Snag Intel's Core i5-13600KF this Black Friday at Amazon for a steal, slashed to its lowest price of $175, down from $304 (MSRP). If you're unwilling to update to Team Blue's latest Arrow Lake processors but still need a capable enough CPU to meet your needs, the Core i5-13600KF is a fantastic choice in terms of performance and affordability.
The Core i5-13600KF is based on Intel's Raptor Lake architecture - employing six Raptor Cove P-cores alongside eight Gracemont E-cores and twenty threads. The CPU operates at a base clock of 3.5 GHz but can turbo up to an impressive 5.1 GHz. With a TDP of 125W, going up to 181W (PL1/PL2), ensure you have beefy cooling on hand to tame this beast.
The CPU hosts 24MB of L3 cache and 20MB of L2 cache and does not ship with built-in graphics (iGPU), so you'll need a dedicated graphics solution. Regarding memory speeds, the 13600KF can support DDR4-3200 and DDR5-5600 RAM - but those are baseline JEDEC specifications and can go higher with XMP kits.
While the Core i5-13600KF is a great contender for productivity workloads, it certainly is no slop in gaming. Based on our extensive testing, the 13600KF trades blows with the Ryzen 7 7700X and ironically ends up faster than its direct successor - the Core Ultra 5 245K - even with optimized memory. Combined with cheap and readily available LGA1700 motherboards, the Core i5-13600KF should be a top pick if you want to upgrade.
Admittedly, the recent CPU degradation fiasco doesn't paint a good picture of the entire 13th and 14th Generation lineups. However, you can mitigate all these issues by simply updating to the latest 0x12B microcode. In any case, the Core i5-13600KF is an excellent option for various applications, offering support for technologies like PCIe 5.0, Thunderbolt 4, and Wi-Fi 6E (motherboard dependent).
We are working hard to find the best deals for you this Black Friday. If you're looking for other products, check out our Black Friday Computer Hardware Deals Live blog for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals Live blog, Monitor Deals Live, Graphics Card Deals, or CPU Deals pages.
