Question A good but cheap 1151 cpu

Jan 7, 2020
6
0
10
i bought a Asus Z170-A ATX DDR4 Motherboard and it has a 1151 Intel socket and i need a cpu that is good but cheap and unfortunately Intel has very expensive products. i need something cheap that will run games like apex legends and such well, but doesnt cost to much. P.S i would like to be able to stream also.
 
There is no such thing unless you find a trustworthy source, whether locally or on Ebay, and buy used. These CPUs are many years out of production and any new stock out there for a 6th or 7th Gen i5 or i7 is going to start at about $180.00 and go up from there.

Used, you could do something like this.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Core-i5-7600K-3-8GHz-Quad-Core/233458657278?epid=243929343&hash=item365b3867fe:g:etkAAOSwgslbHP6V&LH_BIN=1

But even that seems like a waste of money to me for a CPU (Assuming buying from North America rather than China, which I would advise you to 100% avoid because you are seriously rolling the dice if you do that) and platform that are many years old. If you can find a 6th Gen (Skylake) or 7th Gen (Kaby lake) i5 or i7 locally for a decent price, meaning less than ~150 bucks, it might be worth it. Otherwise, you'd be better off to simply sell that board to somebody who already has a compatible CPU and needs a motherboard, and there are plenty of them out there, and buy into a newer platform like 3000 series Ryzen which you can get into with just a board and CPU for around 320 dollars and will get better performance than you could ever get from that platform you have, even with a 7700k which is the highest possible CPU you could put in that board.
 
This is your best option for a compatible 6th and 7th gen CPU that will work with your Z170 motherboard. 8th and 9th gen CPUs will not work in that board, or any 6th/7th gen chipset board as the sockets are different even though they are still LGA 1151.

I still do not think it is worth the money.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2 GHz Quad-Core OEM/Tray Processor ($190.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $190.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-07 15:40 EST-0500


You would do MUCH better doing something like this, especially if you already have DDR4 memory to go in the system, which you would need no matter which way you went.


PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($194.98 @ Walmart)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard ($114.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $309.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-07 15:43 EST-0500