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Grab AMD's excellent value Ryzen 5 5600 from Amazon for just £118

An excellent value CPU.

AMD Ryzen 5 5600 box
Image credit: AMD/Digital Foundry

Even with the lowering prices of AMD's Ryzen 7000 chips that we've been seeing recently, the fact remains that the prices of Ryzen 5000 processors still make them exceedingly good propositions for most people. One such deal that displays this to a tee is one I recently spotted on Amazon for the AMD Ryzen 5 5600 for £118 from Amazon, which is a new low on an especially capable CPU.

I've been pondering building a new PC recently, and in turn also looking to upgrade my parents' existing one. They don't necessarily need something all too flashy, and for generalists like them, the 5600 for this money seems like a bit of a no-brainer. It's got the necessary grunt to power a modern system and has marked itself out over the last few years as one of the best value all-round CPUs that money can buy.

For reference, the 5600 is a cheaper alternative to the popular Ryzen 5 5600X that launched back in 2020 with a 200MHz slower base and boost clock frequencies; everything else is the same. This means that you're getting a capable 6 core and 12 thread processor that should be more than up to the task of both general computing, as well as more intensive workloads such as gaming. It's intriguing to note that the non-X variant on offer here makes for an especially close competitor to the more powerful -X version at a much lower cost, making it a fantastic value choice for those wanting a blend of a capable processor for a great price.

The fact also remains is that the 5600 marks out an excellent jumping off point into the great value world that is AMD's AM4 ecosystem. While AM5 still features pretty high barriers to entry including grabbing costly DDR5 RAM as well as some of the more expensive AM5-capable motherboards. By comparison, the AM4 ecosystem is awash with high-spec X570 and B550 motherboards that won't cost you too much. It's worth noting also that DDR4 RAM has dropped like a stone in price too, making an importany component a fair bit cheaper than before. It's also worth noting that PCIe 4.0-capable NVMe SSDs have also dropped like a stone in recent months, making fast storage more affordable than it's ever been. This all combines to mean that it's not too expensive to get the building blocks of a more than capable PC built on AM4, with the 5600 as the obvious core.

If you are in the market for an amazing value CPU to base a new system around and you want a solid bang for the buck option, then this deal on the Ryzen 5 5600 from Amazon isn't to be missed.