If you're working on a parts list for a budget PC build, you might want to consider AMD's first-gen Ryzen 1500X CPU, as it is now available on Amazon for just $69. It's this CPU's lowest price yet and one of the best after-Christmas tech sales right now. It was about time too because according to PCPartPicker, the chip was retailing for $145 up until today, which is far too expensive for what it is.
This is a quad-core chip, which could be considered low by today's standards but is perfectly adequate for entry-level gaming systems. Many games still can't use the heavy core counts of today's most powerful chips, and you'll still be dependent on your graphics card's performance capabilities anyway.
In our AMD Ryzen 5 1500X review in 2017, we noted that if you're willing to do some tuning you can get comparable performance to Intel Core i5 CPUs. We also praised how it performs with multi-threaded applications and its unlocked ratio multiplier.
The four CPU cores run at a 3.5 GHz clock speed and can boost up to 3.7 GHz, although with enough CPU cooling capacity the chip can boost further up to 3.9 GHz. The 1500X has a 65 TDP and comes with a free Wraith Spire cooler.
For other CPU recommendations, check out our Best CPUs ranking.
