10tacle :
arfiavenger :
i5 8400 is better than i7 7700 ? Really ?
Yes. For gaming, it has long been seen that the i5 can outperform the i7 clock for clock in many games (the reasons are too technical to quickly explain why). Scroll to the bottom of this Tom's review of the 8400 and check out all the game benchmarks. They are using an 8600K and 7600K in comparison, but it gives you an idea:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-coffee-lake-core-i5-8400-cpu,5281.html
If you are not doing productivity apps half the time and instead mostly gaming, you are throwing your money away on an i7.
While I agree the i5-8400 is the best choice in terms of processor value on the Intel side right now. This comment is completely and truly wrong.
On no planet is an i5 "clock for clock better than an i7 for gaming".
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-kaby-lake-core-i7-7700k-i7-7700-i5-7600k-i5-7600,4870-7.html
Its literally the same CPU, i7 clocked higher, and with Hyperthreading. In fact if you turn HT off its a direct comparison core wise and the i7 will always be faster because they are "golden sample" chips. You can Overclock them further and in software that can benefit from the extra threads they will always perform better.
The i7-7700k is STILL better than an i5-8400 for gaming right now, the Tom's article you linked even says it in the final analysis
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-coffee-lake-core-i5-8400-cpu,5281-11.html
And no using the 7600k for comparison is not correct, its a different lower clocked CPU that is missing features, period.
That said I would still go for the i5-8400 because as software (games ) are built to handle more cores, it may have an opportunity to shine in certain games, the price and how close it performs already seals the deal. As well for non gaming tasks 6 physical cores vs 4 and 4 HTs is a better proposition.
TL DR: The i5-8400 is the best bet, but the fairy tales about i5's being better than i7's for gaming throughout this thread are all bull.