im honestly stressing out way too much over this and my head is spinning from looking at parts all weekend. i need to lock in a cpu by friday because my current setup literally blue screened while i was in the middle of a discord call and its time to upgrade before it dies completely. my budget for the whole chip is around 200 bucks give or take a little if its really worth it. im mostly gonna be gaming at 1080p while having a million chrome tabs and spotify open on my second monitor in my small apartment here in chicago. i was looking at the i5 12400f because reddit threads from a year ago kept swearing by it for cheap builds but then i saw other people saying its already outdated and i should stretch for a 13400 or even look at something newer. my logic was to just grab the cheapest thing that wont bottleneck my old gtx 1060 until i can afford a better gpu next month but honestly im so lost on whether these 12th and 13th gen chips are still a safe buy with all the motherboard stuff going on... like do i need a fancy cooler or is the stock one fine? what are you guys actually running right now without breaking the bank...