pretty much an improved 8400, it's easier to work with out of the box, hassle free, auto boost to 4.1ghz when needed etc. ideal for casual ppl not willing to spend time OCing
Competes well with 2600 & trades blows/loses if clocked to 4.2ghz+ but that's lottery and most likely need aftermarket cooler.
It's also cheaper now cuz it's not popular yet in Canada, but it should become more expensive than 2600 eventually as usual

won't be clocking basically ever, is it competitive enough that only saving 10$ is worth it?

ur saving slightly more than $10, cuz u dont even need higher timed ram to highly benefit from it. Saving a little bit isn't the issue here, as they're both similar in cost with their respective cpu/ram/mobo combo's factored in. What you need to decide is, do you want better performance right out of the box? or do you want the option to overclock in the future, with a slim chance to hit the lottery and achieve 4.2+ghz w/ an aftermarket cooler, all which i think is pointless in the future as they'll have much better CPUs in the next few years than today. To put it in perspective, when you bought your i3220 6yrs ago, it's that or AMD's fx 6300 for 4 extra cores but ur intel performs better in games like cs/poe, tho 6300 shd be better for general use. You coulda OC'd the 6300 after spending money on an aftermarket cooler for slight gain in perf, but either way both CPU are shit compared to CPUs today and you're much better off purchasing 2600/9400f.

here's some links u can use to decide:

keep in mind getting 4.2+ on a 2600 is based on slim lottery/luck, needs aftermarket cooler etc. it's more realistic to assume u can clock to 3.8-4.0 without hassle with the stock cooler. However you seem pretty sure you will not overclock, so base it on stock performance of 2600.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLIiD75kCus&
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWvB95m6FMM

This one is a shitty custom build with 2600x against a shitty 9400f prebuild (higher clocked/binned 2600 that is clocked 4.2ghz+ more $$$ than 9400f) The 9400f slightly wins based on graph bar at the end of video, despite 2600x getting higher frame rate throughout the video cuz of frequent low frame dips & that averages it out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BKhpuR8ilM

u cant go wrong with either CPU, with Ryzen ur getting 6 extra threads, with option to OC in the future for slight boost in performance. With 9400f, ur getting most of its performance just out of the box without having to tweak anything. Right now 9400f is cheaper, the price will go up though and eventually be more expensive than 2600.


e/ ppl sniped the 9400f for cheap, and price already went up. Doesn't change much tho, you're just not saving the $10 from CPU. nvm it's in stock again.

This post was edited by Secksii on Apr 1 2019 01:28pm

Damn dude thanks, 9400f seems the way to go then, I'm assuming I wont ever do anything extensive enough to notice the 12 vs 6 threads. And so for the ram I'm looking for ddr4 2400? I'd go with the S.GKills ones in the end but right now I'm checking memory express because I have a location in my city to save shipping.

you'd want low CAS and highest timing for ram for the cost at the time. The prices of ram changes frequently so it really depends what it's cost is at the time of purchase
use this https://notkyon.moe/ram-latency.htm to calculate which gives u fastest for best price

to add to this higher mhz > then cas timing, but if you see lower cas same speed then get it

if you steam or render things the additional threads come in handy.
if strictly gaming its useless.

This post was edited by King Atrhur on Apr 1 2019 01:47pm

Thanks for all the help
I'll likely go with this: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/KsmZYT
All the deals last until April 30th, so I may wait a couple weeks incase some random deal goes ahead.

if you can spend it grab this ram, the speed boost vs the price is a good deal.
https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/product/HF3H99/adata-xpg-gammix-d10-16gb-2-x-8gb-ddr4-3200-memory-ax4u320038g16-db10

this grab that imo

was out of stock when I checked