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Edited February 4, 2022
at 12:56 PM
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My local microcenter is showing 20 in stock. This is the version with integrated graphics. The i5 12400 seems to be the new sweet spot for budget builds and budget gaming. It is faster than AMD 5600g (the closest direct competitor) and 5600x. From reports, the bundled cooler is a big improvement from previous stock coolers so it is not necessary to spend money on that either. With a ASUS Prime B660 it would be about $300 out the door for a CPU/MB combo with graphics and a cooler or even cheaper if you can get one of the $25 off coupons that was posted on here for uploading a build.
CPU Core - Alder Lake
Processor - Core i5 12400
Operating Frequency - 2.50GHz
Turbo Speed - 4.4GHz
Cores - Six-Core
Number of Threads - 12 Processing Threads
Socket Type - LGA 1700
Level 2 Cache - 7.5MB
Level 3 Cache - 18MB
https://www.microcenter.com/produ...r-included
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If you're looking for the cheapest build option you can find a near-$100 B660 chipset board paired it with the cheapest DDR4 you can find (or some you already have if you're upgrading a more modern system) would get you up and running. That could keep your total bill of materials (incl. RAM) around $300-350 and provide a functioning system with solid performance. You'd have plenty of CPU upgrade path, but unless you're willing to upgrade the stock cooler you're probably leaving a lot of performance locked away inside the CPU.
Do try to avoid motherboards built around the H610 chipset as the pricing seems to overlap with the B660 in the retail channel. The H610 chipset is positioned at the bottom end, and will probably be built into plenty of OEM systems, but there's no obvious value pricing on it available to regular consumers that I've seen (vs. more full-featured chipsets like B660 motherboards).
The next best investment to mention might be a solid air-cooler for $40-60. However, if you want to build the best platform to get every bit of performance out of the CPU you'd have to track down the cheapest Z690 chipset motherboard you can find, which probably adds another $60 or more to the bill for the H610 configuration. There are a lot of CPU tweaking and support features available in that chipset which could help with the current CPU choice or any future CPU upgrades. This is a key feature of the newest CPUs from Intel that could justify the upgrade, though obviously cheaper boards don't always implement this functionality as easily as more properly high-end motherboard manufacturers.
Good luck!
Jon
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https://slickdeals.net/f/15599461-submit-your-computer-build-get-25-off-microcenter-purchase-no-minimums
Also $20 off motherboard if buy a CPU
ASUS B660-PLUS Prime D4 $119.99
i5 12400 $169.99
$25 off coupon for submit a build
$264.98+Tax
Yeah but that doesn't mean much the prices don't budge much for old cpus. Wasn't expecting i5 to be on par with an i7 so soon.
You'll ensure that it'll be a basic web browsing rig for the next decade or so...
You'll ensure that it'll be a basic web browsing rig for the next decade or so...
I got time
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Memory overclocking is not available on h610 but i will buy DDR4 3200 to go with cheap build anyway, so what's the big deal?
i will put a RX6600 PCI-E 4.0 x8 card on h610 and it will handle just fine.
and of course i5 12400 will be totally fine on h610
so saving $40 on H610 vs a B660 makes total sense (based on MicroCenter pricing), so i can use the $40 saving towards 32GB ram up from 16GB
By the time i want to upgrade, DDR5 will be dominant so any DDR4 h610 or b660 boards wont be relevant
Memory overclocking is not available on h610 but i will buy DDR4 3200 to go with cheap build anyway, so what's the big deal?
i will put a RX6600 PCI-E 4.0 x8 card on h610 and it will handle just fine.
and of course i5 12400 will be totally fine on h610
so saving $40 on H610 vs a B660 makes total sense (based on MicroCenter pricing), so i can use the $40 saving towards 32GB ram up from 16GB
By the time i want to upgrade, DDR5 will be dominant so any DDR4 h610 or b660 boards wont be relevant
The 5600g will have a much better GPU.
The 12400 uses the lower tier 730, not the 770 the higher end alder lake chips use.
Memory overclocking is not available on h610 but i will buy DDR4 3200 to go with cheap build anyway, so what's the big deal?
i will put a RX6600 PCI-E 4.0 x8 card on h610 and it will handle just fine.
and of course i5 12400 will be totally fine on h610
so saving $40 on H610 vs a B660 makes total sense (based on MicroCenter pricing), so i can use the $40 saving towards 32GB ram up from 16GB
By the time i want to upgrade, DDR5 will be dominant so any DDR4 h610 or b660 boards wont be relevant
Good luck!
Jon
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