Question $80 new budget CPU king?

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

I just saw that Micro Center now has dozens of the Ryzen 5 3600 cpu in stock at $80 each. They have about 30 in stock at our closest store. This brings back memories of the Ryzen 1600 they had in stock for $80 for about a year and a half, pre pandemic. That's what I initially built my system on. I later upgraded to a 3600, and then a 5500.

I'm thinking of building two new budget systems to replace some old intel based I5 4570 systems. At $80 each, these make a compelling case, and cpu performance would be about triple the current processors. (17,800 cpu marks for the 3600 at $80)

https://www.microcenter.com/product...oxed-processor-wraith-stealth-cooler-included

If they keep these in stock at this price for a year or more like they did with the 1600, do you think these will become the new "budget cpu king"?

 

[Shmee]

It looks like the best "bang for the buck" deal right now is the Ryzen 5 5500 for $84.99

A decent deal for sure for a new CPU, but I seem to recall this model has cut down cache and no PCIe gen4 support, when compared to other Zen3 6 core CPUs. Something to keep in mind. With a quick search, I did find several 5600 CPUs on ebay for ~$100.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

If you're on a shoestring budget, just buy used. CPUs basically never die and eBay is pretty good about getting you your money back is someone sells a dud without disclosing it.

My 5600x was $101 all in (Taxes and Shipping), came with the stock wraith fan, and it's a better more full featured processor than the 5500.

 

[aigomorla]

5600X and not the G is one of my favorate CPU's.
It has the PCI-E 4.0 lanes.

The only thing i do not like about it is the wraith fan.
Its HORRIBLE.... and out of the several systems i built with it, its the first thing i toss'd to get recycled and replaced with a cheap aftermarket.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

5600X and not the G is one of my favorate CPU's.
It has the PCI-E 4.0 lanes.

The only thing i do not like about it is the wraith fan.
Its HORRIBLE.... and out of the several systems i built with it, its the first thing i toss'd to get recycled and replaced with a cheap aftermarket.

-Hmmm, haven't really had any issues with the wraith on mine so far. The GPU fans gets noiser than the Wraith fan.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

-Hmmm, haven't really had any issues with the wraith on mine so far. The GPU fans gets noiser than the Wraith fan.

I was disappointed when AMD started including the stealth with the 6 cores. My OG 1600 had the spire with a copper plug. Then with the 2600 I bought, AMD didn't include the copper anymore. Then AMD really cheaped out with the 3600, as it came with the stealth.

All that said, it is plenty for the 65W models. Especially if you can use ECO mode. I am using the stealth with the AMD branded shroud removed so it will fit in the ASRock Deskmini. I have it on silent fan profile and it works fine with a Pro 2400G. I definitely like the mounting system much better than the stock Intel push pin POS.

 

[r_scooter]

The 3700x is not much faster than a i7-9700 in gaming, in fact it is slightly slower even when overclocked. That said the 3600 is on par with the Intel 9400F which is about $20 more right now. In fact, from reading a benchmarking site, the 9400f is faster for most purposes even when the 3600x is overclocked. However, the motherboards are likely more expensive on an intel 1151 platform, although there are still deals to be had in the $80 range. Your probably right, GunsMadeAmericaFree, that Ryzen is the better budget system build. On the mid-budget end Intel will likely beat AMD on a price/performance level. On the higher end, I am not really sure though yet but it's an interesting question to posit.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

The 3700x is not much faster than a i7-9700 in gaming, in fact it is slightly slower even when overclocked. That said the 3600 is on par with the Intel 9400F which is about $20 more right now. In fact, from reading a benchmarking site, the 9400f is faster for most purposes even when the 3600x is overclocked. However, the motherboards are likely more expensive on an intel 1151 platform, although there are still deals to be had in the $80 range. Your probably right, GunsMadeAmericaFree, that Ryzen is the better budget system build. On the mid-budget end Intel will likely beat AMD on a price/performance level. On the higher end, I am not really sure though yet but it's an interesting question to posit.

Where to start?

I don't know what benches you are looking at, but every day that 8 thread i7 and 6 thread 9400f age worse and worse. For both productivity and gaming.

On par? The 3600 was and is, a far better pick than the 6 thread i5. The 3700X was and is, a better pick than the 8 thread i7. No one even mentions 9 series unless it's to point out that Intel cheesed on the thread count...AGAIN. The coup de grâce is you can drop a 5800X3D in the same board you were running that Ryzen 5&7 and still be getting excellent gaming performance. That Intel platform is a fast fading bad memory. At least for anyone sane and rational.

I think Daniel Owen said it well. He talked about how he ended up with 9th gen i5 because he didn't know that much at the time, and he trusted reviews. That CPU aged like warm milk. AM4 was always better, and will always be better, than anything Intel produced in its timeline until LGA1700. And it's still better than a lot of the CPUs on that platform for many games.

In the final analysis, AM4 upset the apple cart. Because the CPU generational comparisons became irrelevant. Just today HUB released the 5600X3D review. Takes a while to get someone to ship it to down under. Intel has since moved on to new and better platforms, but AM4 just refuses to go quietly into the night. 💪