to buy the 9400F I would just spend the money on a lower-end Z390 board to ensure compatibility.

 

[Christopher Bohling]

And that makes the value proposition of the 9400F at $165 vs the 8400 at $220 (why is this more expensive exactly?) basically the same if you have an 8400 + B360 board vs 9400F + cheap Z390. Though I guess since Z390 will allow faster memory I'd probably still choose that.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Surprisingly this seems to be correct, at least according to Intel's own spec

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/133348/intel-h310-chipset.html

• Supported Processor PCI Express Port Revision 3
• Supported Processor PCI Express Port Configurations 1x16

So it at least supports PCI-E 3.0 x16 on the CPU lanes.

 

[cbn]

I would have written unlocked Core i3 on sale, but that i5-9400F at $155 FS looks really good as well:

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-i5-940...d=1557342132&s=electronics&sr=1-1-spons&psc=1

 

[Shivansps]

Aren't most H310 boards going to require a BIOS update to run the 9400F, though?

Well thats not a problem for me, BUT most H310 boards are coming with a bios that already support 9th gen. Unless the board is old you should be fine. You should check the box, it should have some sort of sticker on it saying it supports 9th gen.

 

[cbn]

The other alternative, is another i3-8100, but that's only a quad-core, and quad-cores are even a bit limiting these days on AAA games it seems, so I want a 6-core at a minimum.

I'll bet an overclocked 4C/4T could equal a Core i5 9400F but right now the prices on Core i3 8350K are too high.

What we need is an unlocked Pentium with some reasonable version of the Intel Upgrade service available for it. (Intel Upgrade service to unlock to 4C/4T)

Unlocked Pentium (with Intel Upgrade Service) + Z370 (or Z390) vs. Core i5 9400F + H310?

^^^^ I would prefer the Z370 for several reasons one of which is the ability to create a RAID-5 volume. This especially now that Seagate has released URE boosted Barracuda drives.<----Would like to cache a RAID-5 volume of those with Optane for the purposes of making a simplified (C drive only) machine for video editing using a GPU centric program like Hitfilm. (Hitfilm uses the GPU, rather than the CPU, for rendering).

 

[Shivansps]

At any rate, as i said, if you are looking high performing budget builds without sacrificing too much the askwer is AMD, the A320 is simply too good compared to a Intel H310.

Take something as the $62 Asus A320M-K, 6 rear USB, 2 header 2.0, 1 header 3.0, 4 Sata with RAID 0, 1, 10, 1 M2 supporting both SATA and x4 PCIe, All PCI-E are 3.0 and supports memory OC. You are only giving up CPU/IGP OC, and on 2nd gen Ryzen CPU OC is not really needed thanks to far better turbos compared to 1st gen Ryzen, and you dont need IGP oc with a dGPU. You have everything you need even for a pro user. Not to mention you also have the 4C/8T option.

H310 dosent have many of those things. Take for example the $61 MSI H310M PRO-M2, only one usb 2.0 header whats a problem for many cases / CPU coolers, it dosent support raid, it has PCI-E 2.0 lines for anything that ist the PCI-E 16x, incluiding the ones for the M2, no memory OC DDR4-2666 max, The M2 is PCI-E 2.0 and shares the sata conector.


But again you may not need that, and even something cheap as the $54 ASRock H310CM-DVS is enoght to drive a 9400F perfectly with a dGPU, again you would need to check if the bios is updated first.

I'll bet an overclocked 4C/4T could equal a Core i5 9400F but right now the prices on Core i3 8350K are too high.

What we need is an unlocked Pentium with some reasonable version of the Intel Upgrade service available for it. (Intel Upgrade service to unlock to 4C/4T)

Unlocked Pentium (with Intel Upgrade Service) + Z370 (or Z390) vs. Core i5 9400F + H310?

^^^^ I would prefer the Z370 for several reasons one of which is the ability to create a RAID-5 volume. This especially now that Seagate has released URE boosted Barracuda drives.<----Would like to cache a RAID-5 volume of those with Optane for the purposes of making a simplified (C drive only) machine for video editing using a GPU centric program like Hitfilm. (Hitfilm uses the GPU, rather than the CPU, for rendering).

What we need is that both AMD and Intel go to 4C/4T for sub $100... and only use 2C/4T for the entry level(celeron, 200GE), the PS5 is going to have 8C next year for god sake.

 

[VirtualLarry]

What we need is that both AMD and Intel go to 4C/4T for sub $100

I don't know about Intel, but AMD has been trending near $70 for a 4C/4T Ryzen R3 1200 (3.1Ghz base, OCs easily to 3.80Ghz).

Anyways, I guess this thread is (partially) moot, I hooked my friend up with an Intel rig, an i5-7400 w/GTX 1060, he's testing it for a week or so, to see if he likes it over his Athlon II X4 w/RX 560.

Edit: I had wanted to get him at least a 6C/6T Intel, if I was going to build him something new, but then I remembered I had an HP Power Gaming PC (2017 BF special for $500 + tax OTD), so I hooked him up with that.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Take something as the $62 Asus A320M-K, 6 rear USB, 2 header 2.0, 1 header 3.0, 4 Sata with RAID 0, 1, 10, 1 M2 supporting both SATA and x4 PCIe, All PCI-E are 3.0 and supports memory OC.

Not to derail, but for $18 more:

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Pq...-gaming-k4-atx-am4-motherboard-b450-gaming-k4

VRM isn't spectacular but hey, it's better than A320.

 

[JoeRambo]

Though I guess since Z390 will allow faster memory I'd probably still choose that.

This is very important point, as obviously 100% of these CPUs will have some sort of dGPU and will get used to gaming. those cheapo Z390 can extract plenty of extra value from memory OC, something like DDR3200 will beat H310 in performance and features.

Overall very happy with 9400F in this role, systems I've built were very snappy due to having Intels most modern 6C with 9MB of L3.

 

[Shivansps]

Not to derail, but for $18 more:

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Pq...-gaming-k4-atx-am4-motherboard-b450-gaming-k4

VRM isn't spectacular but hey, it's better than A320.

Sure if you can get the B450 for a bit more thats OK, but most people does not need that, A320 can handle a 2700X perfectly.

Anyway, the point is that AMD A320 is more like Intel b360, H310 is cleary inferior.

 

[B-Riz]

Sure if you can get the B450 for a bit more thats OK, but most people does not need that, A320 can handle a 2700X perfectly.

Anyway, the point is that AMD A320 is more like Intel b360, H310 is cleary inferior.

No offense, but the A320 is for the lower end CPU's, too many features are given up running a 6 or 8 core 2000 series on A320.

XFR2 only works on B450 / X470. That is not worth losing if getting a 2700X.

For Intel now, just get a Gigabyte Z390 UD, as Z370 boards are mostly open box or refurbished.

Too many features are lost, along with an upgrade path to a K series if trying for a "budget" board build. (Budget board = budget VRM's that cannot handle an i7 upgrade)

https://www.techspot.com/bestof/intel-z370-motherboards/

https://www.techspot.com/bestof/intel-z390-motherboards/

Maybe a B360 board? But then, just go AMD...

 

[B-Riz]

Besides, i5 6 core non K have low 1% frames, not good. That is also why the 8700K is better than the 9700K.

 

[Shivansps]

No offense, but the A320 is for the lower end CPU's, too many features are given up running a 6 or 8 core 2000 series on A320.

XFR2 only works on B450 / X470. That is not worth losing if getting a 2700X.

You are lossing the CPU and IGP OC, and well XFR2 as you said. Its not that important.

You most likely need a B450 if you are planing to run a APU whiout dGPU.

 

[B-Riz]

You are lossing the CPU and IGP OC, and well XFR2 as you said. Its not that important.

You most likely need a B450 if you are planing to run a APU whiout dGPU.

Ermahgerd, you pay less you get less. Who is really going to run a 2700X on an A320?

On newegg, the cheapest A320 board is $12 cheaper than a B450.

A320 is no frills, but, penny wise and pound foolish methinks. And no OC, a big selling point of Ryzen, all are unlocked.

 

[Shivansps]

Ermahgerd, you pay less you get less. Who is really going to run a 2700X on an A320?

Not i since i do OC, but anyone that is not interested in OCing, most people that choose a something better is because they dont mind paying something extra for a better board even if they dont need it. But i think you are missing the point, the point is that A320 is good enoght and the most important thing you are losing is something that most people dont ever do in their life. Yes you can buy a better board for a little extra, that dosent mean A320 is bad.

Look, there is a reason of why OEM dosent want to support Ryzen 3000 on current A320s, and its not the VRMs, if that were to be the case a lot of B350 and X370 would be unable to support Ryzen 3000 as well.

 

[B-Riz]

Not i since i do OC, but anyone that is not interested in OCing, most people that choose a something better is because they dont mind paying something extra for a better board even if they dont need it. But i think you are missing the point, the point is that A320 is good enoght and the most important thing you are losing is something that most people dont ever do in their life. Yes you can buy a better board for a little extra, that dosent mean A320 is bad.

Look, there is a reason of why OEM dosent want to support Ryzen 3000 on current A320s, and its not the VRMs, if that were to be the case a lot of B350 and X370 would be unable to support Ryzen 3000 as well.

I never said A320 is bad. It does not make sense to get it in a DIY build picking out parts one by one.

An A320 board for $12 less than a B450.

Just get the B450 and better feature set.

Again, penny-wise and pound-foolish.

 

[Shivansps]

I never said A320 is bad. It does not make sense to get it in a DIY build picking out parts one by one.

An A320 board for $12 less than a B450.

Just get the B450 and better feature set.

Again, penny-wise and pound-foolish.

And many people do that, what matters is that you are not lossing much on a A320 compared to H310.

BTW, the reason behind A320 and B450 behind so close in price, is that they are actually the same board, for example ASRock A320M-HDV R4.0 and ASRock B450M-HDV R4.0

 

[B-Riz]

And many people do that, what matters is that you are not lossing much on a A320 compared to H310.

BTW, the reason behind A320 and B450 behind so close in price, is that they are actually the same board, for example ASRock A320M-HDV R4.0 and ASRock B450M-HDV R4.0

I understand what you are saying. Yes, the A320 is nicely featured compared to the Intel H310, but when board manufacturers tie better power delivery (efficiency), LAN, on board sound, etc. to the chipset / tier of board (price point), then, paying more does get you more. It would be interesting to see an A320 with nicer on-board items, but, it really would not make sense in an economy of scale sense.

Or, A320 isn't really for the DIY crowd on a budget, that is filled by B350 / B450.

Personally, I don't want someone coming to these forums and thinking they will buy an A320 board and budget RAM to go with the 2700X and then wonder why their benchmark numbers are not as impressive as someone who got a nice X470 and fast, low latency RAM.

 

[fkoehler]

I submit the question Intel and affordable is an oxymoron at this current date.
Even more so considering the new Zen is expected very soon, which will make prices drop even more.
Affordable systems for non-gamers, 2200G @$84, or Ryzen 5 1600 @$123 for moderate gamer.
In a month or 2 these will be even cheaper as retailers try to move out remaining stock.
Considering we're talking about 'affordable'/cheapo builds, why would Intel even be considered?