- Joined
- Dec 18, 2000
My parts came in this week for an i5-8400 mini ITX setup. It seemed to be the ideal CPU for a compact mini ITX in my SilverStone SST-SG05BB-LITE Mini ITX Case. Since I had previously built a Ryzen 5 1600 mini ITX, I've gotten a feel for the difference between them, since they're sharing the same Corsair DDR4-3000 and Zotac Mini GTX 1080. And I have to say with the Ryzen 5 1600 OC'd to 3.8 GHz vs. the i5-8400 3.8 GHz turbo and the RAM running on spec in both, it's pretty much 6 of one, half a dozen of another (thread reference pun intended). Very comparable overall performance with the i5-8400 a little ahead in gaming, and the extra 6 threads of the Ryzen pushing it ahead in CPU tasks. For a compact mini ITX using the AMD and Intel HS/Fans, the i5-8400 runs cooler under max load so it is the better choice. But for those who use larger mini ITX cases where you can use bigger air coolers or water cooling that advantage disappears. Both are 65W TDP chips that run fine with the GTX 1080 on my trusty old Seasonic 350W SFX PSU.
Pricing is also pretty close, as the CPUs are under $200 and generally with $10 of each other. But the AM4 motherboards are a bit cheaper, especially with the Microcenter $50 discount - they are only discounting Sky Lake and Kaby Lake for Intel at this time. Plus Intel is only available with the higher-end Z370 chipset for now, which is useless for the non-K i5-8400. You can get both B350 and X370 mini ITX boards for AMD. So a $50 to $75 or price advantage for AMD probably until early next year.
I could keep both, keeping the i5-8400 in the mini ITX box and leaving the Ryzen 5 1600 in the water cooled ATX box I have it in now for testing. With a Corsair H100, the Ryzen 5 1600 runs stable at 4 GHz and is quieter under load. The only problem is I'd have to invest in another GPU and DDR4 set.
Anyway, for your amusement, here are the parts included in each mini ITX version.
Coffee Lake Mini ITX
* i5-8400 with Intel Heatsink/fan - 3.8 GHz all core turbo
* ASRock Z370M-ITX/ac Mini ITX
* Zotac Mini GTX 1080 8GB GDDR5X
* Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3000 MHz @ 3000
* Seasonic 350W 80 SS-350SFE 350W SFX PSU
* SilverStone SST-SG05BB-LITE Mini ITX Case
* Micron M600 240GB M.2 SATA Boot Drive - Win 10 Pro
Ryzen 5 Mini ITX
* Ryzen 5 1600 with AMD Heatsink/fan - OC's to 3.8 GHz
* Biostar X370GTN Mini ITX
* Zotac Mini GTX 1080 8GB GDDR5X
* Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3000 MHz @ 2933
* Seasonic 350W 80 SS-350SFE 350W SFX PSU
* SilverStone SST-SG05BB-LITE Mini ITX Case
* Intel 600P 128GB M.2 NVMe Boot Drive - Win 10 Pro
Pricing is also pretty close, as the CPUs are under $200 and generally with $10 of each other. But the AM4 motherboards are a bit cheaper, especially with the Microcenter $50 discount - they are only discounting Sky Lake and Kaby Lake for Intel at this time. Plus Intel is only available with the higher-end Z370 chipset for now, which is useless for the non-K i5-8400. You can get both B350 and X370 mini ITX boards for AMD. So a $50 to $75 or price advantage for AMD probably until early next year.
I could keep both, keeping the i5-8400 in the mini ITX box and leaving the Ryzen 5 1600 in the water cooled ATX box I have it in now for testing. With a Corsair H100, the Ryzen 5 1600 runs stable at 4 GHz and is quieter under load. The only problem is I'd have to invest in another GPU and DDR4 set.
Anyway, for your amusement, here are the parts included in each mini ITX version.
Coffee Lake Mini ITX
* i5-8400 with Intel Heatsink/fan - 3.8 GHz all core turbo
* ASRock Z370M-ITX/ac Mini ITX
* Zotac Mini GTX 1080 8GB GDDR5X
* Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3000 MHz @ 3000
* Seasonic 350W 80 SS-350SFE 350W SFX PSU
* SilverStone SST-SG05BB-LITE Mini ITX Case
* Micron M600 240GB M.2 SATA Boot Drive - Win 10 Pro
Ryzen 5 Mini ITX
* Ryzen 5 1600 with AMD Heatsink/fan - OC's to 3.8 GHz
* Biostar X370GTN Mini ITX
* Zotac Mini GTX 1080 8GB GDDR5X
* Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3000 MHz @ 2933
* Seasonic 350W 80 SS-350SFE 350W SFX PSU
* SilverStone SST-SG05BB-LITE Mini ITX Case
* Intel 600P 128GB M.2 NVMe Boot Drive - Win 10 Pro
