Not improved in anyway.

[MarissaOrloff]

14 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

A bigger case is better, smaller cases are cute, but you might find it impossible to upgrade the graphics later as there simply isn't space to put the upgrade. If in doubt, pick the one with a window and RGB lighting. The more fancy and annoying it is to look at, likely the faster it goes.

Rainbow puke always makes a PC run faster. Why look at your monitor when all the pretty lights from the case will put you in a deep trance and make you believe you have the worlds fastest gaming computer!

[Coffee Pancake]

22 minutes ago, MarissaOrloff said:

Rainbow puke always makes a PC run faster. Why look at your monitor when all the pretty lights from the case will put you in a deep trance and make you believe you have the worlds fastest gaming computer!

Rainbow puke is also more expensive

[Nalates Urriah]

Tom's Guide has their 2022 recommendation out: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-cpus,3986.html

Quote

However, if you're looking for the hands-down best mid-range CPU for gaming, the six-core 12-thread Alder Lake $192 Core i5-12400 is your chip. With the right tuning, it's even faster at gaming than the previous-gen $549 Core i9-11900K flagship, so it should go without saying that it's also faster than the $299 Ryzen 5 5600X. It also serves up a compelling blend of performance in single- and multi-threaded apps, making it our top pick for budget gaming CPUs.

There are a few years where the i5 was not the best for one's money over other iCores and AMD. More often than not, it is. And when its not it is only by a small margin.

Edited March 28, 2022 by Nalates Urriah

[Coffee Pancake]

Toms hardware features CPUs prices in isolation. As though you need only purchase the CPU and not a motherboard to support it.

In the case of current gen intel. Z690 (LGA1700) MB's tend to be $100 - $150 more expensive than their comparable x570 (AM4) counterparts within the same brand and product line up.

Intel wins bang for buck on CPU costs alone as intel sneaks the rest of their buck in down the line.