Best CPU/MOBO Combo for $250?

[MooseMan45]

Just now, Ramaddil said:

I would say minimal there are some games that the 1600 will beat the 8400 others it will fall short by 5-10%.

.  

Not bad, im only playing on 60hz monitor so all I need is 60fps on games, is the stock cooler good enough to overlock?

[MooseMan45]

1 minute ago, epsilon84 said:

Have a look at the chart above. Do note that is tested with a high end GTX 1080 Ti graphics card though, with lesser GPUs the difference will be less.

Yeah I only have a gtx 970 so I doubt it will be significant 

[johnukguy]

2 minutes ago, epsilon84 said:

'Beat' is a bit of a stretch... it comes close, but the 8400 still enjoys higher mininum fps which is the more important metric anyway for gaming.

https://www.techspot.com/review/1613-amd-ryzen-2700x-2600x/page6.html

 

I agree with you, the 2600X is a better all round CPU, it's just not within the OPs budget. If he can save up an extra $50? Sure, get the 2600X, its a great all round CPU.

HU's benchmarks are often off and he's rightly been called out for that by AdoredTV.  A Ryzen 1600 and above can indeed beat an 8400, or come close enough that it doesn't matter, when overclocked, when paired with high frequency RAM, which I should have added. Without high frequency RAM though it still does perfectly well.
 

 

[epsilon84]

1 minute ago, Tailmon1 said:

Nothing wrong with picking up pieces and then building the system but only if you do it before the seller warranty is still good.

A word of caution on the 1600X if your considering it that there is no cooler included. The 2600 would be the better bet since it has a cooler with it that is pretty good. 

As for the Intel.. Come on this guy is on a budget and where is he getting a cooler to cool that intel to get that kind of numbers?

 

 

 

The i5 8400 comes with a stock HSF, which is enough to run it at stock clocks.

 

Agreed that the 2600 would be the better option than a 1600X. The 1600 does come with a stock HSF though, and is probably the best value IMO, especially when it goes on sale, retailers have to clear out the old 1st gen Ryzen stock now that Ryzen 2000 series is here.

[johnukguy]

6 minutes ago, MooseMan45 said:

Not bad, im only playing on 60hz monitor so all I need is 60fps on games, is the stock cooler good enough to overlock?

It is for a modest overclock, though, that said, on the X series Ryzen + CPU's it's probably better just to let XFR do it's thing. Where overclocking is more viable is with the non X CPU variants. If you want to go for a 1600, plus a B350 board, then if you are near a Microcenter, you can pick up both for about $200 total.

[Ramaddil]

3 minutes ago, MooseMan45 said:

Not bad, im only playing on 60hz monitor so all I need is 60fps on games, is the stock cooler good enough to overlock?

I believe it can do a moderate overclock but if your going for 3.9-4.1 ghz a aftermarket cooler would be required

[Tailmon1]

Here you go...

https://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.3705944

[MooseMan45]

Just now, Tailmon1 said:

Here you go...

https://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.3705944

Wish it came with cooler... sigh

[epsilon84]

Just now, johnukguy said:

HU's benchmarks are often off and he's rightly been called out for that by AdoredTV.  A Ryzen 1600 and above can indeed beat an 8400, or come close enough that it doesn't matter, when overclocked, when paired with high frequency RAM, which I should have added. Without high frequency RAM though it still does perfectly well.
 

 

I trust Hardware Unboxed a lot more than that biased AMD fanboy from AdoredTV who doesn't even do his own reviews, all he does is start conspiracies about Intel, look at his 3 'Con Lake' videos and tell me he doesn't have an agenda? 

 

Anyway that is besides the point, and I actually agree with you, an overclocked 1600/2600 with fast RAM does come close to a stock 8400 for gaming. But fast memory is expensive, and you can get away with cheaper 2666 stuff for the 8400 and still get decent gaming performance, something not possible on AMD, which really thrives on DDR4-3200 or better for good gaming performance.

[Tailmon1]

https://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.3646766

 

here is a 1600 combo this one has a cooler and yes you can clock it..

 

NewEgg has some nice combo deals if you do some searching.... remember I do build for people and do this lots.

[johnukguy]

Just now, epsilon84 said:

I trust Hardware Unboxed a lot more than that biased AMD fanboy from AdoredTV who doesn't even do his own reviews, all he does is start conspiracies about Intel, look at his 3 'Con Lake' videos and tell me he doesn't have an agenda? 

 

Anyway that is besides the point, and I actually agree with you, an overclocked 1600/2600 with fast RAM does come close to a stock 8400 for gaming. But fast memory is expensive, and you can get away with cheaper 2666 stuff for the 8400 and still get decent gaming performance, something not possible on AMD, which really thrives on DDR4-3200 or better for good gaming performance.

As someone who's worked as a journalist, I tend to take the side of other journalists and analysts over entertainers with faulty methodology, but at least we can agree to disagree, when what is important here is that the 8400, at it's present price at least, is not as good a buy as a Ryzen CPU and mobo combo (1600 or above).

[MooseMan45]

Just now, Tailmon1 said:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.3646766

 

here is a 1600 combo

That's actually perfect, although led's are blue, who cares lmao!

[MooseMan45]

Just now, MooseMan45 said:

That's actually perfect, although led's are blue, who cares lmao!

My Led's*

[johnukguy]

3 minutes ago, Tailmon1 said:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.3646766

 

here is a 1600 combo this one has a cooler and yes you can clock it..

Microcenter has the combo cheaper, or Frys or Staples, who usually price match if you're not near a Microcenter and you can set the RGB to more or less whatever you want (the white is off though) on the Gigabyte board. If you do get that, flash the BIOS to F23d, the latest revision.

[Tailmon1]

I am still laughing I got the case as an open box for a nice price like 50 dollars off and the MB and processer are running RGB. I will prob just set it static blue later.

[Ramaddil]

1 minute ago, johnukguy said:

As someone who's worked as a journalist, I tend to take the side of other journalists and analysts over entertainers with faulty methodology, but at least we can agree to disagree, when what is important here is that the 8400, at it's present price at least, is not as good a buy as a Ryzen CPU and mobo combo (1600 or above).

I 100% agree with this, there is many reviews out there that support the fact that the 8400 is not going to always beat the 1600 and for sure not the 2600x.  As I said in a previous post I think for the money 1600/2600 is a better buy then the 8400.  It does well in gaming and is versatile to be able to stream/workstation cpu.    

[epsilon84]

1 minute ago, johnukguy said:

As someone who's worked as a journalist, I tend to take the side of other journalists and analysts over entertainers with faulty methodology, but at least we can agree to disagree, when what is important here is that the 8400, at it's present price at least, is not as good a buy as a Ryzen CPU and mobo combo (1600 or above).

The i5 8400 is $180, actually $10 cheaper than a 1600 at Newegg.

 

As I said earlier, if its strictly for gaming, the 8400 is the better buy, you don't need to mess around with overclocking and it performs well with games out of the box. For a mixed use machine, productivity etc, of course Ryzen is the better buy, its just a matter for the OP to decide whether the 1600 or 2600 is the better value.

 

I should also mention that the 2600 only ships with the Wraith Stealth whereas the 1600 ships with the Wraith Spire, which is the better cooler. AMD really should have shipped the 2600 with the Spire cooler as well, as it stands, whilst the 2600 should overclock better than the 1600, due to the shitty cooler they will both top out around 4GHz with their respective stock coolers. If you upgrade the HSF then the 2600 will obviously clock higher, but then thats additional money and will push the OP over budget.

[johnukguy]

1 minute ago, epsilon84 said:

The i5 8400 is $180, actually $10 cheaper than a 1600 at Newegg.

 

As I said earlier, if its strictly for gaming, the 8400 is the better buy, you don't need to mess around with overclocking and it performs well with games out of the box. For a mixed use machine, productivity etc, of course Ryzen is the better buy, its just a matter for the OP to decide whether the 1600 or 2600 is the better value.

 

I should also mention that the 2600 only ships with the Wraith Stealth whereas the 1600 ships with the Wraith Spire, which is the better cooler. AMD really should have shipped the 2600 with the Spire cooler as well, as it stands, whilst the 2600 should overclock better than the 1600, due to the shitty cooler they will both top out around 4GHz with their respective stock coolers. If you upgrade the HSF then the 2600 will obviously clock higher, but then thats additional money and will push the OP over budget.

The CPU alone is cheaper on Newegg yes but still more expensive, when taking into account a suitable motherboard, than buying the CPU/mobo combination from somewhere like Microcenter/Frys/Staples. You're right about the coolers though, the Spire is better.

[Tailmon1]

I'm more of the 1700 and up kind of person but I did build a 1600X in a define Mini Itx case with a Gigabyte B350 MB and used a 1700 spire on it.

It worked out nice for a build and handled games and content well with the 1070 SC card

[epsilon84]

2 minutes ago, johnukguy said:

The CPU alone is cheaper on Newegg yes but still more expensive, when taking into account a suitable motherboard, than buying the CPU/mobo combination from somewhere like Microcenter/Frys/Staples. You're right about the coolers though, the Spire is better.

The cheapest B360 mobos are under $70 at Newegg, so you can definitely stay under budget with either the 8400 or 1600, but I agree that the CPU/combo deals are the best value.

[MooseMan45]

Okay will this combo allow me to overclock more than I would be able to with stock?

 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.3775125

 

then I would pair it with this motherboard

 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157762&cm_re=am4_motherboard-_-13-157-762-_-Product

 

 

[Ramaddil]

1 minute ago, MooseMan45 said:

Okay will this combo allow me to overclock more than I would be able to with stock?

 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.3775125

 

then I would pair it with this motherboard

 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157762&cm_re=am4_motherboard-_-13-157-762-_-Product

 

 

Reviews on that MB kinda stink.. Go with this

 

 https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813144019&cm_re=b350-_-13-144-019-_-Product

 

has a 15.00 rebate to make it 59.99 after rebate.

[epsilon84]

Quote

3 minutes ago, MooseMan45 said:

Okay will this combo allow me to overclock more than I would be able to with stock?

 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.3775125

 

then I would pair it with this motherboard

 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157762&cm_re=am4_motherboard-_-13-157-762-_-Product

 

 

 

Possibly slightly more, the Spire is a pretty decent HSF already though, at most you will get an extra 100MHz with the DeepCool Gammax, or depending on the chip, you might not get a higher overclock at all.

[epsilon84]

Just now, Ramaddil said:

Reviews on that MB kinda stink.. Go with this

 

 https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813144019&cm_re=b350-_-13-144-019-_-Product

 

has a 15.00 rebate to make it 59.99 after rebate.

Yeah at that price I would go with the MSI over the Asrock for sure

[MooseMan45]

4 minutes ago, Ramaddil said:

Reviews on that MB kinda stink.. Go with this

 

 https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813144019&cm_re=b350-_-13-144-019-_-Product

 

has a 15.00 rebate to make it 59.99 after rebate.

Only 2 ram slots though, I know it sounds like im picky but I'm wanting to upgrade to another 2 sticks in future

 

what about this one, pretty sure it has the same star rating but:

 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132966&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-PCPartPicker, LLC-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=