Intel Core i5-9400F Coffee Lake 6-Core 2.9 GHz (4.1 GHz Turbo) LGA 1151 (300 Series) 65W BX80684I59400F Desktop Processor Without Graphics

Pros: Its fast, it's great for gaming on most AAA games with high and ultra settings with a decent GPU, it does the job very well as a desktop. I have had no stutters or overheating issues, it idles at 30c and turbo clocks to 3.9ghz at 55-60c with my AIO cooler, overall worth a buy.

Cons: Needs a bios update from an older generation in order for you to boot the system. Not much of a performance gain from the 8400, maybe about 5 %

Overall Review: I would definitely buy this if you're looking for a budget cpu that can game and get the job done as a desktop and will last for 5-6 years for my personal preference.

Pros: - I got it on sale for 169, at the time of purchase, this puts it at the same price as Ryzen 2600. But now 2600x is also at this price. So choose the CPU best suited for your usage. - Low TDP, I am using it in an HTPC in Silverstone ML08, CPU heatsink height is limited to 58mm and no water cooling support. So that excludes all CPU with 95W TDP. - So between Ryzen 2600, 8400 and 9400F. 8400 is at a ridiculous price of 199 at the time of purchase, Ryzen is better for multicore productivity, but I only do light work and occasionally game on this PC, so 9400F still wins out for me.

Cons: - none

Overall Review: - Discrete GPU is required. But in the 15+ years that I have used PC, I have never once used the integrated GPU, so it is a no brainer for me. Just FYI. - Temperature is around 69-70C when gaming with a meager Cryorig C7 cooler. That is still a bit high for me to be comfortable. I am planning to swap it out to Big Shuriken 2 to see if it improves. Update 3/18: Changing to Big Shuriken 2 dropped the temp by a solid 10C to 60C when gaming! Ran Prime95 for 15 mins and the temp never went above 63C! I now believe that this is one of the best low profile CPU cooler. Ram clearance becomes an issue though, technically, G.skill Ripjaws V can fit, but it is a very tight fit and I am worried that the fins pressed against the RAM would warp in the long run. So go with Corsair vengeance LPX, or G.Skill Aegis to be safe. This is a review for the CPU, not for the CPU cooler.... I digress, but if you happen to be looking for this information, here it is.

Pros: great for gaming. in this price range there is no competition for performance at this point in time.

Cons: stock heatsink and fan seem pretty light weight, but the processor generally runs pretty cool and stays cool under long gaming/load sessions. and since it's not overclockable you probably don't need anything more.

Overall Review: at this point in time not too many motherboards support 9th gen processors out of the box without a bios update. be sure to research your motherboard when considering this processor. I chose the MSI PRO VDH-PLUS which supports all 9th gen processors at all bios versions. it's a great cost-friendly gaming motherboard, proven solid for me.

Pros: Finally, I can play GTAV at 1080/120Hz smoothly! My overclocked i5-4590K (at 4.6GHz) could get choppy at 100Hz, even when paired with a hefty RTX 2070. And, that was while consuming 120 watts and burning at close to 70C (according to HWMonitor). For this build, I shelved the included non-copper "heatsink" and installed the same massive 4-pipe 120mm sink/fan as I had on the Haswell, since I was expecting the same amount of heat as that system. After some testing, I was shocked to see i5-9400F temps in the 20's at the desktop, and 50C under games. The highest I've seen yet on HWMonitor is only 54C and 50 watts. Despite the icy temps, it easily outclasses my old Haswell. Not only because of the obvious two extra cores, but also the DDR4 memory, B360 platform, and Skylake architectural updates. All in all, I'd have to say all's well that Haswell. Finally, a worthy successor not only in performance but efficiency as well.

Cons: Repackaged Skylake, not 10nm Sunny Cove

Overall Review: I'm using some cheap Corsair 3000MHz RAM that I got here a few weeks ago in a bundle with an Intel 1TB M2 SSD. As expected, it runs at 2666MHz after I enabled XMP in the BIOS. The SSD works perfectly too, and clocks 1600MB/s in CrystalDiskMark.

Pros: Inexpensive. Stable across all 4 cores. Great for light to medium gaming and still run videos in a browser without stutter on separate screen. Temps usually stay under 50 C degrees.

Cons: None for pricing.

Overall Review: Great upgrade after 5 years with AMD 6300 and old AM3+ motherboard. Matched with MSI Tomahawk Z390 motherboard and G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200) Still using old MSI GeForce 730 2GB DDR5 Graphics Card. Works like a charm!

Overall Review: I bought this as an upgrade. Great processor for an online school computer with some entry-level gaming capabilities (it runs Minecraft very well!). Would recommend for a kid's computer that just needs to do the basics and a non-painful pace. Would definitely buy again.

Pros: I bought this for a simple desktop and light gaming. It runs well paired with a gtx1660. Uses very little power. I was originally going to go with the i5-9400f but instead opted for this since it 47% the cost and avg. 12% less (cpu userbenchmark).

Overall Review: Highly recommend this cpu for any low budget.

Overall Review: My son wanted to dive into the world of PC gaming so I needed to throw together a budget PC that wouldn’t be obsolete for a while. Paired with a 1660Super GPU, this little processor works just fine running a lot of current games. I’m actually having to use Vsync on his settings because his regular 60hz monitor can’t keep up with the frame rates he’s getting from the CPU/GPU combo. Overall I am very pleased with the processor and it should be just fine for the next few years unless games start becoming ridiculously more graphically intensive than they are currently.