CPU INTEL I5-11400 2.6GHZ LGA1200 12MB

As of January 2022, the motherboards (B560 chipset. Don’t really use H series…) are not so pricy (under $200 at most. Mostly a bit lower than $150) and 3200 MHz DDR4 rams are cheap, pairing this CPU with budget is still a good build.

Of course, this CPU will be phased out by 12400 which was released to market a few days ago. But the motherboards and DDR5 ram kits might still not be ‘budget’ option (due to shortages and tariffs… and scalpers…) until at least 1st quarter of 2022. So, 11400 is still worth it.

This 11th generation is released due to Intel’s desperation to catch up AMD’s counterparts. In other words, 11400 is an emergency patch-up to squeeze out as much as they could. So, 11400 doesn’t really have too much performance increase for gaming against 10400 and heats up quite a lot.

But workstation usage is different! If you’re looking for a budget workstation, getting this while B560 boards are cheap and easy to get is not a bad option. 12400 is also a budget option which can be paid out with this CPU when the parts for 12400 becomes actually ‘budget.’ I do not recommend pairing this CPU with anything lower than B560 chipset. Losing memory overclocking and PCI-E gen 4 renders this CPU nothing better than 10400 which is almost $50 cheaper.

If you’re a gamer, just wait a few more months to get 12th generation when all the other parts (maybe not GPU but you might already have one already at this point) becomes budget friendly. They say B660 boards will not be too expensive but who knows what will happen with this ‘Omicron’ variant?

The included cooler is good enough for gaming (if you can’t your case airflow needs some revision… or cleaning at least) but the cooler can’t handle any heavy CPU load such as compiling a project, running simulations, etc. It surely is improved compared to those crap cookies with only aluminum fins, bundled with up to 10th generation, but the 11th generation’s architecture still generates too much heat for the black OEM cooler for its maximum usage.

It is very fast compared to my old PC. Windows task manager indicate it is running at over 4.0 GHz and the stock cooler seems coping well (mind you I am not a gamer). For all my usage, it is more than capable and the CPU fan seems quite quiet as well. I certainly recommend it for anyone like to build an Intel 11th gen PC.

Installed this in my new Gaming PC paired with a GTX 1660 and it runs really well.
Nothing has struggled to run on it yet.

10/10