Our editors hand-pick these products using a variety of criteria: they might be direct competitors targeting the same market segment, or they could be devices that are similar in size, performance, or feature sets.
A great gaming CPU at a decent price point. It's a shame the platform is hitting the end of its natural life, but you can still build a formidable machine around this and enjoy it for years to come.
Compared to Intel's Core i5-12400F offering, the Ryzen 5 5600 is slightly more expensive, but generally makes up for that with lower platform cost. It makes little sense to pair the 5600 with an X570 motherboard (we did so to keep a level playing field for the reviews), as a B550 motherboard won't be any slower, and you'll save around $50.
The 5600X was a little too expensive at 50 USD per core, this non-X model cost 33 USD per core, and that does bring a smile to my face considering the game performance you can draw from this proc. Even this six-core component will be a feisty product in terms of general PC Desktop performance, but it will also perform admirably in PC gaming. You get your 12-threads, which most games appreciate.
AMD's six-core Ryzen 5 5600 performs well enough for its price and is a solid midrange productivity and gaming CPU. Just mind the lack of integrated graphics and the street price of its own sterling sibling, the Ryzen 5 5600X.
The Ryzen 5 5600 is a great drop-in chip for upgraders that already have systems built around older Zen processors, but it's hard to recommend for a new build unless you're willing to sacrifice modern amenities to maximize the bang for your buck.
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