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Intel Core i5-11400 vs AMD Ryzen 5 3600

Hi Guys

 

New to the forum, so if I've missed some introduction-type posts that I should have made, or am not including all the recommended details, apologies.

 

I'm looking at replacing my Phenom II x4 955 setup, and I've always bought AMD for my builds.

 

Just some background - I don't game. I don't overclock. I mainly use my PC for a type 2 hypervisor, running productivity workloads (Windows servers and appliances for providing a test lab for enterprise R&D and training). It's also my daily web surfing / social media browsing / eBay / general web use machine. My Phenom II x4 955 16GB setup is tired and can no longer keep up with the hypervisor side of things. Requirements aren't massive - that said if I'm forking out for new components, I'm looking to make the most out of what I spend. I've had my current one for around 9 years, when the 955 was released, so it's not been a bad return, and will be more than adequate as a standard desktop for a few more years yet.

 

To the point:

Looking at price point, the Intel Core i5-11400 and AMD Ryzen 5 3600 seem to the 2 contenders for my build. But I've read a lot of conflicting information and reviews about the 11th Gen Intel CPU's, and the general consensus that I'm getting is to avoid the legacy 14nm platform that Intel are trying to stretch until the 12th Gen comes out. But comparing the 2 CPU's directly seem to conflict, and the i5-11400 seems to beat the R5 3600 in all benchmark results that I've seen.

 

Both offer 6 cores and 12 threads; PCIe v4.0; 128 GB DDR4-3200 RAM; and both have a selection of motherboards that support M.2 and plenty of SATA for VM storage.

 

The 3600 has a release date of around 18 months prior to the i5-11400, and only supports 16 PCIe lanes compared to the i5-11400's 20 lane support. But it has more L3 cache (32MB over 12MB), a 7nm platform, reportedly runs a lot cooler, and has more accurate power draw stats from the manufacturer.

 

Admittedly the R5 3600 doesn't have integrated graphics, so if I go with that I'm going to have to look for a graphics card also. Which in the current climate, is a little less populated than ideal. But, as stated above I don't game, do video editing, or anything that requires a strong GPU, so on the plus side I'm not limited to waiting in line for the mid-high end cards.

 

My gut's telling me to ignore the CPU benchmark scores, which are usually based on O/C or otherwise tweaked settings, and heed what seems to be the widely varying reviews of Intel's 11th Gen CPU's and go with the R5 3600. But given I might want to use at least 1 M.2 NVMe card for OS and Tier 1 VM's, and would need a GPU, I'm concerned the 16 lanes will be a limiting factor (lanes and GPU aren't my field and one area my knowledge falls down on), not to mention I'd be paying roughly the same for something that's 2 years older.

 

I've been reading everything and anything I can find review-wise (which is mainly from gaming perspective, so not quite transferable to my intended use), and I'm getting to the point where it's just adding to the frustration now.

 

Thoughts?

 

Thanks

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The 11400 is the strongest chip in the lineup. It's a great bang-for-buck chip, and indeed beats the R5 3600.

 

The 11400 seems like a good option for you, especially since it includes an iGPU.

BabyBlu (Primary): 

  • CPU: Intel Core i9 9900K @ up to 5.3GHz, 5.0GHz all-core, delidded
  • Motherboard: Asus Maximus XI Hero
  • RAM: G.Skill Trident Z RGB 4x8GB DDR4-3200 @ 4000MHz 16-18-18-34
  • GPU: MSI RTX 2080 Sea Hawk EK X, 2070MHz core, 8000MHz mem
  • Case: Phanteks Evolv X
  • Storage: XPG SX8200 Pro 2TB, 3x ADATASU800 1TB (RAID 0), Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB
  • PSU: Corsair HX1000i
  • Display: MSI MPG341CQR 34" 3440x1440 144Hz Freesync, Dell S2417DG 24" 2560x1440 165Hz Gsync
  • Cooling: Custom water loop (CPU & GPU), Radiators: 1x140mm(Back), 1x280mm(Top), 1x420mm(Front)
  • Keyboard: Corsair Strafe RGB (Cherry MX Brown)
  • Mouse: MasterMouse MM710
  • Headset: Corsair Void Pro RGB
  • OS: Windows 10 Pro

Roxanne (Wife Build):

  • CPU: Intel Core i7 4790K @ up to 5.0GHz, 4.8Ghz all-core, relidded w/ LM
  • Motherboard: Asus Z97A
  • RAM: G.Skill Sniper 4x8GB DDR3-2400 @ 10-12-12-24
  • GPU: EVGA GTX 1080 FTW2 w/ LM
  • Case: Corsair Vengeance C70, w/ Custom Side-Panel Window
  • Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB, Samsung 860 EVO 1TB, Silicon Power A80 2TB NVME
  • PSU: Corsair AX760
  • Display: Samsung C27JG56 27" 2560x1440 144Hz Freesync
  • Cooling: Corsair H115i RGB
  • Keyboard: GMMK TKL(Kailh Box White)
  • Mouse: Glorious Model O-
  • Headset: SteelSeries Arctis 7
  • OS: Windows 10 Pro

BigBox (HTPC):

  • CPU: Ryzen 5800X3D
  • Motherboard: Gigabyte B550i Aorus Pro AX
  • RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 2x8GB DDR4-3600 @ 3600MHz 14-14-14-28
  • GPU: MSI RTX 3080 Ventus 3X Plus OC, de-shrouded, LM TIM, replaced mem therm pads
  • Case: Fractal Design Node 202
  • Storage: SP A80 1TB, WD Black SN770 2TB
  • PSU: Corsair SF600 Gold w/ NF-A9x14
  • Display: Samsung QN90A 65" (QLED, 4K, 120Hz, HDR, VRR)
  • Cooling: Thermalright AXP-100 Copper w/ NF-A12x15
  • Keyboard/Mouse: Rii i4
  • Controllers: 4X Xbox One & 2X N64 (with USB)
  • Sound: Denon AVR S760H with 5.1.2 Atmos setup.
  • OS: Windows 10 Pro

Harmonic (NAS/Game/Plex/Other Server):

  • CPU: Intel Core i7 6700
  • Motherboard: ASRock FATAL1TY H270M
  • RAM: 64GB DDR4-2133
  • GPU: Intel HD Graphics 530
  • Case: Fractal Design Define 7
  • HDD: 3X Seagate Exos X16 14TB in RAID 5
  • SSD: Inland Premium 512GB NVME, Sabrent 1TB NVME
  • Optical: BDXL WH14NS40 flashed to WH16NS60
  • PSU: Corsair CX450
  • Display: None
  • Cooling: Noctua NH-U14S
  • Keyboard/Mouse: None
  • OS: Windows 10 Pro

NAS:

  • Synology DS216J
  • 2x8TB WD Red NAS HDDs in RAID 1. 8TB usable space
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I'd strongly recommend any 11th gen i5, if you need integrated graphics 11th gen has the best so far from intel, and the prices on brand new 3600s are awful, motherboards are about the same prices across platforms and if you care about on paper specs 11th gen is intel's first implementation of AVX-512 instructions on consumer desktop, amd probably won't have that until zen 4. I don't know who is saying to wait until 12th gen, but that's not a very good idea, prices are very likely going to be higher due to newer architecture, the chip shortage, and it's supposed to use ddr5 and pcie gen 5, which I personally believe more now that ddr4 prices are starting to increase.

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3600 is a waste at this point in time and at its present price. It isn't even competitive with the older 10400.

Before you reply to my post, REFRESH. 99.99% chance I edited my post. 

 

My System: i7-13700KF // Corsair iCUE H150i Elite Capellix // MSI MPG Z690 Edge Wifi // 32GB DDR5 G. SKILL RIPJAWS S5 6000 CL32 // Nvidia RTX 4070 Super FE // Corsair 5000D Airflow // Corsair SP120 RGB Pro x7 // Seasonic Focus Plus Gold 850w //1TB ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro/1TB Teamgroup MP33/2TB Seagate 7200RPM Hard Drive // Displays: LG Ultragear 32GP83B x2 // Royal Kludge RK100 // Logitech G Pro X Superlight // Sennheiser DROP PC38x

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