Considering building a new gaming computer for my son - AMD or Intel?

[Lissa]

In general, intel for budget gaming, and for hardcore gamers that want to overclock that last frame. Ryzen for everything else. Although I do feel Ryzen is the way to go for higher end systems.

I'm not gonna overclock this system, even though I could. I want something that performs well, and is quiet. The R5-1500X includes a cooler that is supposed to be very quiet and efficient, and if I went Intel I'd have to buy a separate cooler. Looking at build guides, the general consensus seems to be a Cooler Master 212 EVO cooler. The price is nice, but I think I might lean towards a liquid cooler like a Corsair H60. I have one in my current gaming system and I like it.

I'll be re-using the HDD, SSD, video card (currently GTX 950 but will be upgraded very soon), case, and PSU. I really only need a CPU, mobo, and RAM.

My choices are:
R5-1500X build
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1500X 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($242.25 @ shopRBC)
Motherboard: *ASRock - AB350M-HDV Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($84.50 @ Vuugo)
Memory: *Team - Elite Plus 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Total: $396.74
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-06-18 00:07 EDT-0400

or:
i5-7400 build
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-7400 3.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($238.75 @ Vuugo)
CPU Cooler: Corsair - H60 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($64.98 @ Amazon Canada)
Motherboard: *ASRock - B250M-HDV Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($74.50 @ Vuugo)
Memory: *Team - Elite Plus 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Total: $448.22
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-06-18 00:09 EDT-0400

If you don't plan to overclock, why go with the 1500X? You can pick up the 1400 for $30 less for a small loss in FSB speed (300 MHz). Typically, it's not the CPU that is the bottleneck with games, but the GPU.

Also, don't skimp on the speed of the RAM. Ryzen has shown that faster RAM is actually beneficial unlike with Intel based systems. You could pick up 2800 MHz RAM for about $10 more.