Im finally starting to pick out parts for a new gaming rig and Im honestly so pumped. My old laptop is basically a toaster at this point and it cant even handle basic multitasking anymore. Im located in the US and hoping to keep the total build cost around 800 bucks, maybe 900 if I find a good deal. Im gonna be using it for 1440p gaming and some light video editing for my hobby channel.

I spent all night looking at benchmarks. I read that the i5-13400 is supposed to be the king of budget builds, but then I see people on other forums saying the 12400 is basically the same thing for way less money. Its super confusing because I dont know if the extra cores are worth the price hike for what I need. Then there is the whole lga1700 socket thing which honestly feels like a headache since intel might switch it up soon anyway. Im worried about picking something that will be obsolete in six months but I also dont want to blow my whole budget on just the processor. If you were building a mid-range machine right now and needed to stick to a budget, what intel chip would you actually go with?