Is switching from a Ryzen 7 5800X to an i5-14400 actually worth it?

The 14400 has newer platform features, lower power use, and two additional physical cores, but it still isn’t a major upgrade over the 5800X. Depending on motherboard power limits, a stock 14400 can even be slightly slower in heavily threaded work. The included DDR5 and SSD are the more valuable parts of that deal.

Before using a secondhand Intel board and CPU, check the BIOS version and make sure everything is stable. The major reliability concerns were mostly associated with higher-power unlocked models, so the 14400 is not generally considered a high-risk chip, but testing it is still sensible.

It depends on the workload. For regular gaming, the improvement would be minor at best. For video editing or other productivity tasks, the 14400’s extra cores and newer architecture may help, but probably not enough to justify buying a case and motherboard just to change platforms.

For gaming, I wouldn’t make the switch. The i5-14400 is generally in the same performance range as the 5800X, so the difference probably won’t justify changing the motherboard and possibly the case. Keep the current system unless you have a specific workload that needs more performance.

If you want to use the DDR5, I’d look at an AM5 upgrade instead. A Ryzen 5 7600 or 7600X with an affordable B650 board would provide a clearer performance jump and leave you on a platform with better future CPU upgrade options. Otherwise, sell the Intel CPU and board and keep using the 5800X.